FYI -

My letter to the Libertarian Party.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning.  I hope this e-mail finds you all doing well.  I wanted to take the time to write concerning Vice Chairman Arvin Vohra's recent comments concerning the military.  A little about myself, I am a thirty-five year old husband and father.  I am a former U.S. Marine and four-tour Iraq War veteran.  Currently, I work as a patrol division deputy sheriff.  After being raised as a fiscally conservative, blue dog Democrat, I discovered libertarianism and the Libertarian Party in 2008 thanks to Ron Paul's presidential campaign.  While living in North Carolina, I served on their state LP executive committee.  I served as a libertarian minded Republican county commissioner in Bledsoe County, TN.  Currently, I am the Bledsoe County, TN LP county chairman, and I am contemplating running for Bledsoe County Sheriff, as a libertarian, in 2018.  With all of that being said, being a member of the Libertarian Party lately has been somewhat awkward and disheartening.  I'm a Christian, a combat veteran, and a cop.  I am proudly all of those things, but I am also proudly for the legalization of Marijuana, pro-LGBT, and I love guns.  I think Gary Johnson and Bill Weld were great candidate's, even though "pure" libertarians did not.  I am a supporter and fan of Mr. Wayne Allyn Root, and I think that he was forced out of the party, even though his relentlessness and mindset could have helped us win elections.  I found Mr. Vohra's comments uneducated and repugnant.  Since I read the news story, I've struggled with my political identity and wondered if I'm, once again, politically homeless.  I have teetered on the edge of resigning from the party, but after a lot of soul searching and an outstanding run this morning, I have concluded that, if I and others like me, leave the LP, Mr. Vohra wins.  Bluntly, if people like me were actually mindless murderers, Mr. Vohra would probably no longer be breathing after his comments.  The fact that he's still above ground, shows that the issue is a little more complicated than that.  I will continue my membership in the Libertarian Party in order to serve as a voice for a small, but growing section of the party, and I'll say this, if the Libertarian Party really wants to grow and win elections, we need to embrace the big tent theory, and we need to come to the table with those with the background like mine.

Very respectfully,

Aaron Yeargan