I'm happy for us Libertarians to work with Greens on issues where we agree. I'm happy for Greens to be better civil libertarians, I'm happy for Libertarians to more green, and I'm happy for both to promote electoral reform, ballot access, and decentralizing government.
But I'm against libertarian-leaning voters casting their vote in a way that announces they want less economic liberty or less personal liberty. So I think libertarian-leaning voters should only vote for a non-LP candidate if 1) their votes are likely to be the difference in electing the lesser of two evils, or 2) that non-LP candidate specifically runs on a set of positions that largely exclude the un-libertarian parts of her party's platform.
I've never heard of a GP candidate who would be willing to do that. As an LP candidate, I'd be willing to run a fusion LP-GP candidacy that focused on civil liberties, decentralism, and a Green Tax Shift. I'd be pleasantly surprised if the GP here (or anywhere) would want to get behind such a candidacy.
I'm all for blowing up the two-party duopoly. But I fear the GP enacting its current nanny-state platform the way the Socialist Party enacted its 1928 welfare-state platform: without ever electing a legislative majority or a president or even a governor. Similarly, I hope for the LP to enact (at least parts of) its current platform using the same strategy. So when legislators from the two incumbent nanny-state parties count votes for LP-endorsed GP candidates, I fear them counting those as votes for a bigger nanny state.
I'm skeptical that local GP+LP fusion candidacies can accomplish much in the absence of narrow short-term local policy goals, but I'd be happy to find out I'm wrong. GP+LP fusion won't send the right electoral signal unless there is a clear national-level statement of our common ground.
There are two good possible starting points for such a statement: 1) the Free Earth Manifesto, and 2) this redacted version of the Democratic Freedom Caucus platform. I would love for an intellectually-adventurous Green Party insider to take her red (or green) pen to either document and see how little she could cross out before finding the remainder supportable. I'm confident that the remainder would still be a bold and powerful statement for human liberty and ecological wisdom.
Monday, November 16, 2009
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AMERICANS GETTING ORGANIZED!
A majority of Americans agreed with President Obama in 2008, that the interests of the community are more important than are the interests of the individual. As a result, a new union organizing movement has begun, creating the Community Voters Union (CVU).
Using the popular Card Check Program, community organizers forming the CVU will bring voters into a union, simplifying their community life. When 1% of people in a region sign the CVU card checks given them at shopping malls, places of employment as well as door-to-door, the CVU will officially form. They will be responsible for voting the interests of the community. Voters need never go to the polls again. Union leaders voting the community’s interests block big-money right wing attempts to sway voters. Dues from each voter will pay the costs of this welcomed voter service. The Community Union Councils gather periodically to decide who will hold elected offices as well as new legislation and enforcement procedures. The voters in community will never again have to worry about making those choices. The President encourages voters to take advantage of the CVU so the voting process is more orderly and predictable. Because of his enormous popularity, people are rushing to obtain voting cards to sign up. CVU will usher into American Politics a glorious new day of certainty and peace in voting. Right-wing extremist critics claim the first card checks will have only names from the graveyards to establish CVU supremacy. They claim CVU is patterned after the USSR soviets, regional community voting blocs that transmit community interests to one central presidium or parliament. They are partially correct, in that the American Congress will be changed to a parliament and the Constitution set aside as a historical document only. However, only community interests are important, which assigns to the CVU the control over what was once called “private property” and bank accounts in each of the regions they control. This will assure Americans that the wealth will be spread around, as the President was so well credited in his campaign. There will no longer be term limits assigned to the office of President, only that he receives a periodic vote of confidence from the CVU. Succession falls to the choice of the President when the need arises. This, most Americans agree, is how an orderly government works. For thousands of years, orderly government rested with a sovereign, a chief of state, where family members were trained to take the reins when the need arose, so we can look to having one of Obama’s daughters rise to that leadership position. (Is this really an absurdity? claysamerica.com)
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