This IPR editor has obtained a couple of the Agenda for this weekend’s meeting of the Libertarian Party Platform Committee.
SCHEDULE
Libertarian Party Platform Committee
March 26-27th, 2016
Embassy Suites St Louis Airport, Bridgeton, MO
Saturday, March 26 – 9:00 am
Call to Order 9:00 am
Credentials check 5 minutes
Paperwork check 5 minutes
Review motions already adopted by email ballots 5 minutes
Adopt agenda 10 minutes
DRAFT AGENDA: (10 minutes per proposal)
1.0 Personal Liberty (Mattson) – clarify accepting consequences is an
obligation
1.0 Personal Liberty (Minet) – address adult/children distinctions
1.4 Abortion (Starr) – offer failed EB08 but with “across” instead of
“along”
1.4 Abortion (Minet) – alternative new language
New 1.6 Parental Rights plank (Starr) – move language from plank 3.5
Amend new 1.6 Parental Rights (Starr) – amend language moved from 3.5
1.6 Crime and Justice (Mattson) – general editorial cleanup
2.2 Environment (Minet) – delete 3rd sentence
2.2 Environment (Minet) – move second-to-last sentence
2.2 Environment (Minet) – delete final sentence
2.2 Environment (Minet) – add sentence regarding damages proven in court
2.2 Environment (Mattson) – new first sentence drafted by Shipley
2.2 Environment (Carling) – rewrite
2.3 Energy and Resources (Mattson) – delete
2.4 Government Finance & Spending (Starr) – split into multiple planks
2.4 Government Finance & Spending (Minet) – split into two separate
planks
2.5 Money & Financial Markets (Minet) – amend final sentence, return to
sound money
2.5 Money & Financial Markets (Minet/Carling) – rephrase “neither
profits nor losses are socialized”
New 2.7 Intellectual Monopoly and File Sharing (Fulner) – new plank
New 2.8 Public Employees (Starr) – new plank
2.10 Retirement & Income Security (Minet) – insert “even”
3.0 Securing Liberty (Fulner) – rewrite
3.4 Free Trade and Migration (Cholko) – remove first sentence & change
title
3.4 Free Trade and Migration (Cholko) – remove “unreasonably” from
second sentence
3.4 Free Trade and Migration (Cholko) – remove final sentence
3.6 Representative Government (overnight homework) – alternative for
first sentence
3.6 Representative Government (Starr) – add form of government language
4.0 Omissions – (multiple) – options for new plank: add “or even the
existence of government itself”,
Minet/Fockler alternative language
New 1.7 Death Penalty (Ahmad) – new plank
Statement of Principles (Minet)
Sunday, March 27
Call to Order 9:00 am
(Continuation of remaining agenda from Saturday)
3/29/16- The Minutes have been published. A copy can be read here: https://independentpoliticalreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/2016-Platform-Committee-Minutes.pdf
Idle hands make for devil’s work.
Looks interesting. I wonder what the death penalty proposal will look like. Since capital punishment is by definition unlimited government/cult of the omnipotent state stuff, it’s about time the LP formally called for its abolition. Actually, we should have done so earlier — it’s better to have been right earlier than to wait until something’s about to happen anyway.
Thanks for bringing some immigration proposals, Matt!
Nothing good can come out of it (there are some really solid members, but they are outvoted).
The death penalty plank is the one thing I am hopeful on. CO has one (and I think we were the first, but I could be wrong – we are still in the small minority that does)
And FWIW, I have never hated the current platform. It actually is pretty solid and remarkable and I came to the LP solely due to the SoP and the current Platform. Read it once, jaw dropped open, switched voter registration on the spot.
If the death penalty plank is good, I will give my all in supporting it.
Screwing around with the abortion language is a mistake. I will likely not support. I support deletion.
Highly suspicious and overtly hostile to any attempt to make us the conservatarian party.
