LPQC NewsLPQC NewsThe Official Newsletter of the Libertarian Party of Queens County
Vol.3, Num.4 July/Aug.1997
Sabrin Aiming for Debates in NJ.
Golisano Join ACTA's Push for NYS Constitutional Reform.
1997 LPNY Convention Held in Ithaca.
Book Review: What it Means to be a Libertarian, by Charles Murray
Sabrin Aiming for Debates in NJ
Dr. Murray Sabrin, the libertarian party's candidate for governor of New Jersey, is well on his way to debating the Republican and Democratic candidates this fall.
New Jersey's election laws require that gubernatorial candidates who receive $210,000 in contributions and apply for matching funds be included in public debates. The deadline for meeting the contribution threshold is August 31. So far, Sabrin is 20 percent there-he has received about $42,000 in contributions and pledges.
An impressive organization has built up around Sabrin's candidacy. Dan Karlin, his campaign manager, ran for the same office in 1990, and Mike Buoncristiano, his public relations manager and press secretary, ran last year for Congress. In addition, approximately twelve volunteers are working on Sabrins behalf.
Sabrin is professor of finance at Ramapo College and hosts a radio show called On the Money. He is the Author of a book, Tax Free 2000: The Rebirth of American Liberty. "He's been working on how to have a tax-free society for 20 years," says Buoncristiano.
You can help Sabrin get into the debates by writing a check payable to "Sabrin for Governor" and mailing it to: Sabrin for Governor
Golisano Joins ACTA's Push for NYS Constitutional Reform
This November, voters in New York State will be faced with a ballot question: "Shall there be a convention to revise the (New York) Constitution and amend the same?" The All-County Taxpayers Association, led by Robert Schulz, the LPNY's 1994 gubernatorial candidate, is promoting a "yes" vote on this question.
ACTA is also sponsoring a "We the People Congress," made up of ordinary citizens (non-governmental,non-aligned), which is meeting monthly in Albany to develop support for the ballot question and to contemplate specific changes to the Constitution.
Thomas Golisano, who ran as an independent for governor in 1994, has given ACTA's efforts a major boost by endorsing its goals. He will speak at the next We the People Congress, on July 7th.
Golisano told Sarah Metzger of the Albany Times-Union, "I believe in this thing wholeheartedly. If there is something I can do financially to help the cause, I probably will." That's encouraging news, because he spent some $6.5 million on his gubernatorial campaign. In that race, he won 217,000 votes, which resulted in the Independence Party's recognition by the state.
ACTA's work is one of the most significant efforts on behalf of limited government going on in New York State. To find out how you can help, write,call, e-mail, or visit ACTA's Web Site.(note, the address no longer exists)
1997 LPNY Convention Held in Ithaca
On May 31 and June 1, LPNY members from throughout the state convened at the Statler Hotel on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca. It proved to be an excellent opportunity to meet libertarians from upstate counties. Our luxurious meeting room provided an excellent venue for a lively, informative, and productive gathering.
The business meeting consisted of three segments, starting with Lloyd Wright, LPNY Chair. He presented a report on the state party's demographics and possible strategies for upcoming gubernatorial elections, especially as they pertain to our '98 Counts Campaign.
Wright was followed by Blay Tarnoff, immediate past chair of the LPNY. Tarnoff's presentation was primarily about fund raising. He has attended a number of seminars in Washington D.C., sponsored by the national party concerning fund raising and local party development. Tarnoff's suggestions included ways to make our events more fun and attractive to newcomers.
David Harnett next spoke about running for office. Harnett has run for office a number of times and has learned many lessons, especially pertaining to election laws, bureaucratic entanglements, and strategies for media exposure. Ballot access will help us, but it will also create some new dilemmas, especially as we try to find candidates for public offices at every level.
The two guest speakers for the business session were David Delaney of Freedom House and Sam Kasman from the American Enterprise Institute. Delaney focused on the trials and tribulations of his online publishing, and growth of information about his mission. For more information, contact him at freedomh@spectre.net.
