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Queens Libertarians

Libertarian News, Views, Discussion and Advocacy from Queens County, New York

News

Schoenberg On the Presidents

Here is the revised text of the talk presented by Dr. Philip Schoenberg at the QL March meeting, on his perspective about the various US Presidents’ impact on Liberty.

US Presidents–Who did the Most and the Least to Advance Liberty? © 2024 by Philip Ernest Schoenberg, PhD

Explain how a president should advance, promote, and protect liberty?

Rank choices from one the best to twelve the worst and explain why in a single sentence..

Who do you think is the best president in terms of liberty and why?

Who do you think is the worst president in terms of liberty and why?

___ A. George Washington (1789-1797)—role model of a leader who served for a period of time and then stepped down. He was greater than the nation when he became president but thanks to his efforts, the nation had become greater than him. He set up the federal government in operation. In private, he railed against what he felt was unfair criticism by the press but refrained from shutting down his critics. Unlike so many Latin American “liberators,” Washington did not become a dictator and stepped down to resume his life as a private citizen. On the other hand, President Washington pushed the Indians westward. George Washington could have set an example by freeing the 150 slaves he owned while he was president instead of telling his wife to free them when she died. She did not wait to avoid giving into temptation to end her life… Read the rest.

 

Appeals Court Rules In Favor of Over-Prosecuted Jan 6 Protestors

Glenn Greenwald reviews the case of the 800+ non-violent January 6 protestors and their persecution by the swamp. Recently the jailing and demonization of the dissenters has even extended to journalists who covered the events sympathetically:

 

Which Presidents Helped or Hurt Liberty?

Join Queens Libertarians (in its topical event for LPQC) on March 9 at noon. Dr. Phil Schoenberg will lead an open discussion on the topic of “US Presidents—Who Did the Most and the Least to Advance Liberty?,” an informative presentation by a Presidential Expert, belatedly in honor of Presidents’ Day (topic was delayed from last month).  Discussion will be held at our Woodside location at Donovan’s Pub on 57-24 Roosevelt Ave, in the family room area.  This talk will follow the monthly business session, covering Queens LP housekeeping and subcommittee updates.

Details and Directions

Post-County Convention Notes: The current officers of the LPQC executive committee were re-elected to serve in 2024. The office of Secretary is still open (until filled, LPQC/QL may elect to use online summaries or video recordings to act as a “virtual Secretary” to cover its events). Vice Chair Francisco Olvera will be exploring upgrading the QL website over the next few months, including perhaps merging it with the LP Queens site.

This site has updated the Join/Renew and donation page to reflect updated options to pay (such as Paypal and Venmo). The History page has also just been updated to include a note about this being the 30th year of LPQC’s operation. And Dr. Phil Schoenberg is belatedly noted as local Libertarian winner of the 2023 Thomas Stevens Award (as announced at the January meeting).

 

US Senate Candidate in NYC Sunday

As recommended by Daniel Donnelly, LPNY State Committee Elected Representative:

Diane Sare, running for U.S. Senate, appears in Manhattan on Sunday, February 18th, 10am at the International Presidents Day Conference. As you may remember, Sare courted the Libertarian Party of New York for cross-endorsement and was rejected but got on statewide ballot nonetheless in 2022. She is the LaRouche Independent candidate with some positions compatible with Libertarian principles, such as opposition to military adventurism which has characterized much of U.S. foreign policy since the 1950s.

Though I may not agree with Sare on all her stances, her candidacy appeals to me much more than re-electing Kirsten Gillibrand. To that end, I invite you to join me at this event, to hear out Diane Sare, who will be taking questions.

Tickets are $25 per attendee. For security concerns, venue will be disclosed to ticketholders closer to the event’s date/time. I hope to see you there!

https://www.sareforsenate.com/presidents_day_conference

LPQC Holds 2024 Convention and Winter General Meeting February 10

Join us for QL’s 2024 county convention as the Libertarian Party of Queens County (LPQC) on February 10 at noon. Discussion will be held at our Woodside location at Donovan’s Pub on 57-24 Roosevelt Ave, in the family room area. This official LP county committee function will serve as our full general meeting, where officers will be nominated or re-nominated, and committee or subcommittee members are to be appointed. Members are reminded to pay $20 to LPQC by, or during the proceedings in order to vote.

Dr. Phil Schoenberg will also speak, in the topical section, on US presidents—who did the most and the least to advance liberty? An open discussion will follow, concerning ballot access in New York, and about recent controversies with the LNC and LPNY going into the spring national convention (plus remarks by one or more local LP candidates (tentative) in the speaker/topical section). In this session members will again be offered to serve as LPQC officers (such as Secretary), and as key persons or “team members” for the following positions: media contact, membership/fundraising, candidate/activist outreach, youth/campus outreach, community/business outreach. Please attend, and volunteer to help in one of these areas!  Details and Directions

 

YOU Can Help in Downballot Petitioning for LPNY Candidates

LPNY Secretary Braiman has a message for new (or renewing) LPNY members seeking to enable the party to obtain statewide ballot status this year, while assisting local candidates at the same time. A few prospective candidates may attend the LPQC Convention on February 10, come to Donovan’s Pub and meet them!:

Mark Braiman, Secretary

secretary@lpny.org

We Need Your Help as a Co-Petitioning Downballot Candidate

Libertarian Party of New York (LPNY) member:

I am writing you as a member of a recently-formed LPNY committee planning to get Libertarian candidates onto New York’s ballot for the November 2024 election. This includes a “stand-in” Libertarian candidate for the U.S. Presidency.

