I finally had some time to check the KALW Public Radio station website to see if they ran the interview on the Libertarian view on the Richmond soda tax and government intervention in lifestyles in general. The interview was about an hour long. Very pleasant folks at the station. I enjoyed meeting them. BTW, they are the same station that ran the Free & Equal Third Party Debate. If you have a moment you might email them to thank them for their interest in the Libertarian point of view. If you are interested in the interview, you can listen on the station's website, under a series of talks on "The Nanny State."
http://kalw.org/post/nanny-state-libertarians-view-legislating-lifestyles
Marcy
Marcy,
Thanks for posting the KALW link, and for doing this outreach. Unfortunately what appears there is much less than an hour's worth of material -- I didn't time it, but according to the counter on the site, the interview lasts only 4 minutes and 14 seconds. This is a bummer, because I'll bet you had lots of good stuff to say during that hour, but the stuff they ended up using doesn't really articulate the libertarian viewpoint that clearly. For example a listener could easily get the impression that you're saying better public education (which to many people means more government funding) is needed, and that given current government healthcare policies, taxes on cigarettes are acceptable to libertarians as a "user fee". I don't see anything at all there about the Richmond soda tax. Do you think there may be more content somewhere else on the site?
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
Hi Starchild,
Thanks for asking. I was so tired late last night when I posted this that I did not finish my thought when I said the interview was one hour long. First, the interviewer did mention that they always tape a lot, and pick and choose from that to fit the time they have, whether it is one minute or whatever. Secondly, a lot of the time was dedicated to testing the equipment and the best interview mode with questions such as "what is your favorite song of all time." Therefore, time for saying earth-shaking things was not really one hour.
Of course we always wish we had more time to express our point of view. However, given our lowly rank on the political totem pole, I saw this interview as a glass half full, not half empty.
Also, of course we all have different ways of expressing ourselves. I sincerely believe that more of us should be out there speaking to the general public, giving the public a more encompassing picture of the Libertarian Party. Because listeners will interpret things said differently (as evidenced by your comment), we should have different speakers, with different styles out there reaching as many minds as possible. And we should be supportive of what our speakers say, even though we might think -- rightly or not -- that we would have done better.
Regarding the fact that not much was said about soda, indeed the interviewer became more interested in the Libertarian point of view of government's role in changing lifestyles than on the soda tax itself; which was fine with me.
Again, I urge our members to thank KALW and other media that bothered to give us the time of day. Interestingly, the interview posted starts with a very brief exchange between the interviewer and another person. The exchange goes something like this, paraphrased "The next view is from a member of the Libertarian Party." "The Libertarian Party?! They are not significant players in politics!!" "Yes, but they do have an interesting point of view. Let's listen." Golly gee wiz, who would have thunk it that a kid's weight and health is primarily the responsibility of his/her parents, not the government!
Marcy
Hi Marcy! I just sent them a brief thank you, as recommended. I especially liked the part about you being kind of poor and being an immigrant and yet your family managed not to get obese. It was a nice way of saying what a bunch of bull about the poor being forced into obesity through lack of funds.
Thanks for doing the interview!
Aubrey