Sam Kasman's speech, entitled "Death by Regulation," illustrated how regulatory agencies often do a great deal of harm to the American people. He cited many problematic agencies that have cursed us with foibles such as air bags that kill children and the "deadly overcaution" that has all to often delayed important medicines from reaching those who need them.
Our luncheon speaker was Steve Dasbach, Chair of the Libertarian National Committee. His speech covered the facts regarding electoral success on the national level. Our best chance to achieve a Libertarian majority is to continue working towards growing the party and to spread the Libertarian message.
The evening speaker was James Bovard, a prominent libertarian author whose last book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, won the Szasz and Mencken awards. His amusing and witty diatribe described the absurd, ridiculous, and even malicious ways government agencies screw the American people. After Bovards speech, Blay Tarnoff and Jim Harris did a fine job raising funds. The evening turned out to be one of the most financially successful events in recent LPNY history. Jim even auctioned off one of Bovard's cigars and one of my origami horses.
Business on Sunday started with a panel discussion led by Dottie-Lou Browkaw, Jim Ostrowski, and Bill MacMillen about finding, running, and funding gubernatorial candidates. Following the brief discussion, we voted for the State Committee officers. Lloyd Wright was re-elected as Chair. Check your Free New York for the other officers.
It was a cool and rainy weekend, but we enjoyed good food, good company, and great speakers. With nominations for governor, next year's convention, to be held in this area, should be even better. I encourage all LPQC members to attend.
By Bradford A. Arter
Book Review: What it Means to be a Libertarian, by Charles Murray
Charles Murray's newest book, "What it Means to be a Libertarian" (Doubleday, 200 pages, Hardcover, $20.00) is an elegantly concise "personal interpretation" of libertarian sentiment and principle. Murray is a well known, controversial scholar who gained fame from his earlier "Losing Ground" (a critique of welfare that contributed to its reform) and, with co-author Richard J. Herrnstein, "The Bell Curve" ( a review of the scientific data that dared to suggest there is an aggregate racial component to intelligence). While Murray's libertarianism may be neo-con fuzzy around the edges (in his acknowledgements, he thanks more neo-conservatives than libertarian sources), the fierce independence evident in his previous works shines through in this volume.
It is perhaps unfortunate that Murray's spirited book appeared at the same time as David Boaz's Libertarianism: A Primer, a much more comprehensive and analytical work, with which it has been compared. Murray never intended his slender work to cover all the bases, but rather to defend a pro-liberty framework for thinking (Part I), and then to sample certain issues to show its application and feasibility (How would it work? Is It possible?) in parts II and III. "This book," says Murry, "tries to explain how we can believe the less government, the better. It contains no footnotes. It has no tables and but a single graph. My purpose is to explain a way of looking at the world."
No libertarian would have problems with the First Principles he enunciates-1) "In a free society individuals may not initiate force against any other individual or group", 2) "A voluntary and informed exchange benefits both parties"; and 3) "People in a free society may not be impeded from engaging in voluntary and informed transactions." Murray later identifies "aspects of freedom" such as free association, economic freedom, property rights, freedom of personal behavior, and personal responsibility. I would quibble with Murray's addition of "public good" as part of his framework, as he himself concedes the term "is used so loosely it can mean anything someone thinks is good for the public," thus opening up the back door to statism. Murray also uses constitutionalist and libertarian arguments interchangeably at times, even though the two are not fully identical.
