HOW I FOUND MY POLITICAL IDENTITY

by Eric Dilliard

Monday, October 7, 2019

I was born July 6th 1986 in a hospital in Papillion, Nebraska and grew up in a small town Louisville, NE. I had the average education, a family that as I remember supported Bill Clinton in both of his elections and therefore as a child... I liked Bill. (Hell there was an after school special on Nickelodeon where Linda Ellerbee explained in a politically correct kid friendly way that the most powerful man in our country got his dick sucked by a woman not his wife in the oval office and lied about it... I don't recall watching it and I know there was more to it than just a blowjob, but cut me some slack I was a kid at the time). For real, people trash millennials but for god sake we had to have an after school special to explain why the most powerful man in the country was being impeached... Generation before us had a President resign for illegally wiretapping a hotel room....we had one that got blown by an intern and she apparently didn't know how to wash starch out of a dress.

I was a freshman in high school during the 2000 election. I remember my social studies teacher talking to us and explaining the historical significance of how close an election George W. Bush and Al Gore had. I remember thinking "Anyone else find it odd that a man who's running's brother is having problems counting ballots in his state when his brother is running for president??? I do remember asking "Are there other people running". I remember my teacher telling me "Third party candidates were not a serious option and all they do is pull votes away from the Democrats and Republicans. Cited Ross perot as an example by getting Clinton elected.

I graduated in 2004... that fall because my family supported Clinton, I thought nothing of it...I walked into that voting booth and circled the dot for John Kerry. He lost of course and we got four more years of Bush. I honestly can't tell you my thought except I was 18 felt it was my civic duty and "Kerry was the lesser of two evils".

I would go to college and get a degree in computer technology and get a fantastic job... during a horrible recession. I bought into Obama's campaign "This guy's young and he really gets us young people... Hope and Change!". So I voted for Obama... that was an eye opening four years as I realized... nothing's changed... Why did myself and so many others vote for this guy. I didn't vote for this, I voted for "Hope and Change!" 2012 I was working weird hours and didn't make the polls. It didn't bother me. Obama was a turd and Mitt Romney was the same person in my mind. I lost no sleep not voting in 2012. I do remember the last four of Obama's presidency was the Snowden scandal where Clapper and Obama openly LIED to us about NSA mass surveillance and this guy leaked information to the American people and he was treated like a criminal... my apathy for the Fed... turned into hatred. "So they lied to us, and are spying on us... this is wrong!"

The 2016 election season things changed. I work in the computer industry at one of the best companies in the world to work for...I remember seeing that the crazy madman John McAfee was going to run for president under a party of his own creation the "Cyber Party". His videos made me laugh on youtube. His "How to Remove McAfee AntiVirus" was hilarious. I sent him a DM on Facebook "Hell yeah you got my vote" and I got a heart felt "Thank you" response from him. I thought "Well thats kind of cool". So not knowing his platform at all signed up to volunteer for his campaign. (Thought i'll get some swag at least... I mean presidential candidates mean nothing to me so why not support the great American bad-ass who developed the standard for Anti Virus technology.)

Shortly after he joined the Libertarian party, and I remember thinking "What the hell is a Libertarian?" I read the party's core beliefs and I thought "Holy shit... i'm not a misfit outcast. My beliefs line up perfectly with the libertarian party. Was around that time I really got invested into John's campaign as a volunteer. I had stolen enough memes from his page to share everywhere I started seeing this name pop up in the water marks and credit to the memes "Rob Loggia". I thought "I'm going to message and thank this guy... least I can do since i've been stealing his memes for a few months". I now officially had mentors in Libertarianism. An amazing professional writer and a fellow lover of punk rock... and John Fucking McAfee who's software had been bought by Intel and became the bane of my existence, but a tech pioneer all the same (not his fault Intel ruined it).

Seriously how did a small town boy in the midwest fall in to such an awesome gig. I watched Gary Johnson win the 2016 Libertarian Primary... my heart sank. I did decide that I loved my home in the Libertarian Party so much I would offer my assistance and volunteer for Gary Johnson / Bill Weld... It wasn't as fun and shortly after the Aleppo incident I remember being asked if I wanted to do "Phone banking" and my response was "No, and in fact I have no interest working for this campaign team any further"... When I was asked why "Because this guy sucks and he's going to fuck it up for us"... Sure as hell. He did. I went to vote. Lump in my throat I let out a smile as I thought to myself "I had so much fun working for John's campaign... I wrote John McAfee and Judd Weiss in, snapped a picture and sent it to both John and Judd giving my heartfelt thanks.

I had changed, I learned what Libertarianism meant and more importantly I developed a love for cyber security...I fondly remembered the 2016 run and kept in touch with many on the campaign team. I mean I thought it was a once in a lifetime event. If one victory could be taken away in 2016 for the McAfee campaign...he opened my eyes.

When John announced he was running for president again, first person I messaged was Rob. Was kind of egotistical of me to just naturally assume but I just kind of inserted myself into the team not even really asking "Absolutely i'm on board, don't even need to ask!... I'm all in!"... Reminded me of Blues Brothers "Were getting the band back together!"... But the playing field changed. John took a stand against the IRS and corruption and was forced to leave his home for the high seas. While folks mocked and vilified his work, it made me admire him more. While folks share "Taxaton is Theft Memes" this crazy SOB and his wonderful wife...took a stand against the IRS. The rest is history

Now we have a choice. Accept the status quo in the Libertarian Party and quietly accept mediocrity as we only get 3% of the vote, or we attack corruption head on and we remind the Libertarian Party what it truly means to be Libertarian. At 33 years old I have a passion and beliefs to fight for. I want to be the mentor to new folks interested in our party. I had amazing mentors and that is what I want to be with future generations. Liberty means different things to all kinds of people. I want to not just bring in new members of the party. I want to rewrite the entire two party structure. There are some amazing folks just being born or old enough to start voting that I want to advocate a third, fourth, fifth, sixth... choice to so they don't learn how broken the system is and take the scenic route like I did.

I'll end this with a quote from a personal hero of mine: