Here is why neither side of the purist/reformist battle can ever assure a
principled or discrete result at a convention. All too often the delegates who
are physically present either do not know the history or the context of the
proposals on the floor, or perhaps they are distracted by personal concerns.
And so they vote on the basis of what somebody told them, or what they read in
a handout, and not after thinking it through on their own.
We have even raised that same concern about congressmen who vote before they
have even read the bill. Here we voted on the platform without even having a
copy of the platform to refer to! This was both unprofessional and
incompetent, regardless what anybody thought of the platform itself.
There is a second problem with the convention format itself. Of course there
is only so much time and there is a lot to cover, but putting time limits on
debate always leads to hasty decisions. And hasty decision making necessarily
leads to hard feelings on the losing side.
As for the pledge, I am not so concerned about the actual words as I am with
the matter of identity. The pledge is the one thing that separates us from
every other political party I am aware of. No other party, to my knowledge,
has one. Of course that can be taken two ways. But if we scrap the pledge we
must still answer the questions, "Who is a Libertarian Party member?" and the
more important question, "Who decides who is a Libertarian Party member?" The
pledge is in essence a compromise. The group sets the standard, and the
individual decides whether s/he wants to meet it.
And here is the most important consideration. Without the standard the party
is at risk that the government will set the standard. That is, after all, the
underlying function of voter registration laws. I really don't give a rip what
the pledge says, I do care whether the party or the government decides what it
takes to be a member of the party.
Richard Shepard
Chuck Moulton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
<snip>
I spoke to many
people who voted to keep the pledge because they thought it referred
only to a prohibition of a violent overthrow of the government and not
to requiring that the entire platform reject incremental solutions.
<snip>
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