I want to thank the Grassroots Party for endorsing me for Secretary of State, and I am proud to have their endorsement. I used to be a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, way back before it became politically correct and stopped worrying so much about the First Amendment. When I went to the Grassroots Pary Convention I came away with the feeling that this was the party that was really standing up for an individual's freedom to live their life the way they want to. I applaud the Grassroots Party for that.
I am running for Secretary of State on the Reform Party ticket. But I am proud that members of other alternative parties are supporting my candidacy. One reason is that I am promoting some changes in our election laws so that third parties have a level playing field to compete with the Democrats and Republicans. Right now the system is slanted towards career politicians and special interest groups. New ideas need not apply.
The Secretary of State oversees elections in the State. The main idea I am proposing is the Instant Runoff Ballot, or Preference Ballot, that would let voters can rank their choices, 1, 2, 3. That way if there are three or four candidates in a race you can send a clearer message, and you can vote for a third party candidate and not worry about wasting your vote.
This year we have a good example of how it would work in the Governor's race. Besides the Democrat and Republican we have several third party candidates, like Chris Wright here of the Grassroots Party and Jesse Ventura of my Reform Party. Voters shouldn't have to pick one and pretend that all the others are equally unacceptable. Why not rank your choices.
But the Democrats and Republicans won't like the preference ballot. They are not interested in you voting your preferences. They want to corral you into the two party system. They do it by saying you have one shot, and you better vote for one of their candidates, for one of the so-called electable evils, otherwise you are wasting your vote. That's how they browbeat dissatisfied voters into endorsing the two party system.
I have a feeling that most of you won't play into their game. Many people vote for a third party candidate regardless of who might win. That it's a wasted vote if you vote for someone you don't like. But the Democrats and Republicans are counting on a lot of other voters to keep playing the two party game. My Preference Ballot would expose the show, because then we would see how people really felt.
While I am here I also want to voice my support for legalization of marijuana. I used to smoke it and I want to smoke it again. Several politicians are now favoring legalization for medicinal purposes. That's pretty logical. It would be the medicine or pain-reliever of choice for many sufferers from cancer, AIDs, and glaucoma. If our politicians were as humane as they want you to think they are, then legalization would be a no-brainer. Just Do It. But instead they are waging a war on grass. We see Minnesotans picked up with gardening tools and having their homes searched for joints. And our federal government fighting the people of California and the City of Oakland over whether they can decide for themselves what medicines they can use. The feds taking on the State of California! Do they want to start another Civil War, this time over grass!
So of course I am for legalization for medicinal purposes. But I also want it legalized for recreational purposes. I want to use it again. I stopped when I moved back to MN in 1978--that's 20 years without pot--because I was going to work for State Government. That's me. I usually follow rules; I hope that that will give me the chance to help change them.
We need a change. We have too many people crowding our prisons, too many civil forfeitures, too many high school students losing faith in their parents and teachers because of the disconnect between what they are told and what they have experienced themselves.
Now I don't approve of marijuana for high school students, just as I don't approve of alcohol for under 18 year olds. Sorry! But grass should be legal for adults, regulated, and taxed. A total prohibition is bonkers.
But the marijuana prohibition is only one example of government overreach. We have too many laws protecting us from ourselves. We have a government that assumes we are too dumb, weak, greedy, or bad to be able to make our own decisions.
That's one reason I hope you will be voting for and helping third party candidates. For the reason of freedom--freedom from hypocrisy, freedom from career politicians and special interests, freedom to make your own choices.
I used to be a Democrat, and one of our standard accusations was that the Republicans were socially intolerant. They wanted to push their moral conservative agendas. Now I have nothing against moral behavior, and in fact consider myself a very moral person. I believe we should be respectful of other people, be trustworthy, responsible, humane. But obviously different people have different interpretations of what is moral and what is not. The world is a complicated place and tough decisions are always coming down the road that sincere, honest, moral people can disagree on.
One of the beauties of our nation is its diversity and its goal of mutual tolerance. But we have a problem today. Too many people are imposing their personal moralities onto the public. Like I say, I used to think it was just the Republicans who were guilty of this. With their: No abortion choice for women; closets and persecution for gays and lesbians; a ban on assisted suicide; a desire to use tax dollars to promote religion.
But then the Democrats got into the act. They developed their own moral agendas. Political correctness in all its guises. Hate speech codes and sexual harassment standards that gave veto power and legal standing to the most sensitive and most naive member of a classroom or a workplace. The imposition of upper middle class white liberal standards of child discipline onto other cultures, including recent immigrant cultures. Virtual persecution of smokers--and I'm just talking about tobacco smokers! Demonization and political marginalization of a class of citizens by calling them "angry white males," because they disagree with the conventional wisdom of the liberals. (I am convinced that talk radio gained popularity because many citizens felt that the media ignored or sneered at their lives and their concerns. They weren't being represented by the editorial pages or public radio or public TV so they found another outlet.)
Anyway, the conservative and liberal politicians had that in common. They wanted to tell you how to live your life. Now I agree that some government is necessary. But things have gotten out of hand. I should have seen it coming. I was called for jury duty in Madison WI, about 30 years ago. It was a motor cycle helmet case. I remember that the defendant, who was an outspoken lawyer in town, pleading his own case, admitting that he didn't wear a helmet. He liked to ride with the wind in his hair. I have never forgotten what he said. He said, If the Government can tell you that you have to wear a helmet, for your own good and your family's good, where does it stop. Can they then start telling you that you have to carry an umbrella when it might rain, or that you have to take a vitamin pill every morning.
A guy in my party jokes that the Democrats want to be your Mommy and the Republicans want to be your Daddy. He has a point.
There is one trend the moralistic Republicans and the Politically Correct Democrats have both backed. It is the increasing power of the government to decide how you should live your life. They may not agree on what rules to impose, but they both want to make too many. Once you give broad powers to a government to regulate personal behavior you may get the inconsistencies and overreach. Inconsistencies like saying booze, tobacco and Prozac is OK, but grass is bad. Or that Polish jokes or Ole and Lena jokes are OK, but that women jokes or sex jokes or African American jokes are not.
I am not saying I approve of stereotyping or offensive behavior. Just that government should bud out. We need to reassert what is private and what is public. We have to shrink government involvement in all the nooks and crannies of our personal lives and work lives.
I recognize a role for government. I recognize there are difficult issues and public interest even in the private zone. But I think our mind set has gone too far towards using government to right every wrong, remove every danger, make everyone whole, make everyone feel comfortable. We need to move back towards freedom, we must find a new balance point.
I don't think the moralist Republicans or the politically correct Democrats can do that. And the minimal government Libertarians won't find a balance. I hope that a mix of third parties can help point the way back to individual choice, so you have the freedom to decide for yourselves.
Thanks again to the Grassroots Party for its endorsement, and for giving me this opportunity to speak. I hope you will vote for me, Alan Shilepsky, for Secretary of State, and support my idea for a preference ballot to let voters rank their choices.
Together we can make Minnesota safe for third parties, for new ideas, and for individual choice.
Thank you.
115 Hennepin Ave., Minnepolis, MN 55401 (612) 333-5181
Webmaster for this site