The Libertarian National Convention was held in New Orleans this year. Hawaii is a small state, and the Libertarian party is not a popular choice on election day in Hawaii either. The party’s members were in agreeance, that if you could pay to go then you could be a delegate for the National Convention. I was already planning a trip to the east coast and I have always been curious about trying my hand in politics, so I was one of the first to pony up.
This is not an election year and the party was not picking our next ticket for president. I wanted to go because this was going to be the fun convention. Sure there was a gala, fancy dinners, and guest speakers. There was plenty of booze and weed at each event, it was the Libertarian Party after all.
CSPAN quit covering our conventions after our last one, this guy went up on stage and took all his clothes off.
That was all nice and believe me I participated in each (keeping fully clothed throughout), but that is not the fun I went for. I went because we were going to be voting on by-laws and conducting parliament.
Parliament is kind of formal in the proceedings, there are rules on what to say and for how long. Motions are proposed, a vote is taken, then another motion is proposed to suspend the previous motion, and a vote is taken. This went on for three days straight. One of my favorite concepts of the party is NOTA. NOTA stands for none of the above, and the party believes that it should always be an option in any vote. There was a group of about 40 people that were very passionate about NOTA (also called a caucus) that like to make a scene. While we were voting there was a man in a gorilla suit running around with a NOTA sign. Other than the audacious caucus things were as formal as any other parliament.
The Libertarian Party is an individualist way governing, it is only natural that there are some special people. One special person I met was Mathew J. Long, he is only 19 years old and he is already serving as an elected official in his hometown in Connecticut. 
He is majoring in Political Science and aspires to be the governor one day. I think he is an inspiration, it is not about how big the position is, but the fact that he had the ambition. I believe more Libertarians would win more races if more Libertarians ran. I say that and I still haven’t run for anything… yet.
That’s pretty cool that you went to a Libertarian party never knew it can get so crazy like getting naked and everything! Makes me want to go to one now LOL. Pretty interesting about NOTA of having an option to any vote. I give him dedication to Matthew for knowing what he plans to do with his life. While I’m still trying to figure out my life. Hopefully for the Libertarian party, it will definitely make a comeback!
Always happy to see another libertarian out there. The only path to a real future is through a significant change. A change that will not happen through the status quo of the big two parties. I will continue to vocalize and challenge the views of others in constructive way. I’ll vote for you!