Hi All! Here's the agenda for this month's meeting.
Libertarian Party of San Francisco Agenda: Saturday, October 13, 2012
Meeting Location: SF Main Library – 4th Floor Conference Room
1. Welcome – Introductions 3:05
2. Activist Reports – Past & Future 3:15
3. Announcements 3:30
4. Treasurer’s Report 3:35
5. Update on November Election Activities 3:40
6. Candidates Running for November Election 4:00
Due to the shortage of liberty-leaning candidates for local office, I thought it would be helpful if we give some words of recommendation for any candidates that folks might consider voting for in this election. It's a sorry lot, but we ourselves will be voting, so our website should feature at least a few comments on the candidates, such as they are. Therefore, I am asking you to do a little research on the candidates before Saturday's meeting to see if we can come up with anything useful to the voters to put on our website. I view it as kind of a Liberty One Shopping Stop for all your voting needs, since we already have lots of good information on the site. The categories are Board of Education, Community College Board, BART Director, and of course Board of Supervisors (odd-numbered districts). There are 54 candidates running, so if you want to pick a category, we can divide up the homework that way, so we don't all have so many to look at.
I know we all have busy lives, but if you can spend a little time doing some homework by Saturday, maybe we can come up with something useful for the voters.
Thanks!
Aubrey
Hi Aubrey,
If I may register a dissenting voice to your suggested strategy: I don't feel it educates people about libertarianism and sends the wrong message if we recommend voting for an avowed Big Govt type who appears by his rhetoric to sound like the lessor of the evils.
A meaningful message would be something like, "Since all the candidates in this race heavily rely on Govt rather than on free individuals to solve problems, the LP can not support any of them."
This is not a plea for "purism." I would support anyone who recognizes the State as the source of most evils, even if they support some Govt programs.
Warm regards, Michael
Hi Michael! How can we say for sure that all the candidates are all messed up (liberty wise) if we haven't bothered to see what they're all about? Granted, they probably are a mess, but what harm can come from research and discussion? Furthermore, not all candidates are created equal--some are definitely worse than others. A Scott Weiner (who never met a law he didn't want to pass) is much worse than a Sean Elsbernd, who has also been a major disappointment in recent years but still would qualify as Mr. Liberty compared to Scott Weiner. If we just throw up our hands and say they're all equally bad, then how can we ever hope to steer the voters in the right direction? A few months ago, Les came up with the idea of using some kind of grading or rating system to score candidates in liberty terms--perhaps a grade on economic issues and also a grade on personal issues. While they might all rate pretty low in economic issues, we could help to
show which candidates are closer to our ideals. As always when it comes to iffy candidates, our "support" would be very qualified and we would state what we like about them and what concerns us about them. I think there is a useful public service role for us to perform here.
Thanks for your thoughts (not holding you to purism)!
Aubrey
Hi Aubrey!
You make an excellent point: unless we see what the candidates are all about, we'll have little information for making decisions. I certainly agree. (Sorry if I miscommunicated.)
To answer your question about steering in the right direction, I think I detailed this in my previous email.
Can we discuss further on Sat., either on the agenda or on the 4th floor 10 minutes early outside of our conference room?
Warm regards, Michael
Hi Michael! We can discuss this issue both during the meeting and before the meeting too. I intend to do as much "homework" as possible before our meeting on Saturday so I can be semi-intelligent on the candidates.
See You Saturday!
Aubrey
Aubrey,
Sounds good. I'll be at our conference room 2:50 to discuss this further.
Warm regards, Michael