HotWired
The Netizen
9 July 1996

"Third Choice"
Campaign Dispatch

by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)
Washington, DC, 8 July 
   
   The nervous sweat of US voters forced to choose between
   character-impaired Clinton and vision-impaired Dole may distill into
   fuel for the Libertarian Party. At the party's ragtag convention last
   week, Harry Browne began to make a case that the Libertarian Party
   isn't just for cyberheads and conspiracy theorists.
   
   An investment advisor and longtime foe of bloated government, Browne
   won the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination in Washington, DC,
   after pledging to smash the "engine" of the federal government "and
   replace it with a much smaller motor."
   
   The selection on 6 July of the telegenic Browne as his party's
   standard-bearer is one of many signs that Libertarians are aiming for
   the political mainstream. Last week the 605 delegates added language
   to their platform allowing that reasonable people could disagree on
   abortion, though the party remains pro-choice.
   
   They removed a controversial "children's rights" plank saying that
   older minors could declare independence from their parents. To woo gay
   voters, the party added "sexual rights" language that stressed another
   Libertarian mainstay: government out of the bedroom.
   
   These platform changes took place during a roiling debate that acted
   out an experiment in open-microphone democracy. Wearing sandals and
   top-hats, delegates shouted out questions, clamored for the mikes, and
   interrupted one another with arcane parliamentary procedures before
   casting their votes.
   
   It was a refreshing departure from the highly scripted 1992 Democratic
   National Convention - more an exercise in infotainment than anything
   else - where party insiders worked quietly to block a loudmouth Jerry
   Brown from speaking unless he signed an agreement pledging fealty to
   Bill Clinton. For delegates and party cognoscenti, the Republican and
   Democratic gatherings have become nonstop bashes complete with
   taxpayer-supported picnics, rodeos, and even officially designated
   protest sites.
   
   Not so with the Libertarian convention, which netizens attended in
   force. Phil Zimmermann, author of Pretty Good Privacy, appeared at a
   privacy workshop on Saturday where delegates received PGP on floppies.
   On Thursday, Jim Ray, a cypherpunk and Libertarian delegate from Coral
   Gables, Florida, introduced a motion to strengthen the party's stance
   on encryption by condemning "government access to keys" - a mandatory
   backdoor for the Feds. "Or GAK, as we call it on Cypherpunks," Ray
   told the other delegates, who passed the revised crypto plank
   unanimously.
   
   Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union,
   spoke the next day about cyberliberties and the recent victory in the
   lawsuit challenging the Communications Decency Act. "The CDA was
   offered to us with the same rationale as other attacks on our civil
   liberties.... We do not believe that Big Brother is a member of the
   traditional family."
   
   "There are some rights that are so fundamental that the majority
   cannot take them away from a minority.... That's why I consider the
   Bill of Rights to be the original Contract with America," Strossen
   said.
   
   Browne's Saturday speech accepting the presidential nomination
   mentioned cyber rights only in passing and instead stressed low taxes
   and lopping the federal government off at the knees. But what he did
   say was inspiring: "In the Libertarian administration of Harry Browne,
   every government employee will respect the Bill of Rights or pay the
   consequences.... The Constitution was created not to control the
   people, but to limit the government."
   
   Contrast that with the shabby way that Republicans and Democrats have
   fallen over each other to slam the Net and civil liberties. A
   bipartisan majority of senators, including Bob Dole, voted to pass the
   CDA, and Clinton has chosen to continue defending the law even after a
   resounding defeat in federal court.
   
   The so-called Year of the Net marches on, but the Libertarian Party
   now stands as the only serious political party with a commitment to
   defending the rights of netizens.

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