Which Path?

Suppose you like some or all of the ideas on this site, so what? Ideas alone are only half of the battle. The ideas are only useful after someone puts them into practice.

In the sections that follow, I will suggest ways which you, the readers can help make these ideas happen. There are many possibilities, and different readers can take different paths. We need not be united. That said, I will also list what I am doing to make these ideas happen and would greatly appreciate help with these projects.

Among the possibilities are:

Each of these paths has merit. Each has its own challenges and limitations. Which path you should choose depends on which ideas you most want to put into practice, your temperament, your talents, and where you live. Let me reiterate: different people should take different paths. Yes, if a new party is successfully created, or an existing third party is properly reformed, then some uniting could be useful, but calls for getting together are premature at this point.

In the following sections I will evaluate each approach, giving the positives, negatives and limitations. [New 11/2008: the new party approach now gets its own topic area.] I leave it to you to decide which approach(es) to take. Feel free to skip to the sections that are most appealing to you. Also, I am interested in hearing from those of you who take action, what actions you are taking, and how they are working out.

Personally, I am focusing on getting the word out for now. Also, I am slowly collecting names for possibly launching a new political party in the future. My own views are too out of sync with the Democratic and Republican parties for me to be able to work with them. I tried pushing these ideas within the Libertarian Party, but have since decided that starting from scratch is much easier than reforming the LP to my specifications.

My path is not necessarily optimal. If you are comfortable working within an existing major party, then continuing to do so may be your best path.