No, I am not talking about voting for Libertarians, who pretty much support the same kind of Laissez-Faire Capitalism that existed in the so-called Gilded Age. I, for one, WANT government support on issues that are important to me, such as green energy, feeding the hungry, protecting the environment, and ensuring that the Constitutional rights of an individualisprotected, no matter what skin color, sexual orientation, or religious preference he or she has. I support labor unions as well, which would be illegal under a Libertarian government. So what do us Democrats have in common with Libertarians, based on the LP platform? Not much at all, but there are a few issues we have in common.
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To be clear, I am not talking about how we can work with Libertarians during a normalelection cycle, but when elections are over, and other issues still need to be addressed, and proposals put on a special electionballot. Here are a few of those issues:
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1-Ending marijuana prohibition, and making marijuana legal for recreational use: The LP goes too far here when they recommend the legalization of all drugs. Fentanyl, tranq, and other hard core drugs are killers, and is proper for the government to ban them. However,I agree with the LP position on marijuana. Can we work with the LP to legalize it?
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2- Abolishing the death penalty: I am fully on board with this one, for obvious reasons. So is the LP.
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3- Ending the criminalizing of sexuality, and the marginalization of the LGBTQ community: First of all, even though I support LGBTQ rights, someones sexual identity is none of my damn business in the first place. People should be free to love each other without restrictions. The LP platform expresses the same sentiment. On this issue, we also have something in common.
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4- Maintaining separation between Church and State: Religion belongs in church, not schools. This is also part of the LP platform.
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5- End the banning of books in schools. While localgovernments rightly should make sure that no pornography, Playboy magazines, etc be on the shelves of grade schools, it is none of the governments business whether or not classics like the Diary of Anne Franke, Huckleberry Finn, and others shouldbe banned. Florida has gone way too far here. I am not sure whether the LP stands exactly where we do on this issue, there does appear to be an intersection of interests here.
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These are a few of the issues I have in mind, and there may be a couple of others that I have left out. So heres the question: Do we hold our noses and work with the LP on those few issues we have in common and, if so, how do we do it? The how is simple. To get a proposal on the ballot we need to get signatures. It would not be that hard to give some signature forms to the Libertarians, and let them collect some signatures too. Its called working across the aisle. Back in 1974, when I was a Republican (Im in a 12 step program for that LOL), I collected signatures in Detroit for Governor William Millikens property tax relief proposal. I ran into some Democrats who were collecting signatures for the decriminalization of marijuana. We exchanged some of our forms, andcollected signatures for each other on both issues. It was a win-win situation for both parties. Can there possibly exist a win-win situation here? Some Libertarians will reflexively say Hell no, but there are others who will hold their noses and work with us to collect those signatures. The question is are we willing toalso hold our noses, and reach out? Just something to think about. What say you?
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Go here to read the rest:
Is it possible to reach out to the Libertarians on a few issues? - Daily Kos
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