Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

I joined the newly-formed Libertarian Party in Denver, in 1972, the first full year it existed. I got to know its principal founder, David F. Nolan, reasonably well.

I stood out in the driving rain and in boiling heat at public places, collecting ballot-petition signatures. I gave speeches and appeared on radio shows many times. I served on the National Platform Committee twice, the Colorado State Platform Committee on several occasions, and ran for public office as a Libertarian Party candidate twice.

I wrote hundreds, if not thousands of articles, columns, and essays arguing for a free society based on libertarian principles. When my input and advice was not even considered by the national party leadership, I wrote my first political/adventure novel, The Probability Broach, which angered some who for some reason thought I should have sought their permission, but became (and still is) the definitive literary statement of the movement. A well-funded foundation that became the LP power elite blocked me from further service on the National Platform Committee.

Soon, cynical creeps calling themselves “pragmatists” began to destroy everything that people like me had built over two decades, including chopping up our carefully-constructed platform and rejecting the “Non-Aggression Principle”, which is the very heart and soul of the libertarian philosophy, and disastrously dumbing the party down until it resembled the political party equivalent of USA Today. Those who adhered to principle were mocked as “purists”. As people like me began to leave, an eerie political correctness began to sift into the vacuum we left.

It’s something of a cliche to say that I didn’t leave the LP, the LP left me, but that’s exactly what has happened. Today, believing that I’m a better spokesman for libertarianism than what’s left of the Libertarian Party, I write a couple of essays a week. I’m finishing up my 35th novel and planning a couple more.