It amazes me how some members of this list cling to the proposition that
the deletion of most of the Platform was an act of deliberation. It was
not a conspiracy. There was no plan. It was just a cockup. It resulted
from these simple factors:
1. Conference organizers neglected to print copies of the Platform and
distribute them with the conference packet. They explained that they
expected attendees to just download and print the Platform from the
lp.org website. That was expecting too much of them.
2. Attendees weren't going to vote for what they didn't have in writing
in their hands.
3. The Platform Committee didn't really get down to work until the
members actually arrived at the meeting two days before the convention,
and didn't allow enough time to agree of a list of planks to recommend
retaining. They got bogged down on consolidating planks. The result of
that work was presented to the conference and approved, because the
members could read it on the screen. But there wasn't time to print or
distribute copies of anything.
4. Left with that, the majority of attendees voted not the retain most
of the remaining planks. I was one who so voted, because there was two
hours set aside on the agenda ("orders of the day") at the end of Sunday
to introduce any planks that needed to go back in. Many people had those
planks prepared and submitted them to the Secretary for presentation in
numbered order.
5. Before we could get to those planks, one member (also a member of the
Platform Committee), Jim Duensing of Nevada, apparently for no other
reason than that he was pissed off at a motion just made and defeated by
Aaron Starr of California, moved to adjourn, and as a motion to adjourn
is not debatable, and the attendees were tired and didn't know what was
about to be introduced, other than stuff that was just going to take up
a lot of time, voted to adjourn.
6. Immediately afterward there was a lot of remorse about the
adjournment. Jim Duensing admitted to me he screwed up. A lot of the
attendees, when I explained what was about to be introduced, admitted if
they had known they would not have voted to adjourn.
7. It simply never occurred to most of the attendees how all this would
be misconstrued by the larger membership. Libertarians may include a lot
of computer professionals, but most are not adept at complex systems
analysis or long-term impact analysis. Like the public generally, they
tend to be impulsive and prefer not to think deeply about what they are
doing, or to spend a lot of effort preparing for anything.
8. So we make mistakes, and hopefully learn from it. We can do better in
2008 if we learn from this and don't engage in ridiculous accusations.
-- Jon
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