The Craighead County Libertarians met today and had a special guest. Jacob Holloway is running for City Council Ward 1 Position 1 in Jonesboro. This is a non-partisan race, but he is a member of the Green Party of Arkansas.
I went to this meeting very skeptical that a Libertarian and Green would be able to agree on much. Admittedly, I know very little about the Greens, except that they are even more left that the Democrats. I did know that they are supporters of ending the prohibition on drugs and gay marriage, so I knew there would be some common ground. I just expected very little common ground other than those two issues.
I must say, I was quite surprised. There were several other areas of common ground that I never would have imagined. Jacob, in his own words, is “a civil libertarian.” I was quite surprised to hear the word “libertarian” come out of his mouth, but it was nice to see that we agree on most social issues and the fact that we need to keep the government outside of those issues.
I was also surprised to see “advocating for fiscal responsibility” on his flyer. Jacob considers himself a progressive on most issues, yet most progressives prefer to spend willy nilly without regards to the consequences. It was nice to see that he has thought this through. Although he and I disagreed on the role of taxes, (he believes the top wage earners should pay more taxes, their “fair share” in his words), he is was firm in his belief that the spending has gotten out of control in the last two administrations. He, like me, feels like our current economic issues were caused by Republicans and compounded by Democrats.
He has no love for Blanche Lincoln or Mark Pryor, but for different reasons than libertarians do. He thinks Mrs. Lincoln is “Republican light,” which I disagree with. However, he does feel that she is very dishonest in her ever changing message depending on where she is campaigning, which is another place we agreed. Jacob and I also agreed that farm subsidies have got to go. Having a federal government controlling what is grown where and how much is a detriment to our food system and economy. These issues need to be decided by the market.
Jacob is a big supporter of alternative energies and America getting off of its oil dependance, although he feels that the government should be responsible for this instead of the market. I explained to him that having the government involved is what is stopping enterprising people from developing alternative energy. When people must wait on the government to decide what products they will subsidize or which products they will penalize, it is bad for everyone.
Other areas we were in agreement on included stopping the wars and the federal monetary policy. As libertarians, we would abolish the Federal Reserve, where he would change it and the way it works dramatically and put the power to control money back into the hands of Congress, where it Constitutionally belongs.
We had a very nice visit, and I enjoyed talking with Jacob quite a lot. He is a dynamic, engaging young man with lots of good ideas. I wish him the best in his campaign and the election, and I look forward to working with him and the Green party in the future to fix the mess we have in Arkansas relating to ballot access, which, incidentally, was another area we agreed on.
Good luck, Jacob!
