Document:National Email 25 September 2019 https://www.lp.org/impeachment

Dear Caryn Ann

It’s political theater, and the United States is the stage. Sadly, you and I are in the cheap seats.

Hours ago, House Speaker Pelosi announced formal impeachment inquiry of Trump.

Of course, she knows that the Republican Senate will not remove the President. She thinks the Democrat-led House can impeach him and force a trial in the Senate where Chief Justice Roberts will preside. And Americans will watch.

I’m old enough to remember the run up to Nixon’s impeachment that never happened. I also remember Clinton’s impeachment that DID happen, only to see nothing actually occur in the Senate. Andrew Johnson’s impeachment in 1868 was a century before I was born — but again, nothing happened.

And already the R’s and D’s are sending out fundraising letters because this is how they work their base up into a froth! R’s and D’s see impeachment as a GOLD MINE for fundraising. Here in Washington D.C., I can see the gleeful chatter on twitter from the lobbyists and professional politicians as they think of the windfall this brings them as they further polarize our nation.

Friends, we must fight fire with water. Republicans and Democrats are convinced that if they build their pyre higher and produce a greater blaze that they will outshine the other party.

But all that happens is that the people get burned as politicians throw their liberty into the blaze.

We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual. We have to do everything we can to put liberty and individual rights out in front of the public. If we flag or fail, the concept of a new nation, conceived in liberty, shall indeed vanish from this earth.

I am asking you to help us now! As the R&D kabuki takes the stage, can we be waiting in the wings with a sensible alternative? We are indeed the fastest growing political party in the country — but we are still so small compared to the Rs and Ds. We have to get bigger, better and more effective NOW.

We’ve got issues that resonate. Four months ago the federal government approved Altria (Philip Morris) to sell e-cigarettes. All this hoopla you have heard about death from vaping is prelude to more regulations around vaping. And who do government regulations hurt? The entrepreneur. Right now the vaping industry is a $40B industry with 15,000 small-business owners running the trade. When people become aware of those numbers, and then aware of how the proposed regulations are going to shut down small vape stores, they look for a way to get involved.

And the LP is there. With sites like lp.org/vape and vape.vote we are rallying the vaping community. And they are shocked when they find us, and read out platform and discover that they were Libertarians all along.

The Saudis are beating the drums of war, calling for Americans to give their lives in the Middle East. When old folks like me talk about Vietnam and the antiwar movement, we get blank stares from the youth. But when we start to spread the word through sites like lp.org/antiwar and americaatpeace.com we create a rally point. People get to know our platform and start to discover they, too, were always Libertarians.

So the R’s and the D’s have a massive distraction planned? They are going to take American eyes off the political disaster that government has become, and get the two sides to rage and fume, till they raise their political bonfires as high as they can.

Lost in the smoke will be the continued expansion of government and the erosion of the power of the people.

We must fight. We must win. Help us be better armed. Your generous donation pays for Libertarian activists travelling all over the country helping to train Libertarian volunteers and candidates.

AND ITS WORKING

There are 12 elected Libertarian mayors. And when they tell the people of their town that taxes don’t have to be raised because government is going to spend less money this year, thousands of people are learning that they too have always been Libertarian.

Your donation pays for ads on social media, where Millenials, turned off by the ideas of socialism, are coming to realize there is a political party that believes that your life belongs to YOU. They see an ad from the Libertarian Party and join one of our groups. And they learn that they too have always been a Libertarian.

Help us get that message out. Your donation now is critical in this very frenzied media blitz. Already I am getting calls at the DC office asking me what the Libertarian response will be.

I want it to be a bold second declaration of Liberty. I want a very visible response to the people of the country saying that the Libertarian Party is here to offer an alternative. Please give what you can.

Daniel Fishman Executive Director Libertarian National Committee