May 31, 2003

10 Easy Ways You Can Help the Campaign

Here are ten ways you can help the Lance Brown for President campaign, in mere moments, by just moving your hands around a little.

1. Tell your friends, family, and colleagues

Pass on one of my articles or e-mail updates, or just send your contact list an excited e-mail urging them to check out the site. Time and the Internet are two of this campaign's greatest assets -- time, to build momentum, and the Internet, to connect and communicate easily. Combine the two and spread the word!

2. Join the On The Road Support Network

Click here to read more about this. I'll be on the road pretty steadily for the next 5 years, starting soon. It will go a lot better if I have folks out there who are willing to lend support along the way.

3. Shop at my affiliate bookstores

I've got affiliate program accounts with Amazon.com and Laissez-Faire Books. I'll put up more robust ways to make use of these soon. For now, just buying something via those two links will help raise some money for my road trip and FEC filing.

4. Post or send a testimonial

Testimonials are one of marketing's best tools. I can say I'm great all I want, but it doesn't mean much coming from me. However, if you say I'm great, or whatever you might be moved to say about me, that means a lot. I've already got some really good testimonials posted over in the left column, but "the more, the merrier" definitely applies here. If you've got something to say about me and you don't mind if I spread it around, then post it as a comment here, or send me an e-mail (lance@freedom2008.com) and let me know it's o.k. to publish your comments (and name, city, state, if that's alright -- or tell me if it's not).

5. Submit the site to directories and links pages

I know there's a lot of places out there that have links pages or directory categories where this site would fit in, but I can't find them all -- and even if I could, I don't have time to submit the site to all of them. And even if I did, I think in many cases it's better if a third person suggests a site -- it's similar to the testimonials thing.

6. Alert the blogosphere

Surely you've heard about blogs (weblogs) -- you're reading one right now. The blogosphere -- the world of blogs, as it were -- is getting more powerful every day. And it's already quite mighty. Blogs are getting the word out to tens of millions of people, and often something exciting, strange, or funny can spread around the blogosphere in a matter of days -- and suddenly, everybody knows about it. Well, my campaign could be said to be exciting, weird, and funny -- a blogosphere hat trick (or trifecta, or triumvirate, if you prefer). This is another of those things where it's better for you to spread the word than for me to do it. I'll do my fair share of blog-o-introductions and hand shakes, but the real power to spread the blog-o-fire is in your hands.

Here are sites with lots of blogs: Wanderlust | blo.gs | Weblogs.com | Blogdex | Popdex | Blogger

There's now a whole section of blog places in the right column.

7. Make a graphic/button/banner

I'm not the most talented when it comes to designing graphics. I can get by, but I have a bad eye for color combinations, and most of the other stuff graphics gurus do well. I also haven't thought of any super-grabbing banner, button, or image link concepts. That said, I could certainly use some images for people to use if they want to link to here. It's a missing link in my quest to build a full-featured campaign site. I know that for some people making these things is real easy -- if you're one of those people, then this would qualify as an easy way to help. :-)

8. Link to the site

So simple, yet so effective. If you have a place where you post links -- be it your own site, or on a web forum or wherever -- post one to http://freedom2008.com. Easy as pie, and twice as sweet.

9. Improve my ratings at rankings sites

There are a number of places that list sites in order of the rank they earn by generating clicks and visitors.

This site is #10 and rising on the Top 25 Libertarian Sites list. You can help that rating by clicking on the Top 25 Libertarian Sites link or graphic often. (Plus right now, of course.) With your help, I'll spend a few years at the top of that list before 2008.

Blogarama has a similar system, but with a more general audience, topically speaking. This site is currently (updated: 8/4/03) #22 of 3030 sites in the "What's Cool" section, #112 in "What's Popular", and #1 in the Politics category! Your clicks on the Blogarama link here or in the right column will help boost our "What's Cool" rating, and help keep the site as the #1 Politics site. ("What's Popular" is based on how many people click on this site's listing there.) You can also post a review of this site at Blogarama, by clicking here.

And, while I'm not crazy about the formatting of the "Blogster Top 25" list (which actually lists the top 50) -- and it hasn't generated many visits so far -- it can't hurt to keep moving up that list, which your click here will help with. The site's #34 now. (updated: 8/4/03)

You can also rate the site more critically at BlogHop: One (best) | Two | Three | Four | Five (worst). The higher-rated sites get displayed more prominently at their site.

There's a graphic or link in the right column for each of these. Talk about easy ways to help my campaign! How much easier could it get?

10. Donate Money to the Campaign

Upcoming costs include filing my official papers with the FEC, my upcoming 5-year campaign road trip, and presentation materials for my campaign camp at Burning Man in August. [note: I'm not going to go to Burning Man this year after all.] I've been funding this campaign out of my own pocket for 9 years, and I'll continue to pour all I can into it for as long as I need to. I've been keeping the requests for donations mellow all this time, because I don't think it's been very reasonable to expect people to fund something that's not only super-unconventional, but which until recently has been very far away. I'm still keeping the request mellow, but it's going to be time to start really raising funds soon. Fair warning. ;-)

If you want to get warmed up, you can drop some money in my Paypal hat:





Posted by Lance Brown || Link to this entry | Post a comment (1 so far)

May 25, 2003

The Campaign "Elevator Pitch"

I am serious in my presidential ambitions. I started my campaign in 1994, and I decided to devote most of my life to it. Within the next year I'll start touring the country, and will be doing so for most of the next 5 years. I intend to win the Libertarian Party's nomination in 2008, and to combine their 50-state ballot access and large body of supporters* with my own supporters -- college students, Green-libertarians, netizens, homeschooling families, and other constituencies. For the most part, I plan to target the "other" hundred million eligible voters -- the people who are sick of both the Democrats and the Republicans, and who have just about given up on the whole system. For the most part, the "Lesser of Two Evils" voters and party loyalists won't vote for me (or any truly independent candidate), so I'll be targeting everybody else -- which fortunately is a majority of Americans. I intend to offer them a genuine chance to break out of the malaise that (we all know in our hearts) has infected our government and political system.

There's a lot more to the plan, but those are the broad strokes.

* I don't mean to imply that I aim to "take over" the Libertarian Party, like Pat Buchanan did with the Reform Party. I am a Libertarian Party member and local leader, and I am running under their banner because I believe in the LP's goals and values, and I believe that Libertarian principles are the best guideline for America's future. I also believe that the Libertarian Party is the most active, successful, and well-organized third party in more than a century in America. As minor as their successes may seem in relation to the Bipartisans', the LP is the only third party that is anywhere near what could be called national political success.

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May 17, 2003

The Nader 2004 "threat", and those poor, pitiful Democrats

Salon.com has a decent story about Ralph Nader's potential 2004 bid for the presidency, and how it's causing a painful split in the hard left -- between those who have utterly given up on the Democrats and who support Nader, and those who are scared enough of Bush madness (and trusting enough of the Dems) to say that the Greens should stay out of the 2004 presidential race so as to avoid a repeat of Nader's 2000 "spoiler" effect. Many Greens are worried that if Nader runs it will make even more people resent the Green Party for "helping" Bush win, again.

The issue brings up a lot of thoughts in me. I don't think Nader should run, but it has nothing to do with the "spoiler" potential. I don't think he should run because I think he's proven that he's unelectable, and without some revolutionary new gimmick or campaign plan he's likely to get even less votes than he did last time. I think that would be the case even without the spoiler worry, which will be much more acute this next time around. The simple truth is that Americans have had plenty of time to get to know Ralph Nader -- he probably has almost 100% name recognition -- and have decided that no way do they want him to be president. He's likely to suffer a similar fate as Harry Browne, who ran for a second time in 2000 with virtually the same method and message as in 1996, and got a lot less votes the second time around. You can't try to sell people something they didn't buy the first time, without making any major changes to it or syour sales technique, and expect to get a better response.

