Paul Gagnon (Democratic Freedom Caucus Virginia Vice-Chair) wrote: PG) In 1996, I mediated an alliance at George Washington University in D.C. called Third Parties 96 involving the Greens, LP, Patriot Party, DSA, et al. We started out with the intention of only getting agreement on ballot access issues, electoral procedure, etc. We ended up with a huge statement of areas of agreement. [...] The LPers took it to the Watergate LP and they didnt know what to do with it. (PG
The unanimously-agreed-to 17 statements sound pretty harmless, although I'm curious what the LP contingent thought they meant by "We support the maximum empowerment of people in their communities, consistent with fairness, social responsibility and human rights, to meet local needs, and to defend those communities against exploitive forces." I've placed a copy of the declaration at http://libertarianmajority.net/tp96-common-ground-declaration-redacted, where I've stricken through the parts I think Libertarians would balk at. A while back I gave a similar treatment to the DFC Platform, which I've reposted at http://libertarianmajority.net/democratic-freedom-caucus-redacted-platform. It is eerily similar to the Pure Principles <http://libertarianmajority.net/pure-principles-platform> Platform that the 2008 LP PlatCom is currently drafting. In fact, with the tweaks/deletions of the indicated 7 sentences and two sections ("Free Trade With Free Countries" and "Social Responsibility"), it would in my judgment be better than any past LP Platform. I especially admire the DFC Platform's treatment of land value taxation, and hope that we geolibertarians in the LP get more organized and work to make our Platform tolerate LVT and the green <http://knowinghumans.net/2008/01/tax-bads-and-untax-goods-with-green-tax.ht ml> tax shift. Ultimately, I'd like to see all of us move toward statements like those in this draft EcoLibertarian <http://ecolibertarian.org/manifesto> Manifesto. I wonder if DFC members would disagree with any of its 33 tenets. Brian Holtz 2006-2008 LP Platform Committee
