During today’s lunch at the State Policy Network Annual Meeting, the Vernon Kreeble Foundation awarded their Unsung Hero Award. The goal of this award, as I understand it, is to recognize an unconventional yet successful hero of individual liberty. These heroes aren’t your standard think tank leaders or political party officials. Past award winners (I believe the award is now five years old) include a ‘government watchdog’ and an independent daycare provider who took on a government union.
This year’s award winner Elaine Vechorik started a business with her husband. As their business succeeded and stabilized, she found herself with free time which she choose to fill with pro-liberty political activism. In her three years as an activist in Mississippi, she has rolled back restrictions on gun laws, ended a money-grabbing licensing scheme, and is now working on fighting civil asset forfeiture.
Elaine’s remarks on stage were the highlight of my day. She highlighted her successes as an activist as well as her failures. Along with her failures she offered lessons learned from those failures. She told us that at first, she merely focused on writing about issues and argued that merely writing on an issue (even calling out white papers, an old standard for SPN groups) will not cause change. She urged the audience to avoid groups that value fundraising success and/or votes over true success (which I think she would define as change). Finally, she suggested avoiding constant arguing and complaining. Ignoring national issues she could not change and focusing on local and state issues, she told us, was the best change she made as an activist.
For me, the biggest takeaway from Elaine’s remarks was the importance of training and welcoming new activists. From the audience I could feel her past frustration trying to break in to the world of political activism. I also felt her good faith to learn with an open mind and develop the skills necessary to achieve change.
Public choice economics allows us to use economics to understand how politics actually works. It demonstrates how our assumptions and intuitions about politics can lead us to ineffective methods of political activism. Hopefully, there are a number of humble and eager persons ready to fight for liberty. For those of us who are ‘professionals’ in the field, it is vital that we respectfully and kindly work to prepare and provide the proper training necessary for effective political activism.
Congratulations Elaine. Your award seems well-deserved and your remarks were inspiring. I wish you the best in your continued activism for liberty in Mississippi.