As was reported previously here, Free Keene blogger Darryl W Perry was recently elected as chairman of the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire. A member of the LP's "radical caucus", Darryl holds a supposedly "radical" belief: he does not support or advocate the use of the initiation of force to achieve political or social goals.
That belief, which is still the statement one must sign to join the national libertarian party, has made Darryl into an enemy of many within the national LP. There's a whole group of so-called "libertarians" who disagree with this "Non-Aggression Principle" and have called for the party to eliminate it from the membership requirements.
Darryl was recently blamed by these party-over-principle people for the Seacoast LP's resolution to ask their representative on the Libertarian National Committee "to remove Gary Johnson and Bill Weld as the LP candidates for President and Vice President". However, Darryl was not attending the Seacoast meeting. The motion was made by Rodger Paxton, who was recently elected to vice-chairman of the LP of NH along with Darryl being elected chair.
A couple of days ago, Darryl announced he is reviving his libertarian campaign for president, this time as a write-in candidate. He says people frustrated with the LP's embarrassing presidential and VP picks of former republican governors of New Mexico and Massachusetts Gary Johnson and Bill Weld had contacted him asking him to run again to give true libertarians a choice. Johnson and Weld's public statements since their nomination have frequently been unlibertarian and at odds with the party's own platform. Weld has even appeared to endorse Hillary Clinton rather than his own running mate!
Now, rather than do the principled thing and follow the Seacoast LP's request of officially withdrawing Johnson and Weld as their candidates, the LP's National Committee has issued press release attacking Darryl by calling him a "rogue" and saying further that they are, "committed to fully supporting the nominee of the delegates at convention and will continue to do so with all available resources."
No one should be surprised to see the national LP double down on their unprincipled hack candidates. It's the lowest point for the party in more than a decade of falling away from their principles. In 2008 I publicly resigned my life membership in the national Libertarian Party out of frustration with their lack of principle - then they nominated Bob Barr (another republican who has since re-joined the republicans) as their presidential candidate.
The LP of New Hampshire, long in a membership and activist slump, recently received an injection of much-needed new blood in the form of Darryl W Perry and Rodger Paxton's elections to chairman and vice-chairman, respectively. This is the first real exciting news to come out of the LP of NH in the last decade I've been here.
Hopefully we'll see the LP of NH separate eventually from the ridiculous national LP. Goddess bless those who have tried to save the national Libertarian Party, but the patient's been dead for years. If you're a real, principled libertarian, just give up on the national LP, move to New Hampshire and get active to help us achieve liberty in our lifetime. With the thousands of libertarians moving here for the Free State Project and Shire Society, you won't want to miss the fun!