I think it must be hard for presidential candidates to see that from their first-person perspective, but it's brutally obvious from the outside looking in. Ross Perot proved it, Harry Browne proved it, and Nader will prove it if he runs in 2004. Even if he could increase his vote capture a bit, it's pretty much inconceivable that he could get it anywhere near the high-30% he would need to win against Bush and a Democrat. Of course, it's highly likely that the same could be said for any other person who might run in his place, but at least a new face wouldn't have a proven track record of having no chance of winning, as Nader does. He certainly isn't going to win over any Republican voters, and I don't think he'll sway any Democrats either...so unless he's got 30-40 million voters outside of those two groups who will rise up en masse, he is a 100% guaranteed loss as a presidential candidate. And I don't see even a shred of a hint that Nader could find a way to invigorate a mass of that size into voting for him, unless he has some sort of really, really amazing tricks up his sleeve. Even then, I think it's clear (as I said) that most Americans have evaluated Nader over the past 30+ years and simply don't want him to be president. I kinda like the Greens, and I even kinda like Nader, and for both of their sakes, I hope he does the right thing and steps away. The Salon article mentions that folks have urged him to run for Senate or Governor -- I think that would be smart, and useful. He almost certainly wouldn't win those either, but he could actually do some good by running for one or the other. I don't see any good coming from a 2004 Nader presidential candidacy, especially considering the anti-Bush nervousness on the left, and the spoiler resentment factor. Even an utterly unknown nobody Green would do more good than him in that spot.

That said, I think the "spoiler" whiners are just that -- whiners. If the Democrats can't field a candidate who can win in a competitive race, against whoever else wants to run, then they don't deserve to win. Nader didn't hand Bush the election -- Al Gore and the Supreme Court did. If Al had simply won his own home state, nobody would be talking about Florida 2000, or the "spoiler effect". During last year's Minnesota Senate race, Working Assets (the liberal advocacy phone company folks) sent out an action alert urging people to press upon that state's Green Party Senate candidate to drop out, so as not to "spoil" Walter Mondale's bid for the seat. I found it pathetic, and I wrote them a scathing letter to that effect. If the Democrats can't win races because a competing liberal party is "stealing" a couplefew percentage points worth of voters, they should just pack it up and quit.

Greens (and Libertarians, and whatever other parties) have every right -- and it could be said, a responsibility -- to run as many candidates as they can, and as hard as they can. Any votes those candidates get aren't "stolen" from the Bipartisans -- they are earned, and earned hard at that. They should be applauded, not castigated -- and certainly not bullied out of the race. The word "pathetic" just keeps running through my head over and over when I think of folks whining about third party candidates earning votes that the whiners seem to think belong to the "major" party candidates. It's not just pathetic, it's backwards and wrong-headed. The proper conclusion to reach, when one sees that a Green is garnering enough votes to make a difference in a given race, is that lots of voters don't want to vote for the old party sell-out politicians. If Democrats want those Green votes, they should work to earn them -- not try to stifle or bully the candidate that is earning them. If the Bipartisan candidates are so great and wonderful, they should have no problem earning all the votes they need. The only reason people are worried about Nader running is because they know that none of the Democratic candidates in the field right now is likely to be able to beat Bush by a comfortable margin, if at all. That's a problem with those candidates, and with the Democratic Party itself -- it's not Nader's fault. Focusing on "winning" Nader's electorate over by simply taking their guy out of the race is ignoring the real problem, and it's lazy politics. And I feel I must say once more -- it's pathetic. It feels strange to pity a behemoth, half-of-a-political-monopoly major party that's been around for over 200 years, but that's what I feel. I pity the poor, dying, lost Democratic Party -- the weakling giant that fears an unelectable, 3-percent-getting guy, while ignoring the problems and failures that have made it so weak.

I fear Bush and the Republicans as much as the next guy, but if the Democrats expect to ride in and save the day somehow, they better focus on figuring out how to do it on their own merits -- whatever those might be.

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