On the contrary, range voting is used to elect the Secretary General of the U.N.

Proportional Representation is used in several countries (Israel, Italy, Australia, etc.)

Instant Runoff Voting is used in Australia and Ireland, and various U.S. cities like my home of San Francisco.

It’s an invitation to Green Party insiders to take their scissors to either of two green-libertarian documents (the Free Earth Manifesto and the Democratic Freedom Caucus platform) and see how little they would have to delete to make the remainder supportable. I’m confident that the remainder would still be a bold and powerful statement for human liberty and ecological wisdom.

Any takers?

Here is my portal for green libertarianism:

First the existing, usually troubled, traffic flow is greatly disrupted by the new construction. Even minor stuff like painting bus lanes on existing paving is a major hassle for every day folks, existing transit commuters and [so called] transit planners.

I live near the world famous San Diego Zoo, ah, er, the world famous [San Diego Metro] Ti Jania Trolley. Most of the stops and road crossings are at grade level.

Just think of the savings [time, congestion, gasoline, ware and tear ....] that the last four decades could bring with ditch or elevated crossings. Just like water piping of the era: disaster waiting to happen, planned counter productiveness.

It has been said many times: a transit planner is a train driver with a college degree whom drives a non passenger private automobile to work!

The only reliable transit that I can conceive of in most situations is FREE [pre paid] bus rides on a on going short term [every ten, ffteen, twenty minutes] basis. Miss one? Wait a reasonable amount of time for the next!

I have found that veterans programs, transit, construction is often not about serving the public but merely creating jobs for the constituent communities.

Selling ‘The Envionmental Issue’ ???? Pollution control maybe …. Global Warming ????? A done deal since the 1960s! [I chatted with Roger Revell personally on more than one occation.]

Ya can’t stop an avalanche in the middle of the snow crush. How bad is the run away green house affect ?????

Temperatures climb in the middle of a mini ice age! Ya got beach front property ?????? Sell it to some rube —– quickly!

It is rather obvious that people don’t really want to be on the dole and that it is the barriers erected by the government that help keep people poor.

If we improve urban transit we can reduce poverty and the social problems that go with it. Those steps will eventually save us tax dollars and reduce a number of government programs in everything from welfare to the courts.

The environmental issue just became icing on the cake. Now if I could just sell the idea to others.

I just took a really big dump.”

Thx for caring and sharing. Fifteen seconds of my life that I will never get back again. I am sure that the Democans and Republicrats appreciated y0ur diversion ……….

This part of your comment gets at a number of interesting issues: there are without doubt illogical, tiresome and tedious aspects to all political activism and advocacy. For instance, every election season brings media speculation about the “possibility of a third party”, virtually every day there are calls to “start a third party,” as if alternative parties don’t already exist and run candidates across the country! Such calls indicate that consciousness of third party and independent activism is quite low, and so, for many people it IS a new idea when it occurs to them that the two-party system is essentially rigged and they call for “a third party”.

In a way, this means that every day you have to kind of start from the beginning, and this really isn’t any different from a lot of political organizing. Giving examples of x,y,z already having been done, especially with someone who maintains that it is nearly impossible, can be very persuasive. A weird thing about having to repeat yourself online is that you feel like you’re a broken record, but the information is still new in a way. I was not aware of the Green/Libertarian work in Suffolk and I’m a regular reader here at at Wilderside. Anyway . . .

I agree.

@30

I already said it makes sense to work together on issues like Ballot Access, so I’m not sure why you’re arguing the point.

I have said this before:

In NY, when the Green Party candidate for Governor was Stanley Aronowitz, Jennifer Daniels was elected by the State Committee to be the Lt. Governor candidate. There was enough common ground to make some joint literature. And, at one point the same year, Jennifer was a speaker at the Libertarian convention.

I did not love the situation at the time. But, it happened.

Also, here in Suffolk County, the Green Party and Libertarian activists intermingle all the time. And, we often offer each other support in various ways. Myself and avid Green John Keenan have been invited guests to some Libertarian get together panels. Since there was not green candidate running for countywide office, and the Dems/Reps at the BOE kicked the Libertarians off, I supported writing in the Libertarians, and I wrote in for one myself. (I picked Treasurer, because I thought we would have the least ideological differences.)

I think this conversation would move forward so much better if we acknowledged what already happened. And, maybe discussed THE BEST WAYS for the Greens and Libertarians to coalition. And, maybe our personal feelings on it.

But, pretending it is a NEW IDEA is illogical and tiresome.

And, arguing IF IT CAN HAPPEN – when it has already happened – is an equally tedious discussion.

Thanks,
Kimberly Wilder

That is probably true but some Libertarians have been active in solving the problem even if they don’t put much faith in it.

We have been advocates for opening the urban transit market. And it has been suggested by some that by doing just that and providing the public with alternatives that we could reduce urban air pollution by 30% or more. One group puts the reduction at 50 to 75%. This will also slow the growth of roads and help protect streams and wetlands, improve job opportunities, educational opportunites and just possibly reduce the social problems related to poverty.

In Curitiba, Brazil which has one of the world’s best transit systems the ambient air pollution is 30% less than similar cities and the transit system is made up of a number of private companies, about 13, that are overseen by a government agency. For the most part it is an unsubsidized system. Certainly it is not a perfect libertarian system but it is a step in that direction.

Here’s part of the problem. About 1915 jitneys, which were private cars, started to appear on the city streets of America and pick up people going to and from work for a small fare, usually a nickle. Of course they competed with the streetcars and the streetcar companies managed over time to get the jitney’s outlawed. By about 1925 most of the jitneys had been outlawed.

Over the years regulation of private urban transit has increased so that today it is difficult if not impossible to own an operate a private urban transit company. As a result people had to buy their own vehicles since they basically had no other alternative in most cases.

This is a rather simplified version of a long issue.

I think electoral reform and anti-corporatism (corporatocracy) are the two biggest issues that the parties could possibly unite behind, to a certain extent.

That is indeed a difference. But since Democrats don’t support single payer and Republicans don’t support the market system, neither of those options is on the table in the current health care “debate,” and so the point is moot. It does, however, point toward the underlying philosophical differences between the Green and Libertarian outlooks. Again, though, this should not preclude strategic efforts to undermine the duopoly charade, which is in the interests of both Greens and Libertarians.