LPC 2021 Platform Committee Initial Report
Cover LetterIntroductionProposalsSummariesEverything

Just the summary paragraphs of all the proposals:

Revise: IV.6 Official Language

In the Official Language plank there is a sentence that seems more complicated than necessary. We propose to simplify the wording to make it shorter and easier to understand.

Revise: IV.1 Victimless Crimes

In the Victimless Crimes plank there is a list of activities sometimes treated as evidence of criminal behavior including carrying pagers. Since this is no longer a common activity, we propose to remove that item from the list.

Revise: V.6 Welfare

This proposal reduces the size of the current plank by 19 words. It reorganizes and combines a few of the paragraphs as well as some of the bullet points.There are a few sentences added and word changes made, but the concepts are the same. Also, there are a couple of sentences added about individuals, rather than the government, knowing what is best for themselves, to emphasize the importance of autonomy.

Revise: IV.10 Health and Medicine

The existing plank is too long and wordy. The rewritten text covers the same points in a more compact way. This proposal includes changing the name from "Health and Medicine" to "Health Care".

Revise: IV.21 Legislature

The existing plank on this subject has three paragraphs which address basically the same point – the number of people represented by each legislator. This proposal consolidates the language of those paragraphs into one, while leaving the last paragraph (which addresses a different point) unchanged.

Revise: V.8 Money and Banking

The existing plank on this subject is repetitive and unnecessarily wordy. It also doesn't mention cryptocurrency or the way government makes use of banks to track people, which have become important issues in recent years. This replacement simplifies the language, gives equal treatment to cryptocurrency and gold as alternative kinds of money, specifically addresses requirements for reporting of transactions, and drops one obsolete point, while still addressing all of the remaining important points mentioned in the current plank.

Revise: IV.5 Immigration

The existing plank is too long and wordy. The rewritten text covers the same points in a more compact way, except for one point about driver's licenses which appears to no longer be relevant.

Revise: IV.2 Freedom of Expression

This rewrite is more organized, and reduces the size of the plank by condensing/simplifying/combining some of the existing points, while also adding some new points. It begins with a general statement that government should not restrict or compel expression, followed by lists showing how these principles apply to various forms of expression.

New Plank: Emergency Powers

The abuse by government of the concept of an "emergency", as justification for assuming additional powers, is a long-standing issue. The recent pandemic has made this issue more prominent, but it applies to many other cases, and will continue to be an issue long after this pandemic is over. This plank challenges the concept of "emergencies" that never end, proposes specific limitations, and specifically mentions as examples both this pandemic and an unrelated case. (To be added after IV.8 Police.)

New Plank: Freedom to Think

In reaction to various technological and social developments, government is threatening not only our ability to communicate ideas to other people ("freedom of expression"), but even how we are permitted to manipulate and store information for our own use – in our own minds and our own records. Some of these restrictions are only ideas for now, just waiting for some "incident" to give government an excuse to act, while others have already been enacted in various other countries and could spread here. This plank states our clear opposition to any government interference in such a fundamental feature of human life. (To be added after IV.3 Protection of Privacy.)

New Plank: Pandemics

This plank addresses very current and very prominent issues associated with the current pandemic, but in a way that would apply equally to any future pandemic. It states in general terms our view that a proper approach must respect individual rights and take advantage of market forces, then provides a list of things that have been done by government which we oppose. (To be added after IV.10 Health Care.)

Restructure: IV.20 Election Reform

The existing plank is too long and it is disorganized. Paragraphs on related topics have been added over the years in an order that does not reflect those relationships, with the result that it is difficult both to read it straight through and also to find our position on a specific topic. In addition, we have some important new points we want to address, and if we just inserted those into the plank as it is structured now that would make things worse. This proposal would replace the existing plank with three shorter ones: "Political Campaigns", "Candidates and Parties", and "Voting Systems". The first two consist entirely of sentences from the existing plank, but organized in a more logical way. The third has been rewritten to cover the remaining existing ideas in a more concise way while also addressing two significant new topics: alternatives approaches to electing people to office (e.g., ranked choice, proportional representation) and secure electronic ballots.

Restructure: IV.7 Judicial

The existing Judicial plank is the longest in our platform, by a significant margin. Over the years it has been expanded to cover too many different topics. Not only is it long, but because the paragraphs and the items in the very long lettered list are not grouped in a logical way, it is very hard for readers to follow or to find our position on a topic in which they may have a specific interest. This proposal would restructure our treatment of these topics by splitting it into five more readable and more manageable planks each with a separate focus. Some of the language has also been rewritten for clarity or brevity, but the intent of this proposal is to leave the overall meaning unchanged, without adding new positions, and without affecting any other plank. A few specific points were left out because they seemed overly specific in discussing particular categories of crime (hate crimes, rape) or referenced an agency (CYA) in a way that is no longer applicable. Note: We are also proposing moving one point that is now located in this plank into another existing plank, and two changes that we think are more likely to be controversial, but those changes are not included here – they are being presented as separate proposals.

New Plank: Universal Basic Income

This plank states our opposition to the idea of "universal basic income", an idea that is getting increasing mention in public policy circles and the general media, and which is very appropriate for our state platform because there are several cases of tests/demonstrations in California. (To be added after V.6 Welfare.)

Revise: IV.7 Judicial (capital punishment)

Our platform does not currently address the subject of capital punishment. This proposal would add a statement that we oppose capital punishment.

Revise: IV.7 Judicial (three strikes)

Our platform currently advocates that the "Three Strikes" law should focus on violent offenders. This proposal would change our position to say that "Three Strikes" should be eliminated.

Revise: IV.7 Judicial (move text to Victimless Crimes)

Move a statement currently in the Judicial Plank to the first paragraph of the Victimless Crimes plank.

Revise: IV.8 Police

This is a rewrite of the plank with a different emphasis and structure. The first paragraph describes the role of police in a free society. The second paragraph explains what should happen when police violate rights belonging to the people. The last paragraph explains our views on the use of private security patrols.

Revise: IV.13 Marriage

Rewording to better explain the role of contracts as a replacement for existing laws and to clarify/simplify various other points.

Revise: IV.19 Marijuana

This expands the scope of the existing plank by mentioning other recreational drugs, describing some of the harms done by the drug war, and addresses the application of federal law in California. To go along with those changes, the name is changed from "Marijuana" to "Drug War and Recreational Drugs".

Revise: IV.4 Discrimination

The Equal Right Amendment which was passed by Congress in 1972 provides that: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." This amendment was ratified by many states, but whether it was ratified by enough states is in dispute, due to a provision in the original legislation imposing a time limit and later revocation of ratification by several states. This proposal would express our support for the ERA and for it being considered as ratified.

Revise: V.4 Education

This makes a number of changes to the plank, including describing the poor performance of the current system, proposing a specific tax credit plan, and removing the reference to forced busing (which is no longer an issue).