Students for Liberty has taken on the amazing task of organizing seven regional conferences this fall. The conferences bring different types of liberty-loving students together to hear from prominent speakers — many of whom are affiliated with the Republican Liberty Caucus.

This year’s regional conferences have occurred, thus far, in New York, Chicago, Phoenix/Tempe, and Austin. The RLC conducted outreach at three of the four seminars and had official speakers at two out of the four seminars.

I previously reported on the outreach at the first conference, which occurred on October 10. Two RLC supporters helped us table at that event, and two RLC representatives spoke. The most notable of the speakers was former National Board member Dr. Murray Sabrin, who was a contender for U.S. Senate in 2008. Additionally, RLC Northeast Regional Director Dan Halloran addressed the crowd. Dan is running an impressive campaign for New York City Council in a district that trends more conservative than most in the city.

Above: Students at the Chicago Conference weigh the issues.

On October 17 in Chicago, students heard from two RLC representatives: former Michigan State Representative Leon Drolet and former Wisconsin State Representative Terri McCormick (photos below).

Leon participated in a debate with Isaac Moorehouse about how liberty-oriented people can achieve our goals.  Leon argued for the RLC strategy.  Terri McCormick gave a presentation about the political elite versus the grassroots, arguing that now is the time we take our country back for liberty.

On October 24, RLC members conducted outreach at two Students for Liberty Conferences: the Texas SFL conference in Austin and the Southern SFL conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Rising young star and RLC supporter Jared Fuller organized the Winston-Salem conference, and North Carolina RLC members Gloria Lloyd and Dana Mazer tabled for the Republican Liberty Caucus at the conference.  Former Congressional candidate and North Carolina RLC Board member B.J. Lawson was among the featured speakers.  Dr. Lawson gave a speech called “The Economy, Monty Python, and You”:

Meanwhile, RLC National Chair Dave Nalle and Bexar County (Texas) RLC Membership Chair Nadia Gaona reached out at the Texas SFL conference.

Dave observed a general trend that we continue to see to in our small-but-growing movement, noting that “the long-time libertarian activists [in the] audience were eager to stand up and talk proudly about their token political campaigns where they spent no money but got their name mentioned in the local newspaper when they won 3% of the vote.”

Says Dave, “It’s heartening to see the growth of interest in liberty and bringing our government under control, but it’s enormously frustrating to see so much of this enthusiasm misdirected into the political dead end and do-nothingism which still characterizes the Libertarian Party. The truth is that the pissed-off non-intellectuals of the Tea Party movement who come to libertarianism out of expediency rather than intellect have already accomplished more real political change in a year than the Libertarian Party has accomplished in more than 30 years.”

All complaints aside, these events have proven tremendously beneficial to the movement and the RLC has been able to capitalize on the opportunity to reach new young people with our strategy for victory.

The next RLC outreach booths at Students for Liberty Conferences will occur on November 7, when members will conduct outreach at the Philadelphia and Boston Students for Liberty Conferences.  Prospective RLC endorsee, 2010 U.S. Senate candidate from Connecticut Peter Schiff will be speaking at the Boston conference.  Schiff has previously explained the RLC strategy in a poignant way.

We look forward to reaching additional students at these conferences and thank the Students for Liberty for continuing to host these tremendous regional events. Thanks, too, to all of the RLC representatives and volunteers who have helped us at the conferences.

Above: Former Michigan State Representative Leon Drolet makes his points in a debate on strategies to attain liberty in our lifetime.

As usual, the hype behind a Michael Moore movie does not adequately explain what lies beneath.

Capitalism: A Love Story has many interesting points and it is unfair to cast off 100% of what any individual says. While Moore does a fine job at making observations and identifying problems in his social commentary, he (as usual) fails as usual to provide any solutions or alternative courses of action.

A major theme throughout Moore’s movie is the supposed tension between capitalism and democracy. Moore, having been influenced by Catholic priests his entire life, views Capitalism as an inherent evil, citing examples such as Walmart getting insurance payouts upon the death of low-level employees, or a former judge in Pennsylvania who received kickbacks for giving excessive sentences to juveniles housed at a privately managed prison. But after chastising others for worshiping capitalism with supposed irrational exuberance, Moore does the same with democracy, despite glossing over a brief point made in the movie by the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore that democracy can also mean two wolves outvoting a sheep and deciding to have the sheep for dinner.

