[EM] Josh: Set aside political differences

[Narins, Josh]

I can't have anything to do with Richard Mellon Scaife, because I believe he
is trying to destroy the country.

Richard Mellon Scaife (and his cohorts, Olin/Bradley/Coors/Koch) have, for
all intents and purposes, co-opted national Libertarianism through the Cato
Institute.

Maybe their are drunkard, murderous billionaires behind the Greens and
Democrats, I just haven't heard of them. Ted Kennedy probably sprang to
mind, but that's a very stupid comparison, to the best of my knowledge.

If any of the "contributions" I make to election-methods-list get used to
spring Mr. Hager to victory in Indiana, more power to him. 

I can't endorse him, nor contribute financially.

Am I going to fight him? I don't even live in Indiana. I'm not even sure
that, if elected, Mr. Hager COULD move Indiana to AV or anything better that
FPTP. I'm not sure the State Legislature will want to pay for even the
education required to "advance" the voters with the method.

In my state, my Rep and Senator will hear about Condorcet and AV from me. 

I will help, if I can, write pro-Condorcet and AV (and even IRV) promotional
material.

Again, I don't even live in Indiana.

-----Original Message-----
From: MIKE OSSIPOFF [mailto:nkklrp at hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 12:09 AM
To: election-methods-list at eskimo.com
Subject: [EM] Josh: Set aside political differences



Josh--

Do you think it would make sense for each small party and each
political persuasion to have its own electoral reform movement, all
working unco-operatively in parallel? Every electoral reform advocate
that I've known or heard of understands that electoral reformers
will have to work together, and put aside their party differences.

Whom you would or wouldn't endorse is your business. But, for what
our endorsement is worth, EM's Approval project should endorse, and
try to raise contributions for, Hager.

Look at it this way, Josh: Let's get a better voting system, and then
you can duke it out with the Libertarians in the election campaigns.
First better electoral democracy, and then let the people decide which
party they like. But right now, doing what we can for a better voting
system is a lot more important than interparty bickering.

Josh said:

Re: "breaking the duopoly"
Actually, one could argue that Approval will ENTRENCH the duopoly, just let
the 10% who want to mention a third party do so. In this sense of Approval
Voting, you might see Democrats getting a sense of their total Green vs.
Labor support, and Republicans getting an idea whether it's Libertarians or
Christians who support them.

I reply:

It isn't entirely clear how you're saying Approval entrenches the
monopoly-that-calls-itself-a-duopoly. By making it possible, for the 1st
time,  for everyone
to feel able to vote for their favorite, so that the election results
accurately reflect support for parties & candidates? Or by making
it take twice as many mistaken compromisers to give away an election,
as compared with Plurality or IRV?

Mike Ossipoff



[as an aside, how does Approval handle multiple endorsements? Say, I'm
Democratic Line in New York county and Green Line in upstate. It's trivial?]

Do not say that there is no reason to go to Approval UNLESS you support
third parties, please :)

re: "hyper-focused report on a specific reform has a much
better chance of garnering press attention."

As long as it doesn't get "hyper-technical," sure.
<glances in Ossipoff's direction>
Give the reporter some URLs at least, so they can look into things further
if it interests them, for all angles, not just history.

RE: "HAGER in 2002"


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