Florida Liberty!

Photo: Dr. Swanson, in his study surrounded by Florida lawbooks, says get to work.

Grand Old Man and crusty Libertarian leader Ralph Swanson has finished research on several potential Libertarian interest amendments to advance libertarian concepts while building the Libertarian-oriented contact list from the petition signers to build Libertarian interest and community. The research builds on a yet unpublished international platform designed by Libertarians Michael Gilson and Milton Friedman he helped oversee with the Advisory Board of the Libertarian International Organization. He stepped down to write his memoirs as the Board Chair earlier this year.

Please contact him directly courtesy the www.floridaliberty.uni.cc to make suggestions or join the informal group.

A PAC FOR CHANGE

A legislative PAC to focus on MMP, Medical Marihuana, Real Estate tax abolition, and  encouraging "Voluntary Cities" and enhanced localism is underway to carry out the plan. The PAC will focus initially on training and networking to promote volunteer petitioners and legislative understanding. "In Florida, when an initiative is making progress, legislators will often just go ahead and make it law." In addition, he says, structural changes such as allowing carbon-copy signatures of multiple petitions are being discussed with other groups.

Swanson is credited in the activist community for a project purging 50,000 laws from US lawbooks and  being a driving force behind both the very existence of the Florida Initiative, and Revision 11, and initiative which brought ballot fairness to Florida (earlier article below) and allowed third parties to function. He asl lso did work in the abolition of the income tax efforts and expanding the Homestead real estate exemption.

In Florida today, initiatives are approximately 75% with a favorable Libertarian rating or helped on by Libertarian activists by his estimate. To aid that process, the PAC will rate initiatives on Libertarian interest.

LIBERTARIANISM VIA DIRECT DEMOCRACY

These proposals include study of introducing a:

• 1% Differential MMP (mixed member proportional) proportional representation into Florida legislative elections (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6228676/) of 30 seats applicable to current election as was introduced successfuly by Libertarians in New Zealand, resulting in several legislative seats. MMP is like at-large or bonus seata by political party. With 16% of the legislative vote in the 2002 election, it would have meant Libertarians would have had 4 seats.
•  A proportional Electoral College representation by party vote for any State -wide office of over 3%  along the lines of States such as Maine;
• A policy to replace all taxation and create a guaranteed income  with voluntarily funded permanent fund endowments as Libertarians introduced in Alaska (see https://www.pfd.state.ak.us/) with doubling of public service salaries and a universal medical and first-home buyer benefit; an anti-corporate welfare measure;
• A policy for phase in of democratization (public non-governmental trusts) and privatization of public agencies;
• Restoration of 12 person, fully informed juries;
• A low-cost credit by examination or thesis college degree in Florida, similar to Excelsior College in New York or the University of London;
• A policy to reduce all ballot requirements to $25 or a petition of 1000 voters as is done in Virginia but with ballot recognition;
• A policy to allow local creation of exception and enterprise zones for any law not affecting minors under 16 or as emancipated by a court in any electoral prcinct among those in the precinct or invitees ("Nevada Rules");
• A policy promoting a private-enterprise spaceport (as in New Mexico);
• A policy allowing churches and cultural groups to set up non-profit mutual insurance for any purpose with minimal regulation;
• A policy removing Eminent Domain; 
• A policy creation or removal of red tape of a SafeEmbryo humane protection voluntarily-funded endowment to freeze and revive removed embryos along lines as as has long been advocated by Libertarians such as Michael Gilson and Walter Block;
• Legalization of extended civil unions of up to 6 people without regard to sex, along lines advocated by Robert Heinlein;
• Legalization of gay status;
• Expansion of the recent legislation harboring insurance co-ops by religious groups to simplify "the major block to true free enterprise: the ambiguous legal status of co-operatives"
• A medical marihuana initiative;
• Universal drug decriminalization with lay volunteer community boards to mentor addicts as has been working in Portugal;
• A policy of ending punishments, large fines, and forfeitures to effect public policy of rehabilitation: ending the death penalty, abolishing prisons, and replacing with aggressive rehabilitation in 5 years as is underway in Spain and Norway;
• Allow e-signing of all proposed Constitutional Amendments at the SOE site, and carbon copy signatures of multiple petitions.

Swanson has done surveys discovering that these ideas enjoy at least 15% support and many majority support. He has been talking to legislators and feels that by even seeking these Amendments, legislators will in many cases take direct action. In addition, he feels the effort will also advance the Libertarian agenda by example nationwide. His plan is after further consultations to create a PAC to advance the Amendments and develop coalitions, a website to attract petitioners and supporters,  and also promote public discussion and information on the agenda.

A LONG CAREER

Swanson, a retired engineering consultant who has a Doctorate in Religion and an MBA, has been active in Libertarian causes for decades, at one point reviving the State GOP in the 1940's after "a vicious internal struggle" into a Civil Rights defender. He feels this will prove the capstone in a career where he counted as friends John Kennedy, Boris Yeltsin, Ronald Reagan, and Martin Luther King and helped them find "their inner Libertarian," he laughs.

He also feels this will greatly increase Libertarian supporters and consitituency."It will kill three birds with one stone: develop a constituency, drive change, and help candidates build networks to win or become centers of activism."

"We've spent the last few years building a base,  demonstration projects,  and essential political skills. We can get amendments passed against tough opposition. We get people elected. We get calls for Libertarians to be appointed from even Republicans and Democrats. The Governor asks us for policy backgrounders.We rallied people and put Civil Unions on the map. We led or assisted campaigns that reduced taxes, created the Amendment by initiative process in the first place, a stable homestead exemption, stopped abuse of juveniles in the reform schools with the PAR program, and more. I  suggest that our candidates leverage their efforts in 2010 and 2012 and go out there with these Amendments along with their petitions to run. Time to push for major change. No more, yes, we can. Yes, we will," said Swanson, who also co-founded the Florida movement.

"How will this go? In 1970 even the gays though Libertarians were nuts talking about Civil Unions. Yet here we are," he says.