Why just a “stand-in”? Due to New York’s onerous and complicated petitioning rules, along with the National Libertarian Party’s nomination rules, we need to collect well over 45,000 signatures statewide during a 6-week period that ends Memorial Day weekend, the same weekend the Libertarian National Convention will be underway in Washington, D.C. to choose a national candidate for President. You can help us achieve this challenging task if you volunteer to collect signatures.

You can be of special help, if you collect signatures as a Libertarian candidate yourself, for a downballot race. New York’s Election Law makes a lot of things about petitioning hard, but one provision makes things easier. Certain downballot candidates can appear on the same Independent Nominating Petition sheet as the Presidential candidate. So a single signature counts for all candidates on that sheet, as long as the downballot candidate is running in a district that includes multiple counties, at least one of which must be outside New York City.

Running in a multi-county district for Congress, State Senate, or Assembly can all work. Here are the districts that qualify:

Assembly Districts (42 in all): 9-11, 94-95, 98-104, 106-108,110-118,120-122, 124-127, 130-133,139-140, 144-145,147-148, 150

State Senate Districts (20 in all): 8, 34, 36, 39-41, 43-46, 48-54, 57-58, 62.

Congressional Districts (13 in all): 2,3, and 16-26

I did such co-petitioning in service to Larry Sharpe’s gubernatorial candidacy in 2018, as a candidate in NY’s 53rd State Senate district. I was personally able to collect over 500 signatures, plus a few more collected by some close friends. This was not enough to get me on the November ballot, but it helped get Larry there, where he won enough votes to gain us (temporarily) official party status in New York.

Let me tell you, it’s much easier to walk up to a voter and say “I’m running for office for the first time. Please help me get on the ballot as a third-party candidate,” rather than “Please help us reserve a spot on the ballot for a different guy”. Especially “an unnamed Libertarian Presidential candidate who we won’t choose until a few days or weeks from now”. The voter sees a friendly face, and can ask you questions about yourself. A good 50% of the time, the voter will be happy just to get a new choice on the ballot. Especially this year.

We are initially prioritizing candidates for Assembly, at least for Upstate areas. The number of signatures required to actually get on the ballot is only 1,500, much smaller than for State Senate (3,000) or Congress (3,500). We are particularly interested in young candidates, since voters are especially open to helping young petitioners with their first run for office. Candidates for Assembly (or State Senate) only need to be 18, whereas Congressional candidates must be 25. And there is a chance that due to a court case, Congressional districts will not be finalized until very close to the petitioning period in April, or even later.

Voters are not as demanding of qualifications and detailed positions—as long as the office is a “starter” office like Assembly. And finally, for the April-May petition period, young candidates collecting signatures are likely to be more welcome on busy community-college and state college campuses.

Even if you don’t think getting yourself onto the November ballot is a likelihood, we hope that you will view putting your name on a shared petition so you can reap voter signatures as a desirable strategy. PLEASE consider this if your goal is to see someone on the Presidential ballot in NY not named Biden or Trump.

However you envision your goals, and whatever your age, we will work on helping all such candidates coordinate with each other on issues and petitioning strategies. We already have one smart and eager Assembly candidate from the 107th district covering parts of Rensselaer and surrounding counties, 21-year-old Evan Lebrecht who just announced on his Facebook page.

Having heard the possibilities, won’t you please email me back at secretary@lpny.org, and let me know as soon as possible (but in no case later than March 30) that you would consider putting yourself out there to help with this petitioning strategy. We need to know by then, so that we can design and print the petition forms with your name and statewide candidates on them. Getting those forms designed correctly is the most important way we in the Libertarian Party of New York can help you to help us.

Call to Action: Who else would you want to be on your ballot?

Even if you can’t possibly envision yourself as a petitioning candidate, please pass this email on to a friend you think might be interested!

JOIN OUR FIGHT FOR LIBERTY IN NYS.

Please click below to join the LPNY today, and learn how you can help to get Libertarian candidates on the ballot in 2024.

JOIN LPNY

 

Has COVID Been Our Biggest Challenge?

Join Queens Libertarians (in its speaker event for LPQC) on January 13 at noon, in a meeting on the topic “Covid: The Greatest Challenge to Liberty and Reason.” Discussion will be held at our Woodside location at Donovan’s Pub on 57-24 Roosevelt Ave, in the family room area, and the presentation will be by Phillip Ernest Schoenberg, PhD. This discussion will follow the monthly business session, covering Queens LP housekeeping and subcommittee updates. NOTE: LPQC Chair John Clifton will be back for this meeting!

It’s been four years since Covid, the lockdowns and the mandates. What have we learned or realized? Is our response now any more reasoned or freedom-minded than it was then, have our eyes been opened, or will we fall again into mass conformity? Schoenberg will provide historical and logical background on the controversy. As he has stated in the past: “We should not scapegoat and demonize dissenters, or enjoy schadenfreude at the sad consequences of their actions or failures to take action…” Details and Directions