Archive for November 2008

Optimism

November 21, 2008 by Jim.

There will be an organizing meeting for a new Libertarian Party chapter for my county on Monday and I’ll be there with bells on.  I’m watching the political news from around the country and the number of places where normal party votes didn’t follow tradition - and the wholesale changes in the distribution of party registrations - make me very optimistic for ‘10.  I think there is a ground swell of dissatisfaction with the two majors.

 I’ve been thinking about publicity and what to do to capture the imaginations and attention of vulnerable voters and I have a couple ideas, feel free to chime in.

1. Send out an email nationally to the LP members and ask for single sentences about why they are members of the party.  Use them, don’t just put them in a drawer.  Use them in press releases, in letters to the editor, pair them with pretty pictures and make a coffee table book. 

2. Get a couple writers to write weekly columns about the libertarian perspective on the week’s news.  Get them syndicated and in newspapers or weeklies.  Start by putting them out as a blog and RSS feed.

3.  Write pamphlets and hand them out like bible tracts - position them like the different gospels.  The gospels are written each appealing to a different group: Matthew to the Jews about the language, Mark to the Romans about the actions, Luke to the Greeks about the followers.  We need to tailor the message to the audience.  To the Blue Dog Democrats about how you can keep the social liberalism without the fiscal liberalism of big government …  To the moderate Republicans about how you can be more conservative fiscally and have the socalial freedoms that the religous right would like to legislate.  And, to the Absolute Libertarians that from a practical standpoint, in a culturally mixed, economically and educationally diverse society there must be some safeguards designed and enforced by a federal government.

 There are the three that I’ll be starting with.  I’m hoping for a good showing - if not then I’ll be a leader of one.  What’s that old Barry Manilow song?  “Just one voice, singing in the darkness, All it takes is one voice…”

 Just One Voice,
Singing in the darkness,
All it takes is One Voice,
Singing so they hear what’s on your mind,
And when you look around you’ll find
There’s more than

One Voice,
Singing in the darkness,
Joining with your One Voice,
Each and every note another octave,
Hands are joined and fears unlocked,
If only

One Voice
Would start it on its own,
We need just One Voice facing the unknown,
And then that One Voice would never be alone,
It takes that One Voice. 
 

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Why interest rates aren’t falling…

November 8, 2008 by Jim.

The financial bailout bill has taken a back burner to the election.  Removal from the spotlight should not divert the attention of the American People.  I’ve seen several articles about why mortgage rates aren’t falling as the Fed lowers theirs and though they wonder they don’t address the answer.

 Sen. Biden, in speaking about the financial crisis, said that bankruptcy court judges should have the ability to lower principle and interest on mortgages. 

Ding Ding Ding, doesn’t that set off alarm bells to you?  Apparently it did not to the press, or the Republicans, or the Fed Chairman, or Fannie and Freddie chairmen past or present.

A mortgage is a private contract.  It lays out the details whereby you receive money in a lump sum in exchange for a promise to pay it back with interest.  If you weren’t going to be paying interest, do you think anyone would loan you money?

If courts had this power, then any mortgage could be written down without the input of creditors.  How could we expect anyone to make a mortgage loan with anything other than punitive interest considering how big the risk just became?

The only ones foolish enough to make loans under those circumstances would be the Federal Government under Democrat leadership. 

This is a dangerous game of chicken, with the American People, their property rights and the free market in the middle.

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Interesting election…

November 5, 2008 by Jim.

I’ll admit I’m disappointed with the election, but neither surprised or upset.  The ’spreading the wealth’ is upsetting but I just didn’t have the confidence in McCain to do anything other than cross the isle to glad hand.

I’ve mentioned already I’m going to be working with the Libertarians.  I realized, however, how much work it’s going to be - Bob Barr got less than 1/2 percent, behind Nader to add insult.  Less than 500k in a field of over 120 million.  The grassroots model works well, but there has to be guidance from above and that doesn’t seem to be there.

 Anyway, my observation for the day.  Yesterday’s election was fascinating in the ballot measures.  In every state that had a gay marriage ban on the ballot the measure passed.  There will be less gay marriage.  You’d think that would point to a religious swing, however, despite the pro-life vehemence the abortion restriction measures all failed.  A strange dichotomy that will deserve some study.  What does that say about the power of the right, or the numbers of the right and the power they try to project being less than the shadow they cast.

I’ve been thinking about why I’m posting on this blog.  I think all of two people are reading it.  I guess in the back of my head I’m keeping a history of writings not for posterity but as a resume for political work that my be in my future.  I’m planning to write about once a week, I think that’s enough… check back often.

Jim

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Divisive

November 1, 2008 by Jim.

When will the mainstream parties learn… politics of inclusivity will trump exclusivity every time.   

Too late for this election :-(  From the Republicans talking about formalizing conservative religious values (abortion specifically) to the Democrats demonizing the ‘rich’ and segregating the population with terms like ‘working class’ it seems that they’ve learned nothing about our history, politicking or psychology. 

Our constitution was written to include everyone.  (Compromises in race not withstanding that were corrected as our society evolved,) the treatises included applied to everyone.  The first amendment’s statement about religion was to allow everyone to be included regardless of their god.  The equal protection clause allowed these rights to apply regardless of where you travelled in these United States. 

By trying to codify anti-abortion legislation and marriage laws the Republicans are dividing our society.  Americans cannot agree about abortion.  Even amongst Christians and Jews there are internal disagreements.  Therefore we must air on the side of freedom.   

I’d like to see someone come out and say ‘I am pro-life, but I understand that the religions of our people differ so I’ll leave this decision to the individual.’  If the ‘right’ will learn this concept than I’ll teach the ‘left’ that there is no such thing as the ‘separation of church and state’ in the constitution and maybe we can come to some common ground. 

This is all aside from the fact that this should not be a federal question at all.  There are no provisions of the constitution that allow for federal control of anything near this subject.   

By using divisive language like ‘working class’ the Democrats fracture our society irreparably.  I remember hearing blue collar / white collar comparisons in elections past, but this is the first where ‘working class’ comes to bare.  The collar comparison is valid.  There are those that work with their hands and those that work at a desk.  They must work together or the whole thing falls apart! 

‘Working Class’… the first time I heard it was Hillary Clinton telling a bunch of blue collar workers that government had to cater to the ‘working people’ of America.  What does that even mean?  As a sociological term it seems to mean someone that works but does not own the means of production, like ‘proletariat’ in Marxist writings.  Mrs. Clinton implied in that one felled swoop that white collar workers aren’t ‘working’.  Wow.  Don’t tell me that when I get home after a 9 hour day exhausted.  I’ve been in both collars and let me tell you, the job satisfaction is higher and the stress level lower when the job stops when you punch out.   

The white collar comes with responsibilities and a lot more stuff that follows you home at night and interrupts your sleep.  The servers I manage run 24×7 and could have an issue at anytime and troubleshooting is never clear cut.  But, the load of concrete I poured when I drove a mixer was done when I washed the truck and punched out for the day never to be thought of again. 

This is all over simplifying, of course, but it illustrates the points.  Can we get the Libertarian Party to be that middle ground? 

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