[EM] Who Are We?

[wclark at xoom.org]

Brian Olsen wrote:

> I was prodded to be curious about the question of "Who are the people on
> the EM list?" Are we academics? Hobbyists? Politicians?

I have a BA in Philosophy from Rutgers University.  I have several day
jobs, including substitute teaching, tutoring, and technical consulting.

I've never voted in a US Presidential election because (barring overriding
concerns) I don't believe in productively participating in (and thus
validating) a system I find to be fundamentally flawed.  (See Hank
Reardon's court speech in _Atlas Shrugged_ for a glimpse of my
inspiration... though I'm *not* an Objectivist.)  I'm voting for Nader
(despite the fact that I dislike him) in November, with the hope that he
costs Kerry the election and thus makes the Spoiler Effect (and by
association, election system reform) the number one campaign issue for the
Democrats, going forward.  I don't like Bush... but I'm willing to put up
with four more years of him, if it means election reform will be
significantly more likely.

I'm sympathetic to Libertarian causes, although in general I'm opposed to
political parties.

I grew up on the East coast of the US (mostly New Jersey) but have lived
and worked throughout the country, including a stint in San Francisco
during the dot-com boom years.  I'm currently living back in NJ again.

My introduction to election system reform was through the IRV camp (about
four years ago) although I stopped being a supporter of IRV shortly
thereafter (bascially as soon as I learned about other methods.)  I'm
particularly sensitive about attacks on IRV because my first encounter
with Condorcet supporters was so unpleasant that I can almost understand
why some IRV advocates refuse to consider alternatives.  Fortunately, I
ignored the insults and vitriol long enough to conduct my own research and
came to my own conclusions.

I also like cheese (and parenthetical comments.)

-Bill Clark

-- 
Protest the 2-Party Duopoly:
http://votenader.org/