The rest of What It Means rolls through the implications of these principles for restoring limited government, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. About the only modern programs or laws Murray sees being retained under this system (beyond the minimal core functions of defense, police, and treasury) are medical and death benefits for veterans, commerce restrictions on exporting military technology, and maintenance of interstate highways; everything else can go. Murray artfully advocates minimal government while carefully defusing any hostile reaction to it (by the non-libertarian reader) through his use of genial, positive rhetoric. In this regard, his book may end up being more influential than Boaz's, as it maintains a more human touch and focus throughout:
"Libertarianism is a vision of how people should be able to live their lives-as individuals, striving to realize the best they have in them; together, cooperating for the common good without compulsion. .. We may honor that vision in politics-compromising when necessary on the terms of legislation, but not compromising on the terms of the debate. Of the many forces that will eventually re-establish limited government, the most powerful will be a renewed understanding that only freedom enables human beings to live fully human lives." Amen!
By John Clifton
The recent rent control debacle has once again underscored why the LP is NOT the Republican Party, and must respectfully resist the siren call to merge or co-ordinate with the GOP's alleged agenda to curb the size of government. For a mere week or so, New York had actually removed an entire layer of legislation from its midst-at midnight on June 15, rent regulations were no more. The Republican leadership, from state senate leader Joseph Bruno on down, had kept its promise to let the laws lapse and set the captive property owners free to sort out a more rational housing market in our state. The perpetual "housing crisis" would at last be over, and the GOP could for once make good on its claim to be opponents of the permanent expansion of the state power.
But then came the obligatory cave, right on schedule. Legislators reached one of those statist "compromises" in which all the key concessions came from the free market side, where pols claim "a victory" for all (even though landlords clearly lost); where the total number of laws and rules go up, not down; and with principled opposition to rent control labeled "extremism" by the very politicians who originally claimed they stood squarely by it.
The LPQC had circulated a support letter a week earlier, encouraging Bruno (and Senator Serphin Maltese of Middle Village) to at least stand firm on supporting vacancy decontrol,their first fallback position when the political heat got too hot. Alas, even that concession withered as the GOP ended up caving in on its own cave-in position (the new agreement calls for controls to continue at least another generation). Bruno was reported to have looked dejected after the final negotiations, indication it was Governor Pataki who, ever fearful of losing a single vote at re-election time, ordered the retreat, and then arm-twisted other republicans into line. So the "crisis" will continue for decades more.
What is galling about this is that the republican collapse came at a time when this party was in control of state government, and had both the strategic and intellectual high ground. City Journal and the New York Times Magazine had run lengthy essays documenting the need for deregulation, and even liberal journalists on public television's Inside Albany program of June 15th. admitted that decontrol elsewhere in the country (most recently in Boston) by increases in available, affordable housing and in new construction. Once the law lapsed, it should have been up to the statist to justify their restoration, not for opponents to wax defensively on the matter.
There is a significant gap in the GOP between its comprehension of principle and its commitment to it. At both the state and national levels, verbal support for reducing state power is not followed through with policies to produce the result. For example, the recent welfare "reform" bill does not reduce the net number of federal dollars , regulations and bureaucrats relating to the program by even one; it amounted to a ton of reshuffling without an ounce of repeal.
In fact it sometimes feels like we libertarians are accomplishing more without direct political power (through generated good will, education or intellectual persuasion) than republican leaders are with such power. Where are the substantial policy reforms to bolster there claim to being effectual, while we allegedly are not? What is the difference between having majority control but constant defeat, versus having no control and no victory? Until republicans can figure that out, and are willing to lose some power to accomplish something, the LP chooses to keep on winning, by holding on to its principles.
By John Clifton
LPQC News
Jim Strawhorn, Editor
John Clifton, Contributing Editor
Bradford R. Arter, Associate Editor
Elliott Wener, Web Site Editor
LPQC News is published quarterly by the Libertarian Party of Queens County. Subscriptions: included free with LPQC membership;$6/year to non-members. Deadline for articles is the second Saturday of the month preceding publication. Opinions expressed in LPQC News are not necessarily official positions of the membership or the officers of the LPQC. Please direct all correspondence to LPQC News, c/o Procida Realty Corp., 161-09 29th. Ave.,Flushing, NY11358; or call (718) 670-3270
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