Moore does do a good job highlighting the bank bailout faux crisis from last fall by showing how political leaders, on both the left and right were either scared or scared their colleagues into voting for that $700 billion abomination with little or no hearings and few congressmen even having read the bill. Wow! That sounds a lot like this current healthcare debate. To his credit, Moore specifically calls out the Democratic leadership in Congress for having enabled the legislation forward with specific references to Barney Frank and Chris Dodd’s involvement in the Countrywide scandal.

But this is where Moore is full of contradictions. He tries to frame the world into groups of “good guys” and “bad guys.” Obama, in his eyes of course, is a good guy who represents the hero of the proletariat masses who have risen up against their capitalist oppressors on Wall Street. Yet Obama, just this weekend flew out to Connecticut to campaign for that very same criminal Christopher Dodd. And it was Obama that took record amounts of campaign donations those bailed out banks in the presidential election. And it was Obama who appointed Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary, a man who Moore’s movie portrays as another puppet of Wallstreet whose only claim to fame is having screwed up the federal bank of New York in a previous tenure.

And Moore conveniently overlooks the fact that the banks getting money from our government treasury to function is actually a great example of socialism and not capitalism. And while much of the financial industry in this country was rotten to the core, in a truly capitalist system, the best way to have cleansed the situation would have been to allow those very bad bank’s to fail and go out of business.

Moore highlights a few interesting companies in the movie such as an electronics factory in Wisconsin and a bread factory in California, which are both run as cooperatives. The workers have more than stock options, they share in the decision-making power of the company, and it is implied that Moore provides these examples as alternatives to capitalism. However, despite decrying the evil profit motive throughout the movie, Moore boasts of the fact that these companies actually increased their profits by going to this business model. And in a truly free society, how are such examples in any way inconsistent with capitalism? Moore constantly refers to capitalism as a “system” and implies that a few powerful people at the top must have designed it like any other political regime. But this interpretation fails to acknowledge the invisible hand and spontaneous order. And a brief web-browse to either Craigslist or stubhub.com will show you that trading goods among people (whether or not they use currency to complete the transaction) is a habit that for we humans is as old as time.

To sum it up, Moore confuses corporatism (or what Ron Paul would consider fascism) with pure capitalism. And he fails to provide us with a clear alternative that is supposedly better.

And if capitalism is so bad, then why was I charged $8.75 to see this movie when Moore could have shown his “public service announcement” for free?

Dan Sheill is an attorney and Republican Liberty Caucus National Committee member from Michigan.

An active Republican Liberty Caucus member has been chosen as Program Manager for Students for Liberty. SFL was formed in 2008 to provide a unified, student-driven forum of support for students and student organizations dedicated to liberty.

Clark Ruper has held campus leadership roles with the University of Michigan Young Americans for Freedom, College Libertarians, and Students of Objectivism.

Clark “first discovered Students For Liberty at the 2009 International Conference. I was instantly blown away by the quality of the organization and the enthusiasm of its members. I think this enthusiasm stems from the fact that Students For Liberty meets a market need in our movement.” He says, “Most libertarian student activists across the country … have long been isolated from one another and the resources necessary to reach their full potential. I see Students For Liberty as a bridge between the individual student activist and the resources of the growing pro-liberty movement, a group that can take our youth activities to levels never seen before.”

Before becoming active with SFL, Clark was on the Board of Directors of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Michigan.  He is a firm believer in political activism and chooses to work within the Republican Party while adhering to a consistent belief in individual liberty, personal responsibility, and small government.

The RLC has already forged a working relationship with Students for Liberty – we participated in a SFL-sponsored debate at their 2009 International Conference — and we look forward to a continued partnership with Students for Liberty as we work vigorously to expand our base of support for our cherished principles.

Clark’s Students for Liberty office will be housed at the Cato Institute. Thanks to Alexander McCobin and the SFL Board of Directors for selecting Clark Ruper to lead the student liberty movement forward.

