Liberty Decides - Can It Be Improved? I'm happy to see Susan promote 'Liberty Decides', though the program is not very new at all, as she suggested. Shane came up with and implemented this idea months ago, and should be recognized for his creativity as well as his excellent foresight and planning. And while her first suggestion is good, listing the number of contributors (how about average gift, too?), her language betrays her bias against large donors. Her second suggestion, again starts off well, but then shows where she's coming from when it degenerates into an online litmus test. Having website visitors "judge which candidates are most in line with the Party's platform" makes no sense, except for those purists who want to think for the rest of us. Just as there are a broad spectrum of feelings regarding the LP platform, there are a broad spectrum of positions people will like from Candidates, and how each one of them matches the voter is what really counts. Neither Susan, nor I, or any other person can determine what is the correct position for another voter, or Libertarian. This much less weighting said issues by importance. I would say, go with Susan's good idea, to list a menu of positions, but leave the platform matching out, and instead let the visitor both weight and determine, for themself what those positions mean, and how they line up with their own. Bruce Cohen www.GetBruce.com _______________________________________________________________ Susan H wrote: Here is a note I sent to Bill Redpath and Shane Cory. I urge others to think about these two simple ideas and, if you judge them sensible, to write Redpath and Cory and your LNC representative( s) and ask them to be considered:
*Gentlemen, I am sure you are getting lots of feedback on this innovative program, so I will keep it short. I have two suggestions: 1) One easy way to help readers distinguish between candidates who have more dollars than sense would be to list - along with the total contribution - the NUMBER of individual contributions, and/or make a certain number of individual supporters a criterion at the same level as total dollars raised/given. 2) Give each candidate a table with the plank number on the left side and a 50-word (or fewer) blank spot on the right side. Then publish it with each candidate's picture and let libertarians judge which candidates are most in line with the Party's platform. Make filling out this questionnaire a condition of listing. These two simple measures - requiring a 50-word statement on each platform plank from each candidate, and listing the number of individual contributors as well as total dollars raised - would represent a -significant- improvement on a very interesting program, I think. Thanks for your time and work!* -- Susan Hogarth http://www.collieth ing.com --------------------------------- Get easy, one-click access to your favorites. Make Yahoo! your homepage. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
