An Introduction to the Proposed 2020 Libertarian Party of Florida Platform

To Be Voted On at the LPF State Convention In Orlando, February 21 to 23

2020 Platform Committee

Ricardo Mejias, Chair
Rob Casterline, Secretary
John Thompson
Kevin O’Neil
J Mark Barfield (ex-officio)

LPF 2020 Proposed Changes to Platform

 

The the idea for LPF 2020 Proposed Changes to Platform (link above) started in early 2019 when Steven Nekhaila, as Chair of the Platform Committee, proposed to expand the Platform. The current Platform Committee later came up with the following set of expansion and improvement actions: (1) check for inconsistencies between planks and reconcile them, (2) where planks are very closely related, merge them into one, perhaps larger, because the principle of “alike things together” makes for better organization and clarity and (3) give each plank a link to a separate document to explain its context, why we favor it, its benefits and the political path and process to implement it, which we call the Explanatory Document.

This Explanatory Document is divided into these six sections:

  • Current Status (what are the recent conditions and developments on this issue)What We Advocate (the plank)
  • Why We Advocate It (reasons for taking this position)
  • Benefits of What We Advocate (the benefits to people of the freedom that we advocate)
  • Political Path to Implementation (what is it going to take to make the change we want)
  • Implementation Process (timing and process to put it into effect)
Everything from above is designed to:
  • Help clarify among ourselves how our principles translate into what we advocate and our political actions.
  • Help our candidates develop policy positions and arguments for these policies.
  • Help convince the public that Libertarian principles and policies are what benefits everyone.

In order to have the new platform reach more people, we plan, when our convention members approve it, to place it on an LPF website where the planks are all listed on one page, linked to the Explanatory Documents, each on its own page. Since each page is about a distinct topic, they will appear in search engines for searches of those topics. Those who click on those pages, are not necessarily looking for the Florida Libertarian Platform, but they will be exposed to it and its ideas. And that will contribute to promote those ideas.

Please read our LPF 2020 Platform carefully, you will be voting on it or motioning for amendments at the convention.

If you have any (a) questions or comments about the 2020 proposed platform or (b) any technical problems reading the files, please email them to me at ricardomejias@hotmail.com.