Today I am thankful for the truth about the Libertarian Party.
Our leadership stands silent in the face of bullying. Bullying is such a stupid thing to do because it draws attention away from what needs to be done to needless drama*. It does feel like there is too much cray cray in the party to get things done.
We let the cray cray flag fly. Sometimes we let the real crazies (who appear normal) go to the press and make a mockery of the party.
We do not solve problems.
We use the press to destroy our own people.
You can't win a relay race by derailing members of your own team.
I have decided to leave my party.
They are attacking a potential candidate they describe as a Pagan for a goat sacrifice; they say he supports eugenics and a civil war.
I've read the candidate's work. I don't like it. It sounds like the ramblings of a sexist narcissist.
Nowhere does he say that he's writing fiction.
No where does he say he supports eugenics.
He is anti-woman. He is anti-abortion. He is a paternalist. I don't think he's a Libertarian.
He does not have a chance in Hades of winning.
Why is my party engaging in a smear campaign?
Yes, it is a smear campaign.
The man behind the smear campaign has found papers this Pagan candidate wrote in law school to use against him. In graduate school, I was often asked to take up positions contrary to my true nature and write about them to show my argumentative agility.
The man behind the smear campaign has even gone so far to interview Pagans who knew his target in the past to dig up dirt.
This man's name is Wyllie. I've got to say, the adjective fits. He is quite wily and not in a subtle way either.
That scares me. I did a search on the man and found someone's old Wordpress account (circa 2010) with this man's name, his state, the name of our party and the words smear campaign in the tags. The posts have been deleted. I wonder if this kind of smear campaigning is common with this Wyllie character.
It would seem to me that we have a situation where two narcissists are going head to head.
It's going to ruin the party.
Worse, if you want to distance yourself from someone who embarrasses you, the last thing you want to do is run to the press and pair his name with the word "Libertarian."
That was incredibly dumb. That was incredibly stupid. That brings the wrong kind of attention to our party as a whole.
His state party leadership went to the press with strange claims. The claims are so strange that they are pretty hard to believe.
They claim there are videos of this guy claiming to want to kill people. When I ask to see them, I am led back to the party's blogs.
There is no proof that I can find....yet.
I like to find proof before I form an opinion. I have been unable to do so.
The candidate has been gracious enough to answer my questions.
It looks like a good chunk of what he is trying to say is being twisted.
Most of what I'm reading from the party representative appear to be vague and half-truths. Sociopaths often bully using half truths
I probably should say former party representative. He resigned so he could slander this fellow. I'm sure he'll be back to being registered as a Libertarian soon.
I'm sad that people don't understand what is going on.
I used to run a blog about organizational bullying. What one usually sees is a target publicly slandered with half-truths so that his or her reputation is ruined. Other people will repeat the bully's claims and harass the target, a practice referred to as mobbing.
Perhaps I should resurrect that blog.
In fact, I initially worked with Libertarians to stop the bullying in our local government. Workers are being bullied and illegally fined. Sometimes they are fined if they act ethically towards the citizens and disobey orders to break the law. For instance, a member of the audit staff was fined $500 and fired for not raking in a $250,000 quota in the span of a month. Reaching that quota would have most likely meant collecting taxes that the city was not mandated to collect.
True auditing would be about compliance not revenue generation.
This auditor (and his family) were fined, bullied and slandered for honoring the letter of the law.
He is not the only one.
My ex was the auditor in the above story. I found out about it when money went missing from my account and the assistant city attorney called me to gloat. She told me I couldn't do anything about it.
Yeah, if you could see me right now.....I'm grinning. I did something.
I wanted to stop the bullying.
I quickly learned that the best way to do that was to gut their funding. The easiest way to gut their funding was to fight their tax hikes.
One does not need to be a registered Libertarian to fight tax hikes.
The Republicans do a good job fighting the tax hikes. The Democrats are doing a good job tackling the social issues.
Together we are getting things done. The hardest part of that journey was raising awareness of the bullying. The city lawyers make the bullied employees sign confidentiality contracts. It's hard to get people to speak out against it because they are intimidated.
I've got too much to fight. I don't really have time to deal with a bunch of party in-fighting.
So.....I have decided to leave.
*****
The national leadership refuses to speak to the entire Pagan bashing thing.
That's how bullies thrive. They're ignored. Their antics are accepted. Other people start leaving the organization silently. This happens in churches. This happens in work places and this happens in political parties.
If you are silent when faced with injustice, you take the side of the oppressor. I'm not sure who said that but it is true when it comes to organizational bullying.