This morning I received an e-mail from Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), a group that I have been supportive of since my college days. SSDP writes:

“Earlier this month, Derek Copp, a Michigan college student, heard a noise at the back door of his apartment. As he went to investigate, his eyes were blinded by a flashlight and a gunshot rang out. The next think he knew, he was in a hospital fighting for his life.

“The intruders were police. They had a warrant for drugs, but all they found was “a few tablespoons” of marijuana. Derek had no weapons.”

“Thankfully, the bullet that tore through Derek’s lungs and liver didn’t take his life. And every day since that incident, local Students for Sensible Drug Policy members have been standing up for Derek and opposing the polices that made this shooting possible.”

This story is no surprise to those of us who have been following the consequences of the failed War on Drugs.  You’ll recall the most shocking story in recent drug war memory — that of Kathryn Johnston, a 92-year-old grandmother whose home was entered by Atlanta police officers in 2006.

According to Reason contributor Radley Balko:

“They had earlier arrested a man with a long rap sheet on drug charges. That man told the police officers that they’d find a large stash of cocaine in Johnston’s home. When police forced their way into Johnston’s home, she met them holding a rusty old revolver, fearing she was about to be robbed. The police opened fire, and killed her.”

After the officers shot Johnston, they left her handcuffed on the floor while she bled to death and then planted marijuana from their patrol car in her basement to try to help justify the shooting.

Mr. Copp is lucky to have his life, but when will this insanity end?

According to a new report from the Pew Center, a record 7.3 million people — or one in every 31 American adults — were behind bars, on probation, or on parole at the beginning of 2008.  Of these 7.3 million people, an astounding 2.3 million are actually in prison or jail.  That’s 1 in every 99 adults.

According to the report, black adults are four times as likely as whites and nearly 2.5 times as likely as Hispanics to be under correctional control. Ending the drug war in entirety would solve these problems and redirect our country’s limited resources toward more productive measures like — shock! — paying off the national debt.

As part of its continuing efforts to identify which Republican legislators can rightly claim to be fiscal conservatives (which they are all, of course, claiming to be), the Michigan chapter of the RLC developed charts to rank legislators. Consistent with the RLC’s dedication to preserving social liberties, the index also scores legislators on votes affecting personal liberties.

Says Michigan RLC Chair Dan Sheill: “It’s no surprise, but the results are not especially encouraging — especially on the personal liberty rankings. However, these rankings show why libertarian-leaning folks are much more likely to find success through the GOP than the Democrat Party.”

According to my own interpretation of the results, it appears that Sen. Alan Sanborn (R-District 11) is the most socially tolerant and fiscally conservative member of the Senate.  The most socially tolerant member is Sen. Mark Jansen (R-District 28), but he fails on fiscal policy.  In the House, RLC-endorsed State Rep. Jack Hoogendyk (no longer serving) scored the best. Former State Rep. Brian Palmer had the second best combined score after Hoogendyk. On personal liberties, Rep. David Agema (R-District 74) scored fairly high, although he has a poor fiscal record.

Thanks to the Michigan RLC for keep Michigan voters informed!

(The votes on which the charts were based are available here.)

The Michigan and newly-chartered Tennessee RLC affiliates have recently rolled out new websites to publicize their events.

The affiliates join the California, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, North Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin chapters, which also established new websites in the last six months.

The DC, Texas, and newly chartered Alabama affiliates should be rolling out their new websites shortly.

According to Newsmax, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), who is retiring in January 2011, has called for President-elect Obama to fire CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden. Hoekstra is currently a ranking member on the House Permanent Select committee on intelligence.

Hoekstra blasted Hayden for keeping secrets from Congress and the American people. According to Hoekstra: “[Hayden has a] military way of doing things. They like to keep all of the problems within them and say, don’t worry, we’ll deal with it. What you’re seeing here is just a continuing pattern of the intel community being shaped in the model of the military. And I think that’s just wrong.”

“The intelligence community [has] people with a tremendous amount of power who abuse it, and the end result is Americans dying. It can’t get any uglier than that,” he said.

“Once again, this whole community is going to be run by the military. I just think that’s a huge mistake,” Hoekstra told Newsmax. “These guys are very talented, but they approach it in a very different way in regards to accountability and these kinds of things than a civilian might do.”

