Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 21:43:04 -0700
From: barry@empirico.com ("empirico")
Subject: Re: [lpaz-discuss] Matching Funds
To: lpaz-discuss@yahoogroups.com
Reply-To: lpaz-discuss@yahoogroups.com
Hey Jason;
It's funny this came up today. I too, have spent a lot of time trying to
find the rational logical perspective on the issue of matching funds. Don't
mistake me, my gut and my head say we shouldn't take them and I'm am
resigned to decline them. At this particular point I am just wondering how
Matching Funds ever became an issue of principal? After all, the people of
Arizona effectively told the Legislators that they want some of the money
that was stolen from them to go toward helping smaller parties get a voice
in the political arena.
The argument that it is 'blood money' simply doesn't hold water. Consider
how many of us KNOW that the Income Tax is Theft--and yet get in line to
file every year. What about that 'principal'? Could we just be a
self-hindering lot, who really woudn't know how to act if we did come to
take seats of authority? The safe path for such thinkers, is to ensure
their self-defeat.
I guess I'm what has been termed a 'pragmatic', I realized that at some
point we have to have Libertarians in office to actually put an 'official'
signature on the repeals. The bottom line is that we have to make a full
out 'go' of campaigning. We'll get better, and sooner or later.....
This ties in with matching funds, inasmuch as it would certainly give us a
boom box as opposed to a tin can and some string to get our message to the
masses. The problem is that somehow the Libertarian Party has tied itself
to the 'No Government Help' pledge, as if it had something to do with purity
and principal, to the point that I do believe the other political parties
would make 'hay' with it if we become a threat. It would be very easy for
them to say; if we'll 'bend' or compromise on what we have repeatedly said
we wouldn't do, what else would we compromise on?
BEFORE any Libertarian could take the money, we'd clearly have to publically
discuss and address the issue so as to diminish any damage in what might
appear to be an about face.
Just some of my thoughts...
As always, I remaijn at your service--
Barry
Subject: [lpaz-discuss] Matching Funds
> Lately, I've given some more thought to the issue of Libertarian
> candidates taking matching funds. Very little, if any, of the
> Arizona "split" is directly attributable to this issue, but I have
> observed that quite a bit of the rancor and ill-will on both sides
> which perpetuates the split appears rooted in whether or not one
> supports the idea of Libertarian candidates taking matching funds.
>
> There is a certain, very vocal contingent that claim that the party
> is doomed if we allow our candidates to take matching funds. There
> is an equally vocal contingent that claim the party is doomed if we
> prohibit our candidates from taking matching funds. I currently
> place myself in a third camp, because I have yet to be convinced that
> the issue will in fact decide the party's fate one way or the other.
> That's not to say that I have no opinion on the matter; I am against
> Libertarian candidates taking matching funds. I just haven't been
> convinced that candidates who take matching funds will "spoil the
> party" forever, and I'm willing to work with people in the party
> despite the fact that they disagree with me on that issue.
>
> What I'd like to understand and I don't is why eople who disagree
> about what constitutes murder will work together in this party (at
> least in Arizona), but people who disagree about what constitutes
> theft will not. How can someone who thinks abortion is murder
> support a candidate who says and acts as if it is not, yet feel the
> need "on principle" to denounce a candidate for taking matching
> funds? Conversely, how can someone who thinks abortion is a
> biological right support a candidate who treats it as murder, yet
> proclaim the party is doomed if that candidate can't take matching
> funds?
>
> It just doesn't make any sense to me.
>
> --Jason Auvenshine
Community email addresses:
Post message: lpaz-discuss@onelist.com
Subscribe: lpaz-discuss-subscribe@onelist.com
Unsubscribe: lpaz-discuss-unsubscribe@onelist.com
List owner: lpaz-discuss-owner@onelist.com
Web site: www.ArizonaLibertarian.org
Shortcut URL to this page:
http://www.onelist.com/community/lpaz-discuss
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/