[Radar]

Too bad the faithful spent all their money on a campaign that, in the end, meant no change whatsoever.

It made a huge change. It made voters realize that they could get rid of the state tax and it will come up again. It also ensured that there will be no tax increases for the newly elected people. They wouldn't dare raise taxes as they had planned to do after this.

But back to those faithful who spent their money. If the campaign ads went to the Howell for Governor campaign, but were diverted and used for the ballot initiative, wouldn't that be fraud?

Who said anything about money being diverted. More money was collected for the Question 1 campaign than for the Carla Howell campaign. And she focused her efforts on passing that initiative. And as far as people not riding the coat-tail from question 1 to vote for her as a governor, it's much easier to sell getting rid of taxes to a bunch of overtaxed republicans and democrats than it is to sell a Libertarian governor. This year people wouldn't vote for Libertarians because of the election in 2000. It's that simple.

I'm sorry you're a bitter little man who is discouraged about the party because you haven't seen enough results, but I say you could have done more to get those results. Page 3 of the current issue of the LP News has an article showing why most of the people who leave the party do so. I'm sure you fit into the "lack of effectiveness" catagory if you've left. Either way your whining and badmouthing of the party don't help anyone.

No, read my second point. Voting for my second-favorite candidate, who has a decent chance of winning, is better than voting for my favorite candidate, who has no chance of winning, thereby increasing my least favorite candidate's chances of winning.

Voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil. And voting for a republican or democrat is voting for evil. You will get the same thing regardless of which one you vote for. And it's completely stupid to vote on someone based on how well you think their chances are of winning.

But our system is here to stay. It will never change. So we may as well work it as best we can.

The Republicans were a third party a 100 years or so ago. So yes it does change. And claiming "It will never change" is a defeatist attitude and weak logic.

What is your goal in getting people to vote for Browne? Do you ever think he'll actually hold office -- or even have a chance of coming within 20 points of the next loser? Or do you just want to make your issues known? Or perhaps force the other candidates to lean more libertarian?

My goal is getting enough votes and press for the Libertarian candidate (not necessarily Harry Browne) to make people take notice and for other elected officials to change their policies to a more libertarian way of thinking. America was built by Libertarian thinkers. I want to force the two major parties to include Libertarians or anyone else who has a candidate on the ballot in all 50 states to be included in the debates. My goal is to stay with the only party that makes sense politically. I will never rest until there's a Libertarian in the oval office, the drug war is completely over, and the federal government sticks strictly to the constitution. I've sworn to Peter McWilliam's mother that I will keep up the fight with my dying breath.