Tag: Libertarian Party

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The other 5% – A Politics piece

Posted on by Karac Avalron

As many of you know I don’t do politics often on this blog. I think this is my 5 post on politics in 2 years. I’m not going to go on and on about how bad one person is, or if another has cognitive decline or who is better etc. I am going to go talk about the other 5%. What is that? That is the average % of voters who don’t vote for Democrats or Republicans every year.

In the U.S. we have a two party system. It is corrupt and rotting in my opinion. Both the main parties have been infiltrated by corporate interests and those who do not necessarily have the voter’s interest in mind. It’s such a mess and the marketing around both parties has created an us vs them mentality to drive sentiment either way and push the consumption of the mouth pieces for either or side. I know that’s cynical, but things are bad and anyone telling you “IT’S THEM” is part of the problem, in my opinion.

The alternatives? Well there aren’t many. You see the two corporate corrupt parties have created the conditions by which they dominate election processes. Ballot access, as an example is a perplexing maze of red tape that takes decades to navigate. We have only one other party, the libertarians, that are on the ballot on all 50 states. Really? A country with 300 million + has a choice of 3 parties? The main two parties are multibillion dollar operations, good luck getting equal time with that kind of money in play.

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In the U.S. there are 2 major parties as discussed, a viable 3rd party that does have ballot access in all 50 states the libertarians. We also have “4th” parties that have ballot access in some states not others. They do not have enough access to win enough Electoral College votes for their candidates to win the presidency outright. Those are The Green Party, The Independent party, and The Constitution Party to name a few. The Green party has the best shot of getting ballot access to all 50 states next, we’ll see.

There are of course many other small local and state parties, but they don’t have ballot access nationally. The 3 main “4th” parties mentioned above, might have ballot access in 1-5 states. These “other” parties take approx. 5% of the vote every year (give or take). The purpose of the post today is to let you know there are alternatives. You do not have to vote for the candidates for the corporate parties. You do not have to “chose a side”, you do not have to fall in line and be a part of the “us vs them” narrative. You can chose to vote for someone else in another party.

They have ideas too, they have platforms they stand for things. Are they perfect? No but look at the mess we are in now because of the two party system. Maybe it’s time to have a 5 party system where all ideas have to be considered and discourse has to be civil because voters have viable choices outside of the multibillion dollar corporate parties currently dominating.

Okay rant over…. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

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Libertarian principle – Personal Relationships

Posted on by Karac Avalron

As many of you know I am a Libertarian. For the non U.S. readers the Libertarian party is the third largest political party in the U.S. Don’t let that lofty (but accurate) claim fool you. The Democrat and Republican Party dwarf Libertarians, it’s like comparing Jupiter to the other planets. None the less it’s a viable 3rd party and I have been a part of it for nearly 20 years now.

This post isn’t going to be a political piece. I’m not going to rail against dems, republicans etc. The purpose of this post is I was witness to a discussion on discord (yes I am a gamer) about how this individual wanted to adopt but was unable to get support from their family as they identify as Trans gender. It’s complicated, but it struck me as troubling. So I want to take the opportunity to give an alternative point of view, in my small platform.

Here is a link to the Libertarian Party. Here is a key part of the platform

1.4 Personal Relationships

“Sexual orientation, preference, gender, or gender identity should have no impact on the government’s treatment of individuals, such as in current marriage, child custody, adoption, immigration, or military service laws. Government does not have the authority to define, promote, license, or restrict personal relationships, regardless of the number of participants. Consenting adults should be free to choose their own sexual practices and personal relationships. Until such time as the government stops its illegitimate practice of marriage licensing, such licenses must be granted to all consenting adults who apply.”

“Consenting adults who observe the law and conduct themselves in a manner that is not harmful to others should be able to enjoy all the trappings of society. There should be no limitations on what consenting adults chose to do, assuming there are not underlying cognitive issues. Marriage licenses, adoption criteria… it’s all arbitrary based on assumed best practices and it unfairly denies others their pursuit of happiness.”

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We need laws to help govern and nurture desired social constructs. We don’t need laws that prohibit accesses to classes of citizens. It’s a very similar argument to homosexuals in the military. If you are a U.S. citizen and want to serve your country you should be afforded that privilege. “But that can cause problems in the ranks for hetro-sexual military members” that’s a fair observation but I would put forth that it is they who have the problem. Meaning if the homosexual is not using or making their sexuality an issue what’s the problem?

Libertarians aren’t perfect. We assume, sometimes foolishly that the rights of the individual are paramount as we assume individuals are equipped to make behavior choices that don’t negatively impact other people. If someone is uncomfortable with a transgender parent that’s a separate issue entirely. We simply can’t be held accountable for every emotion someone else has based on our conduct. Egregious and ridiculous conduct? Okay fine.

Is raising a child as a transgender egregious conduct? I guess it would depend on your point of view. The issue here isn’t that the transgender is behaving poorly or not, it’s the notion that they are given obstacles to get by PRIOR to having the opportunity to display a good or bad outcome. Essentially that’s what libertarianism is, you aren’t penalized for what you might do, or how you make other people feel. You are penalized, or rewarded based on how you act and those actions outcomes.

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A brief indulgence on politics

Posted on by Karac Avalron

I don’t normally wade into politics on this blog, for a good reason. Many people get very ugly very fast when you don’t agree with their point of view. Otherwise reasonable people lose their poop over politics, they become very unkind and have citations of “well they do this” or “he says that” as if the rest of us are supposed to believe that two wrongs make a right. Mini rant over…

AS some of you may or may not know I am a libertarian. I have voted libertarian nearly exclusively since the late 90’s. In the U.S. we have two dominate political parties and it is my belief that a 3rd viable party will help reign in some of the partisanship and angst we see year after year.

It just so happens that I do identify pretty closely with libertarian ideals as well. You can read about those here if you are interested. Last week the Libertarian Party nominated its candidate for president, her name is Dr. Jo Jorgensen. You can read more about her here

I think its great news that she has gotten the nomination. She has been in the front lines of the libertarian party for a long time and has definitely earned it. Much will be made by the fact she is a woman and while that is absolutely noteworthy, more should be made of the fact she is qualified to hold the office. Many Libertarians like myself are very realistic about the prospects of our party.

We understand the two dominate parties have built massive entertainment and news industries around the political process to support their agenda. Places like CNN and FOX news are mouth pieces for politicians. While that might be cynical to say, it’s imperative to look at politics with a critical eye. Politics is a road to power and power corrupts.

I understand the likelihood of Jo winning the presidency is nearly zero. That doesn’t mean that she can’t garner enough support to impact the U.S. political scene. 5-10% of the vote would do that. You would have a lot of news outlets cover this, and they would all be asking why. Voters in the U.S. are tired of “Democrat vs Republican” it’s been this way for decades and decades.

We just want politicians who will do a good job and get things done. Is Jo Jorgensen the answer? I don’t know, I do know that if we keep doing the same thing over and over again (voting democrat or republican) and expect a different result we are fools. In the end the most important thing we have to do as Americans is vote. November will be here before you know it, no one vote is inconsequential, your vote matters. Consider an alternative approach, maybe we will get a different outcome other than the tired status quo.