Of particular concern to Hoeksta was the way Gen. Hayden and CIA have handled the investigation of the April 2001 shoot-down of a single-engine Cessna over the Amazon River in Peru.

“Innocent Americans died, and they didn’t have to, because of a CIA that has a history of operating outside the rules and not being held accountable. I think a civilian would have responded very differently from how Mike Hayden has responded. I think it’s going to be a cover–I think it’s going to be a whitewash,” concluded Hoekstra.

The Michigan chapter of the RLC is urging its supporters to support State Representative Jack Hoogendyk for the position of Chair of the heavily divided Michigan GOP.

According to GOP Precinct Delegate Scotty Boman of Detroit, “Libertarians and conservatives share many fundamental principles, most especially with respect to reducing the size, scope and cost of government.  Jack has articulated these principles of conservatism with superb eloquence.  While serving in the State House, Rep. Hoogendyke has been one of the legislature’s strongest advocates for limited and transparent government.  I believe he has what it takes to move Michigan’s Republican Party in the direction of limited government and conservative principles.”

To learn more about Jack Hoogendyk’s campaign, visit http://www.jackformichigan.org/.

[Unfortunately, Hoogendyk later dropped out of the race.]

December 12, 2008
For Immediate Release
Contact: William Westmiller, (805) 493-4332

Liberty Caucus: Auto maker Bailout Rewards those Responsible for Financial Collapse, Penalizes all Americans

Thousand Oaks, CA — A national caucus of Republican activists is urging members of Congress to oppose the Big Three automakers bailout of a corrupt financial regulatory system. “This proposal is a government takeover of yet more of the already stifled U.S. economy,” said Republican Liberty Caucus Chairman William Westmiller, “and when and where will the bailouts stop?” he asked.

“For decades, auto makers have been forced to comply with arbitrary congressional dictates that are not supported by consumers,” said Michigan RLC Chairman and National Board member Dan Sheill. “The solution is to cut regulations, not to give taxpayer dollars for the continuation of poor government mandates. The auto industry doesn’t need a dictatorial ‘czar’ to run their businesses,” said Sheill, “but the industry needs the freedom to respond to consumer demands for safe, efficient, and inexpensive transportation.”

The Caucus [www.RLC.org] opposes any taxpayer payoff to rescue those who made bad investments in any sector of the economy. “This plan violates basic principles of honest business practices and free-market capitalism by transferring money from taxpayers directly to three failed automakers,” said Westmiller. “Individuals and firms can only be held to account if they are allowed to both succeed and profit, to sustain losses and sometimes even fail.”

The Republican Liberty Caucus favors clear legislation protecting individuals against fraud, misrepresentation, and theft. It opposes any law that benefits one class of Americans at the expense of another, including any form of financial guarantee or subsidy that rewards failure or encourages foolish investments.

The RLC applauds the stamina and fortitude of multiple Republican members of Congress who have opposed any corporate bailout, expansions of government fiscal20power, new burdens on taxpayers, or any further assaults on the value of the dollar through inflation. “Those Republicans voting for this package and other similar bailouts need to pause, reflect, and ask themselves to reexamine their core beliefs,” said Westmiller. “If these Congressional ‘leaders’ don’t change their willingness to spend away Americans’ savings, they are simply going to be voted out of office,” he warned.

The Republican Liberty Caucus is a political membership organization working within the Republican Party in support of individual rights, limited government, and free enterprise. The Caucus has members in all 50 states and 20 chartered state chapters. The RLC has urged all of its members to communicate to their representatives in Congress their total opposition to any auto maker bailout.

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References:

RLC Statement of Principles and Positions:

“We oppose all restrictions on the voluntary and honest exchange of value in a free market … We oppose all legislation that concedes Congressional power to any regulatory agency, executive department, or international body. We support the phase out of any government subsidies and incentives that support or favor any business or special interest … We favor the privatization of all government assets an a transition to free market management and services for all programs that exceed the enumerated powers of the Constitution.”

The U.S. Senate stood up for the American people yesterday, voting to reject the House-approved bailout plan. Google provides a Roll Call tally. No big surprises, but “fiscal conservative” Liddy Dole voted for the bailout, along with nine other “Republicans.” Kudos to Democrats Blanche Lincoln, Max Baucus, and Jon Tester for voting against their party establishment.