Libertarian Party of San Francisco News

    It's kind of amazing that something so central to many of the issues we see and read and hear about in the news every day, something on which billions of dollars and countless hours of scheming by political "professionals" are expended every year, continues to be so widely misunderstood. Yes, that description can be applied to government itself, but here I'm simply talking about voting.

Could a man raised in the densest Democratic county in America and now living in the bluest city in the country end up becoming Libertarians’ best chance to get a real freedom-loving politician into San Francisco City Hall?  Unlikely as it seems, yes, it’s actually possible this November. The lone Republican candidate for District 2 Supervisor, John Dennis is waging an enthusiastic campaign this fall to get a seat at the table. District 2, which covers primarily the Marina District, Pacific Heights, and Cow Hollow, is undeniably the wealthiest district in The City and probably the most conservative.

    In my dialogues with defenders of statism, online and off, I routinely encounter people – usually though not always on the political right – who express feelings of anger, disgust, contempt, etc., toward those whom they characterize with terms like "lazy", "bums", "freeloaders", "parasites", "anti-social", "welfare queens", "druggies", "illegals", "junkies", "leeches", "the homeless", "non-productive members of society", etc. Most of the criticisms seem to boil down to resentment that the people who are the objects of their ire are in some way being assisted or provided for by government at the expense of others.

Since outright taxation, even for statists, has its limitations, bond measures have become the preferred method for politicians and vested interests to increase government spending, especially here in California. Since California voters passed Prop 39 in 2000 lowering the threshold for passage from 2/3 to 55% for school bonds, the approval rate for such bonds has soared to 80%. A report from the Little Hoover Commission, a “good government” independent state oversight agency, in 2009 pointed out the increasing problem of more and more long-term debt being approved both statewide and locally. It revisited the issue last year as the problem seems to have worsened as few of their recommendations from 2009 were adopted.