Rules for Radicals Reapplied
How can libertarians use their fringe support to subvert the political establishment in an effort to further the cause of liberty?
A Loud and Tireless Minority
Libertarianism is inherently a fringe political philosophy that attracts those on the outskirts and edges of popular opinion. When your politics derive from an ethical and moral philosophy that guides a lifestyle based around consent and voluntary association, it’s difficult to be considered normal among those who accept control and mandates in their lives. Yet those who consider themselves to be the normal, and us to be extreme, have determined that they alone can dictate the course of our lives. So how can libertarians resolve to take a stand in their own defense, when they number as such a small minority?
This week, during the New Hampshire primary elections, some members of the free state project showed how a subversive strategy can work, undermining your opponents instead of attacking them, and causing the system to turn on itself instead of focusing on exacerbating the harms it does to freedom and liberty. As an inherently decentralized movement, The Free State Project doesn’t direct activism, or political engagement whatsoever, merely encourages people to do what they think best advances liberty in their lifetime. For years, many libertarians, frustrated with their track records of failure in a rigged system as third party candidates, have taken to infiltrating the republican party and running under the cover of a liberty republican. And on a little over a decade, libertarians have gone from political outsiders, to the controlling caucus of the New Hampshire state house, after successfully taking control of key positions in republican party leadership.
The success of libertarians affiliated with the Free State Project in New Hampshire politics has been gradual, but it has also been dramatic. While it has taken over a decade to create such an influence, it was largely done under the cover of the republican party and with popular support. It was not until the COVID Tyranny of 2020-21 that there was a schism within the republican party between those valuing liberty and freedom, and the establishment favoring the status quo of the governor. As tensions rose, and battle lines were drawn openly, the full scope of libertarian infiltration had become clear, and libertarians and their allies began exerting control to reign in state overreach. The first group to take notice, was the democrats…
Infiltration
The elections of 2022 were going swimmingly by all regards, until someone caught wind that some of the names appearing on Democratic primary ballots weren’t familiar incumbents or well known progressive activists. upon further inspection, members of the democratic establishment came to realize that free staters had infiltrated their own ranks, and that just could not be accepted. Now libertarians running for office as democrats isn’t anything new in New Hampshire, some of us have been doing it for a decade, we just haven’t had as much success as we’ve seen under the republican banner, largely because the Democratic Party is much more of a centrally managed monolith that polices independent thought and refuses to tolerate dissent.
But everything started to unravel, when it became clear that a handful of free staters, had spent $2 to file to run for state representative in the Democratic primary, and then not lifted a single finger or spent another dime to bother campaigning. However, in a blind panic, attempting to identify and out the evil libertarians infiltrating their organization, and ensure that they could keep them from accidentally win a primary with low information voters. A massive effort, which on the surface alone cost thousands of dollars, hundreds of man hours, and an untold amount of emotional labor, focused on an internal witch hunt trying to ferret out the blaspheming libertarians. Wasting resources on safe primary elections, to oppose libertarians who didn’t expect to win, with district wide direct mailings and post cards, phone and text banking, social media advertising, shirts for volunteers and literature for door knockers, not campaign against their general election opponents, but to oppose imagined dissent in their own ranks.
They successfully identified 3 free staters running for office in Manchester, and campaigned heavily against them, doing nothing to assist the loss they expected anyways. However, they also misidentified one of their own, a native local democrat, as a free stater, and attacked her and ruined her chances locally as well. They missed a good number across the state though, who were unaffected by their witch hunt, which I would call paranoid, except they’re right. We are running as democrats, and will continue to do so.
Rules for Radicals
Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is the ultimate guide for the infiltration and subversion of hostile groups and organizations. The political establishment is an inherently hostile organization, one set on exerting control and crushing dissent. We can only ever subvert them and escape them, by destroying them, and only from within can they be destroyed, not by controlling them, but by turning their destructive intent inwards, instilling paranoia, and making them destroy themselves. Often touted as the basis for leftist infiltration, and a tactic used by communists to take control of movements, the Rules for Radicals can, and should be used and applied by libertarians as a tool to be used against our real enemies, those in power and using institutions to control.
“What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.”
-Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals
The Rules
Through a process combining hope and resentment, the organizer tries to create a "mass army" that brings in as many recruits as possible from local organizations, churches, services groups, activist groups, social clubs, and individuals. Alinsky provides a collection of rules to guide the process. But he emphasizes these rules must be translated into real-life tactics that are fluid and responsive to the situation at hand.
Rule 1
Power is not only what you have, but what an opponent thinks you have. If your organization is small, hide your numbers in the dark and raise a din that will make everyone think you have many more people than you do. In the case of libertarians infiltrating other parties, inflate your presence through action and rhetoric. Any suggestion of influence, should be claimed, and owned. If the enemy thinks you bigger than you are, don’t dissuade them.
Rule 2
Never go outside the experience of your people.
The result is confusion, fear, and retreat.
Know your lane, know your skills, know your limits, and operate within them.
Rule 3
Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.
Rule 4
Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. "You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity." If your opponents believe in the sanctity of elections, political parties, and the system of government they embrace, then use it against them, and use the tools they’ve created to protect their power to give yourself an opening. After all, This is what Democracy looks like.
Rule 5
Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It's hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage. When the opponent is infuriated, and desperate to strike back, they will recruit for candidates and allies in that fight. Their guard will be down, and they will unscrupulously accept you.
Rule 6
A good tactic is one your people enjoy. "If your people aren't having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic." And let’s be honest, spoiling elections you were already going to lose, can be real fun if those in power are hurt by the action.
Rule 7
A tactic that drags on for too long becomes a drag. Commitment may become ritualistic as people turn to other issues. Don’t overstay your welcome, or take on too large a role where you may be outed.
Rule 8
Keep the pressure on. Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period for your purpose. "The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage." Once you have them on edge, you have to stay on the attack.
Rule 9
The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself. When democrats heard of free staters trying to steal elections from them, their fear was akin to the end of democracy itself, and the implementation of their worst nightmares of fascism. The reality was, it was a handful of people who thought the joke would be funny, but the result was chaos that expended resources they could not afford to lose.
Rule 10
The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. Avoid being trapped by an opponent or an interviewer who says, "Okay, what would you do if you won?"
Rule 11
Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don't try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame. Focus on individual races, individual tasks, and individual outlets of activism. Allow the organization to turn on itself in response.
According to Alinsky, the main goal of subversive action is to bait an opponent into reacting. "The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength."
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