Quiet people are just as much at fault as the bullies themselves.
I'm a female. I've dealt with my fair share of sexual harassment in the party. I try to ignore it.
This is hard to ignore. This guy spreading the rumors is fairly convincing (except that he does not have proof). He's just running around vilifying a guy for being Pagan. That is a practice called religious discrimination.
That makes me sad.
******
I spend a good part of the morning picking apart the arguments against the target this morning.
So far, everything my former fellow Libertarians have said has been debunked.
They said this candidate has paid $10,000 to be on the Florida ballot. He has not.
They said that they didn't know who he was because he wasn't active in the party. They assert that he just materialized out of nowhere to pay for a place on the ballot as a Libertarian.
When I looked at older stories, he was known. He had words with the smear campaigner in the past.
This looks bad.
******
I have a suggestion. I'm not sure anyone cares to read it.
If it were me, I'd put up a crowd funding page and start collecting money to nominate someone else for that seat. You have a lot of eyes on the story now. Use that to your advantage.
I'd also realize that our party has a problem with people registering but failing to be active members. Controversies like this could make people feel unwelcome.
*******
As for me, I'm thinking about moving on to another party. Maybe I'll be an independent for now.
I grew up in a Pagan household heavily influenced by Native American spirituality.
Sadly, I no longer feel welcome in that party.
I wish this post were fiction.
It'll be interesting to see if the party grows the balls to combat discrimination or if they'll shrink back and just continue to piss off Pagans like they did when they ran Barr for president.
They need to speak up and clean up the controversy.
Getting another person to run for that seat would be a great first step.
It's not my business anymore.
Love ya,
Independent S.
P.S. A Republican friend forwarded this to me. I could only stand to listen to the first few minutes. I will stand by my characterization of this man as a patriarchal narcissist. It's his right to be whatever the heck he wants to be so long as he does not harm the personhood, reputation or property of another.
I also stand by the characterization of the guy spreading the news as a bully (vindictive narcissist, perhaps....that will depend on what the Way Back Machine reveals). This man had best NEVER cross my path.
The party leadership are acting like apaths. Apaths are the most dangerous people of all because they swallow the lies....hook.....line..... and sinker. They do nothing. They say nothing. They sit in silence and let people destroy all that they have worked for. They suffer from the sin of apathy.
Apathy is what is ruining our country. I'm sad my former party cannot see through it. I thought that apathy was what they wanted to fix. People need to fight for their freedom. Sometimes doing that means speaking up when witnessing injustice.
Perhaps I misunderstood what they were about.
Any money I planned on donating to Libertarian causes will now go to the state group fighting tax hikes. It is run by a Republican. At least, I know that he won't run around spreading rumors and lies about other people.
Oh, and I was saddened by the Libertarian activist who suggested that this man be put into a mental institution. Libertarians are not supposed to advocate putting other people in cages for the "crime" of free speech.
Who are these so-called Libertarians? I'm shocked. I truly am.
I wish someone would pinch and awaken me for I surely must be in the midst of a nightmare.
Love ya,
S.
P.S.S. I made the mistake of Googling Adrian Wyllie. Well.....this isn't the first charge of bullying he's endured. Apparently the Libertarian Party of Florida was threatened with lawsuits in 2010 because of cyber-bullying occurring due to the Governor's race. That was Wyllie's race. I also found a smiliar story in 2013. I'm not sure if it was due to the same race, though.
Anyone who wants to be Governor in Florida gets harassed by this Wyllie character. Maybe Wyllie aspires to be a Senator now?
Interesting......
See?
The Way Back Machine is my friend.
A Wikipedia page? If you haven't saved a bunch of people, written a best selling book, cured cancer, or done anything of note, you don't need a Wikipedia page. Oh my...that's the mark of a narcissist. Wow...
That was what I needed to know. The party will let crazy people engage in crazymaking and drive off people who really want to work.
So.....
As of this morning, I am now unaffiliated.
A house divided against itself will fall. I cannot make myself at home in such a place. I certainly don't want to be under the roof when the foundation folds upon itself.
I feel as though a great weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.
I feel pretty good about my decision.
I'll come back if our leadership figures out....well...how to lead. It's not a problem with the new national chair. Apparently, this has been going on for many years. Washed up Republicans are drawn to the party....be mindful not to let them play the same games.
I love the people. I just don't look that good in a crowd of yellow. I'm not afraid to speak out. When I'm ignored, I'll find a different place to speak.
I wish them the best.