Lessons from Germany

Greetings from the Fatherland. Travelling on Business in Germany and I had an epiphany today. But first, I have to back up a bit. Please bear with me and read on.

For those that don't know, Germany has a coalition form of government. That means that NO party can realistically take power without forming a coalition with another party. That's because minor parties actually have candidates and win elections.

For the past 3-4 years, that coalition has been - oddly enough - between the Christian Democratic Union aka CDU/CSU (their version of Republicans) and the Socialst Party of Germany aka SPD (their version of democrats, and yes, they are officially called socialists here). They called it the Grand Coalition, because those are of course the two major parties, and there was no clear winner in that election, so they had to share power. So in essence you had their version of a Republican Chancellor (president) with Democratic and Republican cabinet members and a split congress. And all the profesional politicians (and it really is a profession here), and all the news media, and all the people thought it was business as usual.

Fast forward to this past September's elections in light of the recent global economic crisis. The FDP (Germany's version of the Libertarian Party) made an absolutely HUGE showing at the polls than ever before in their history. I don't have the exact percentages right now. It wasn't enough to overtake the CDU/CSU (Republicans), but surpased the SPD, which has NEVER happened in their history. So now, Germany is officially governed by a coalition between their version of Republicans and Libertarians. What a huge difference!

So I read a newspaper article today about Angela Merkel's first major speech in the Bundestag (Congress, a la State of the Union address) since the elections. I am paraphrasing and I am sure something will be lost in translation, but basically it was very direct and told it like it is. She said Germany is in the worse economic crisis since the reunification, maybe since the end of WWII, maybe on the brink of disaster. It is going to get worse before it gets better and Germans should be prepared for that. But the road to survival and recovery is not to look to the government, it is to look within. It is not to take from producers to give to non-producers. It is not to loot the successful in order to support the failures. The government needs to get out of the way. But, she said, Germany has faced harder struggles before and overcome them, surving three currency colapses, rebuilding after the distruction of WWII, and creating one of the largest export economies of the world. The way out is through "Blood, Sweat and Tax Cuts," stealing/paraphrasing a line from Winston Churchill. It was all quite inspiring, something sorely lacking in our country from our leaders. But my favorite quote of all was when she said there is "Freedom in Responsibility," which was quoted in all the headlines and meaning if individual Germans take responsibility for their own lives, if individual German companies take responsibility for their own success, without looking to the government to solve every problem and bail out every failure, it will be liberating and Germany will not only survive the current economic crisis, but prosper in the global economy.

Maybe you have to really understand the history, but this is absolutely huge in a country that has lived and breathed socialism for the past 50-60 years. It is literally a 180 degree change in thinking. Also worth noting is that Merkel grew up in communist East Germany before the wall came down, and wouldn't even have had a chance to be Chancellor had it not. And this shift of political thought has only happened since the FDP (Libertarians) had such a big result at the polls, which indicates the people themselves are listening to the message.

Now, the vice chancellor and about half the cabinet are FDP (Libertarians). The coalition between CDU/CSU and FDP outnumbers all the parties combined, including the socialist, by a margin of 2:1. The Libertarian philosophy is alive and well and is being translated into real political action and policy. In short, Germany is on a course of freedom, liberty and prosperity they have NEVER seen, all due primarily to the Libertarian (called "Liberal" here) philosophy becoming mainstream and being translated into political elections.

This is all about the exact opposite of what is going on in our own country. As we move even closer towards the failed policies of Europe and Germany, they are moving on. We are now instituting every mistake they have already made over the past 50-60 years, while they are looking for the way out.

So, what's the lesson? It is not that Germany is great. It is that minor parties can and do affect change, if they win enough seats. Imagine what the tone in Congress would be if there were even 5-10% of the seats filled by Libertarians. What if it were 20-30%? One of the two major parties would be forced to make a coalition just to get anything passed. The Libertarian message of individual freedom and responsibility and small government would have to be factored in to every debate, every vote, every bill that is written or passed. The German FDP, although I am sure it would prefer to be the majority party, does not worry about it. What is important is the coalition of power and having real influence in policy. And they did it county by county, district by district. They started in the local and state governments and worked their way up. It has taken years and a crisis situation.

We, as American Libertarians can do the same thing. It CAN happen. We can take a lesson from the FDP playbook. We have the crisis situation, but unfortunately we do not have years. However, the ONLY way it will happen is to have Libertarians run for office and for the people to vote for them, in a big way. This is the reality of our political situation. You may not agree 100% with the Libertarian platform, but I would reckon you also don't agree 100% with the Republicans or Democrats. All that is needed is for good, sensible people like you to agree enough to vote Libertarian over a Republican or Democrat. We are a two party country. Why? Because is has been that way for 100+ years? Why? We can drive a wedge into this back and for shift of power between Democrats and Republicans, most of which you can't tell the difference between anymore anyways - same as it was in Germany and their Grand Coalition. All it takes is courage. The courage to run for office as a Libertarian and the courage to vote for those that do. If enough people do that, we've won.

Forget "spreading the word" or demonstrations, tea parties, and 9 principles and 12 values for a moment. Forget the media, including Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, or all the talking heads on Fox News and MSNBC for a minute. The reality is, without real Libertarians running for real offices and without real people voting for them, nothing will change, no matter how much we yell, scream, rant and rave.

Scott

PS and by the way - The FDP Vice Chancellor is openly gay as well. So Germany is now run by a woman and a gay man, both of whom espouse individual liberty, freedom and minimal government intrusion into the personal and economic lives of their citizens. So which is really the enlightened country after all?