By Josh Louski | USA

The Libertarian Party has existed since 1971. Since then, its members have done a great job at securing seats Congress and even governorships. These are considerable feats since we live in a corrupt, two-party nation. However, they consistently fail at what arguably matters the most: securing the presidency.

As an anarchist, I don’t put too much stock in the Libertarian Party anyway. However, I do acknowledge that electorally, they are the best path to a smaller state. But it isn’t working. Why?

The GOP and the DNC have a common goal, and that is ensuring and upholding the status quo. if the LP ever got into serious power, they would be failing at that. So they work together to keep policies in place that prevents people voting Libertarian. For instance, our public schools teach about the two major parties and their (very minor) differences but do not inform students about third parties like the Libertarian Party. This causes a lack of voters. If students, especially in their teenage years, were informed about the Libertarian Party and its values, I guarantee it would have a lot more voters. As long as the Republican or Democratic parties are in power, this will not change. Rather than having an informed public, the GOP and DNC would prefer to have a dumbed-down populace that continues to vote for them. Therefore, voting is not a viable option for achieving any real change.

The Libertarian Party simply doesn’t have the means of gathering upwards of 60 million supporters that will vote for them. So how do we achieve our ideal society of small or no government?

In 1936, Spanish left-anarchists revolted and successfully implemented anarchist societies around Spain, like Catalonia. They didn’t vote, they fought. The workers were in control of most of Spain, and they liberated themselves from government oppression. Maybe its time we do the same.

It’s not as crazy as it sounds. America was built upon revolutionary ideas and values. We wave flags that say “Don’t tread on me” yet refuse to do anything when treading on for decades. Our forefathers would be ashamed of us. It’s time to defend ourselves from the gang we call government, from theft, abduction, and murder. We would not hesitate to defend our families from a home invasion, so why do we sit by idly when the government steals from us and takes our property when we disobey them? Many say that the public has no chance against the United States military. Superficially, this is obvious. However, when you look deeper you see that the Viet Cong waged war with the United States for 20 years. And they won. Additionally, after 16 years, insurgents in the Middle East have still not been defeated by the greatest military power the world has ever seen. As the most heavily armed populace in the world, I’d say the American people would fare even better than the Viet Cong and the insurgents in the Midde East.

We have to fight back. But this is not the only way to free ourselves. For far too long, the American people have given the federal and state governments legitimacy by obeying them. It is important for us to utilize agorism, a strategy of non-compliance and counter-economics used to delegitimize the government and crony-capitalism. If we refuse to participate in government using mass civil-disobedience, it will be totally powerless. Do not validate their oppression by abiding by it.

Unlike violent insurrection, agorism has never been used in order to undermine and overthrow a government, but is extremely popular among right-anarchists as a means of peaceful dissolution of the government. The problem with agorism is while the populace is not utilizing violence, the government undoubtedly will. Mass disregard for its artificial “authority” would be met with force. Murder and mass abduction would take place as the government would become increasingly frustrated with the people. We would be forced to defend ourselves, and violent insurrection would have to take place anyway.

Pairing these two means of revolution, agorism and violent insurrection, is undoubtedly a more effective way of achieving real, positive change than voting.

Let’s hope that the government decides to straighten itself out before it comes to that.