The Parity Project

My leadership team aims to equalize the Libertarian Party with the Democrats and Republicans within ten years. That means equality in size, visibility, and electoral success. We call this effort…

In this letter, I will tell you…

Why this goal is feasible
Our simple but obvious method for achieving it
Why the ten-year time frame makes sense
The process we will go through
The central importance of a key strategic concept – “Discovery before persuasion.”
Factual reasons to think a 3-party America is possible
The resources we will deploy
Why we have multiple opportunities for success
The next step

Feasibility:

Eleven different studies show that 30-60 million Americans either self-identify as libertarians or hold mostly libertarian views. Decades of Nolan Chart quizzes bolster these findings. Most of these people are still voting defensively between the old parties. We will…

Locate the dormant libertarians.
Inspire them with our goal to equalize with the Democrats and Republicans.
Persuade them to help achieve that goal

The two old parties each have about 68 million Americans who identify with them. Both of those parties also have universal visibility. The LP has almost no visibility. Finding and activating dormant libertarians will change that. If we developed 30-60 million libertarians with little visibility, imagine what universal awareness could achieve.

Method:

Our method is simple. We will just ask people…

Are you a libertarian, libertarian-leaning, or libertarian-curious?
Do you want to see the Libertarian Party equalize with the Democrats and Republicans in size, visibility, and electoral success over the next ten years?
Will you add your name to our list for that purpose?

In return, we will send them regular progress updates along with two special reports…

The Parity Project: How to create a libertarian society in as little as ten years using resources that already exist
The Libertarian Future: what it would be like and how to get there

Why the ten-year time frame makes sense:

If money were no object, we could probably find the dormant libertarians in mere months. It’s not that hard to ask people if they’re already libertarians. But…

Since money is a limiting factor, we expect it to take years. Ten years is long enough to seem reasonable, but short enough that even healthy people in their 80s can hope to see it happen.

Process:

We will start by enhancing a million prospect names we already own. We will append current contact information from commercial sources and use email appeals and social networking ads to ask this list the crucial questions…

Are you a libertarian, libertarian-leaning, or libertarian-curious?
Do you want the Libertarian Party to equalize with the Democrats and Republicans within ten years?
Will you add your name to our list for that purpose?
Do you want to get our progress updates and the two special reports?

The responses will expand our database. We will turn some of these new prospects into donors, and those donations into increased visibility that will then repeat the process.

We will use monthly deadlines to spur support. If our key metrics fail to exceed the previous month, we will urge our supporters to fund greater effort next month.

We expect this simple iterative process to persistently spiral upward toward our ultimate goal – full parity with the Democrats and Republicans.

Discovery before persuasion

Most previous libertarian strategies have tried to persuade non-libertarians to become libertarians. That’s important, but it’s NOT the main chance.

The Parity Project will focus on taking yes for an answer. We will prioritize finding people who already mostly agree. We call this strategy discovery before persuasion.

Not discovery instead of persuasion, but discovery before persuasion. We will first find the people who agree so we can gain the resources to later persuade those who disagree.

Reasons to think a three-party America is possible:

Parity implies three viable parties. Winner-takes-all elections argue against that. And yet…

The United Kingdom uses the same voting system but has long had three parties represented in Parliament (Tory, Labor, Liberal). The rise of the Reform Party means the UK will now have four such parties. Why is that possible there but hard here? The answer is simple…

If you gain attention in London, the rest of Britain follows, but America requires heavy investment in hundreds of large population centers. The only way to fund that is to locate and recruit the people who already see themselves as libertarians. The Parity Project will do that in a direct and simple way.

We want to make the Libertarian Party, libertarian ideas, and Libertarian candidates, visible to everyone, everywhere, every day. We call this subsidiary goal Operation Everywhere. It’s the key to creating a three-party America in a winner-takes-all voting system.

Resources:

We have a large list of registered voters and past inquiries with which to start.

We’ve hired Perry Willis. He devised the Parity Project plan in collaboration with Jim Babka (who is also advising us). Perry was also the architect of Project Archimedes in the 90s, under LNC Chair Steve Dasbach. That led to the Libertarian Party’s highest-ever membership and revenue.

Perry believes much more is possible now. There are vastly more self-identified libertarians. There are many more targeting and outreach tools. Project Archimedes used only direct mail. What was done before on a small scale can now be done in a large way.

We are importing the concepts of discovery before persuasion and Operation Everywhere from the old Project Archimedes into the new and improved Parity Project.

A company called Iron Light will do our data enhancements and ad placements. They have succeeded with similar efforts for other organizations. The people working with us are committed libertarians who have long wanted to do a project like this for the Libertarian Party.

Multiple opportunities for success:

Every new name in the database, every new donor, every marginal increase in funding, and every expansion in purchased visibility is an increment of success. Pile up enough increments and you will elect a libertarian here, then there, and eventually everywhere.

One Libertarian in Congress could negotiate his or her one vote into major concessions on narrowly contested legislation. The more Libertarians you have in Congress, the more concessions you will win. But…

If you gain full parity in Congress (and other governing bodies), the Libertarians will be the controlling power, making deals with the Left and the Right that they cannot make with each other. The LP could rule, long before it achieves a majority.

Parity would be a powerful prelude to superiority.

But even adding 100,000 libertarians to our database would be a huge leap forward. That alone would accomplish more than the previous 50 years of LP effort.

The next step:

The Iron Light enhancements and booking work will cost $24,000. We want to match that with another $24,000 to fund email transmissions and ad costs. Prefunding is necessary to ensure progress continues once it starts. Constant growth will fuel constant increases in enthusiasm. That will cause ever-growing revenue to purchase ever-expanding visibility and recruitment.

Will you provide some or all of the needed prefunding? Use the enclosed form and response envelope to donate. If you want to speak with me directly about this matter, please contact me directly.

I appreciate your time, consideration, and past support.

Steven Nekhaila

PS: We aim to make our numbers constantly grow in the following areas, month after month.

Names added to our database
Prospects turned into donors
Gross and net revenue
Purchased visibility and earned media attention

Do that for a few years and we’ll achieve the ultimate goal, full parity with the Democrats and Republicans. Do you want that?

The Parity Project