glyph 563: politics, elections, candidates, contenders, liberty, freedom . negative politics, politics of "no" ... running to collect votes for liberty instead of for office ... how to tell the truth in politics without ensuring defeat . how to fully back the candidate who represents your ideas without "throwing away your vote" on a futile idealistic third party campaign ... Richard Cobden, John Bright, England, 1840s repeal of the "Corn Laws".

 

Parties of No Party — a new means of term limitation

a political strategy on the way to freeorder

Positive and negative forges work together to enable the emergence of freeorder


Forge Picture

A fundamental fact of politics is this: It is impossible to win an election while telling the entire necessary truth. Omission, misrepresentation, or lying is required. This is true for all candidates, even those of the most admirable character. This state of affairs is demoralizing for those who have become politically active because they place high value on the principles of limited government

Ultimately, what is crucial is that political electoral process must change to assure that anyone who does not help limit government (the social apparatus of compulsion) will be unable to hold office for more than one term, and anyone who will not convincingly present plans to advance liberty will have no hope of electoral victory.

Fortuneately, effective term limitation without special provision in the law is possible. Linked below is a one-page proposal sketching how it can be done.

The proposal describes the political side of a cultural sea change in which political views now thought to be doomed will begin to flourish and destructive ones will gradually fade away. This will happen after relentless effective challenges to those seeking office by Candidates for Liberty (who do not seek office) results in the electoral failure of the least helpful politicians.

Cobden & Bright, against seemingly impossible odds, in the 1840s organized the repeal of English tariffs on the importation of basic foods.

http://explorersfoundation.org/archive/cobden-bright-strategy.pdf
http://explorersfoundation.org/archive/letter-to-harry-browne-2000.pdf

Richard Cobden:
http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=1232
http://fee.org/articles/richard-cobden-creator-of-the-free-market/

Article in Spanish, by John Chodes, as published by Ricardo Valenzuela:
http://refugioliberalt.blogspot.com/2016/07/richard-cobden-creador-del-mercado-libre.html

John Bright:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bright
Trevelyan's biography of Bright is inspiring reading.

https://explorersfoundation.org/glyphery/563.html
August 14, 2016; edited/updated June 30, 2024

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