Punishment should never be the goal for a libertarian system of justice. The first goal should be compensation of the victim of the tort. Secondarily, the safety of the society (if I may use that term) can be considered. The conditions of the compensation extracted from the perpetrator of the tort should be commensurate with the tort.
If I had to bet, I’d bet against an anti-death penalty plank making it out of committee. But, its not out of the question. There are a couple of similar, but not identical proposals making the rounds. There seem to be a fair number of committee members opposed to the death penalty (though not nearly as many as I expected), but there is not yet agreement around language.
As for immigration….you’re welcome, Tom! I got a lot of resistance during our email discussions around my proposed changes to that plank. I think there is a small chance of very modest improvement making out of committee. Again, I wouldn’t be on it.
Thanks for the work you’re doing, Matt.
This is a case where I’m confused. The obvious goal of the SMC cabal is to damage the LP. MOST people who hate the LP think that the more radically libertarian it gets, the less effective it is. So I’d expect an SMC-dominated platform committee to recommend an extremely libertarian platform. Maybe they’re smarter than I give them credit for and understand that it’s GOP-lite cargo cultism that most damages the LP.
Alicia Mattson’s argument against a death penalty plank. I respect Alicia greatly and admire her wit— truly. But this is so full of logical holes that I want to be executed just to get the badness of it out of my head.
I do though however give Alicia MAJOR props for standing by the idea of “no force or fraud” being relevant since some people seem to have a problem with such simply Libertarian basics. Two thumbs-up and a porcupine to Alicia.
Alicia, really? You are sharp as a tack. This is not an argument worthy of you. I really wish you were local so we could sit down and talk sometime. I enjoyed your company at LPEX.
So, none of my proposals on the immigration plank made it through committee. One very minor change made it through. It is probably a slight Improvement. That is to change the word credible to demonstrable in the last sentence.
Overall, I’d say that not a whole lot of substance made it through committee today. Some of the substantial items were kicked to tomorrow, and people are working on language for them this evening. So, it’s possible that some substantial changes will come through tomorrow’s session. I expect that we will take up another proposed change to the immigration plank, that has the potential to make some improvement
Thank you Matt for the update.
What items are people working on?
I am not sure that demonstrable is better than credible… seems like a lateral change. Though perhaps it does kick up the burden of proof.
More to the point, I think I would support that change.
People are working on language for abortion, environment, and immigration. I’very been working on smoking cigars, drinking, and watching basketball.
So, an anti-death penalty plank made it through committee, as did a very, very soft copyright law reform plank. Overall, I’d say the outcome of the meeting was a bit more positive that I expected, from my radical viewpoint.
I will post the minutes as soon as they are available. The committee voted unanimously to make them public.
Good news, on both counts. I’ll be interested to see the exact wording of those planks.
Minutes uploaded and added to article. The proposed change to the Preamble is the ugliest thing I have read in a long time. The current one is a stroke of genus and inspiring. This one makes me want to lose my lunch.
I wouldn’t go quite that far in critiquing the preamble change. But the change makes the preamble feel more like an advertising slogan. I’d rather not have the D’s and R’s referenced by name in the preamble, the opening statement of the platform should be about US, not our opponents. At this point, I’d vote against it.
I totally agree with Caryn about the proposal to change the Preamble. What an abomination! This is supposed to be a platform, and we get something that sounds like it came from a bumper sticker!
A few other thoughts:
1. “Individual rights are pointless without a clean, healthy environment capable of sustaining human life.” What’s really pointless is the inclusion of this sentence, which, depending on how you interpret it, is either hyperbolic or tautological.
2. I’m not at all crazy about the wording of the death penalty plank, but it’s better than nothing, I guess.
3. The IP plank, on the other hand, is bad enough that we would be better off (much better off) without it. I thought it was supposed to be an anti-IP plank. This actually reads like a ringing endorsement of IP.
I largely agree with Langa. However, in the case of the IP plank, the people that seemed to care much about that subject, including one that introduced a general elimination of IP plank the day before, indicated that they thought it was an improvement. So, I voted in favor.