FOR LPCT – A time of OPTIMISM, yes!. Winter 2025-26.

Yes, the national Libertarian has had horrible leadership; yes its most evocative members make major squabbles over minor internal issues. Yes, LPCT has a weak web site; yes, its members have no strong candidates for governor or any other Constitutional offices greeting them.

But since Republicans in Connecticut are a wreck, this is an opportunistic time.

LPCT now has the best opportunity to make significant gains. With 36 Senate and Assembly seats that were not challenged by Republicans in both of 2022 and 2024; with many Republicans who ran last year unwilling to try again; with some would-be Republican candidates afraid to make an effort ("I'll lose; and be called a racist"), and with 42% of Connecticut voters no longer registered with either major party, Libertarians simply need candidates who'll take a short step into the breach.

For US, those dual fears of Republicans are irrelevant:

"I'll lose". Errr. For Libertarians it's irrelevant. Getting 10% to 49% of the vote is a win. 20% makes us a major party. Even 10% makes our future candidates ones to be reckoned with.

"I'll be called racist". Coming from wacky progressives, "racist" is a meaningless word. 10 years ago, that was searing; it's now so over-used and so inaptly used, that it's easy to combat: "if my words are racist, what do you call the anti-Black Democrat POLICIES –

• Deliberately-bad, government-run schools
• Housing and other benefits to illegal aliens
• Job priorities to unskilled legal immigrants
• Covid shut-downs of small businesses
• Health Care policies creating high deductibles
• Student loan forgiveness applying 95% for whites
• Social Security, when Black longevity is well below that of whites
• Covid closings of Churches, affecting Black families more than others
• "Green New Deal", that advantages only privileged people
• "De-fund the police", making marginal neighborhoods more perilous

It's a rare Republican who can cite more than two of the above as ripostes. We can. For the rare Republicans who can and will stand strong with similar ripostes, let's welcome them to our team. (Be effusive – many of us started as Republicans).

Conservative CT Republican candidates have seen themselves with less and less proportional funding, fewer-and-fewer volunteers, and far less media attention than ever in their history. Their once-solid channels for broadcasting, on a nearly-extinct thing called "AM Radio" reach few voters and fewer NEW voters than ever.

We may feel for them (I do). And we can ally with their remnant. But by stepping into the breach they are leaving, we now can return Connecticut to prosperity and happiness.