Running for Office is Better than Sex Every Day!

I wrote about the paucity of candidates in NOVA for the GOP (and the Libertarians) and I thought:  If the Virginia legislature was like the US Congress and you could run from outside your district, I would seriously consider it.

Remember:  Running for office can be better than sex every day!

We need several men and/or women to step up and run.  Yes the chances of winning can be small at first BUT if you can articulate conservative/liberty values and ideas you should offer the people of your district a choice.  And note above:  Running for office is better than….

Here is a great place for platform ideas:

• Some sort of initiative/referendum for laws and constitutional amendments.
• Term limits for the General Assembly.
• Better ballot access (I am playing with the idea that the party can get ballot access with say 15/20,000 signatures for the party for the next two/four years and if the party does not get 4/5% in that statewide election the process starts all over again) to open up elections in Virginia.
• Solar power for western Virginia and maybe Eastern Shore and other places where the sun shines frequently.  I would also consider a economic zone in both areas where some regulations and taxes would be modified to encourage business to settle there.  If the business moves in say 10/20 years of establishment they have to pay back at least some of the local/state tax relief.
• A statewide indigent defense system with appellate and post-conviction units.
• Modification of sovereign immunity to a system where sovereign immunity is waived for state agencies to the extent of their liability insurance policy (which would be required by law to be a certain amount).  The sovereign immunity doctrine serves some useful purposes but also prevents civil damages accountability for servants of the people.
• Some kind of collaborative divorce law where husband and wife hire lawyers to represent them but they do not go to court (perhaps protective orders and similar abuse and neglect remedies excepted) and instead work out details.  Full disclosure will be required between husband and wife (and yes gays and live-ins would be in this system equally) and the agreement would be:  NO court action at all until it is worked out.  Child support and spousal support would be paid as part of the process.  If a party seeks to break the agreement, there is a 30 day waiting period to go to court and the breaking party is liable to pay the fees for BOTH lawyers since neither lawyer could represent either party in court due to conflicts of interest and exchange of confidences and secrets.  If the parties work it out – immediate divorce without a wait and no fault is required to be shown or proven (I suppose there could be an agreed adultery grounds for religious reasons) in the final decree.  I am also concerned about the abuse of child/spousal support collection efforts as becoming imprisonment for debt or vehicle to gratify revenge.
• Voucher system for education where even homeschooling and virtual schools would be able to participate.  Competition is great and will help the inner cities.
• Speaking of the inner cities:  Serious consideration needs to be given to selling the projects like RRHA to the residents with some restrictions on sales to prevent house-flippers from turning them into slums.  Also a Jack Kemp style urban homesteading system for boarded up foreclosures.
• A review of welfare laws to see if they discourage families and marriage or for working poor to get ahead.  if so, amend them to make them more effective.
• Income tax relief – find a way to reduce the state income tax and maybe gradually do away with it.
• I am not sold on the Libertarian plank of the platform that says:  End the drug war.  However, criminalizing drugs seems not to work well and is harmful to civil liberties (I would abolish civil forfeiture or change it so the proceeds go to indigent defense and legal aid.) so I am open to ideas.
• Yes abortion is the willful taking of a human life.  We all ought to get that on either side.  And I get it, pro-choicers:  Women ought not be treated like property or regulated by the government just because they are or can get pregnant.  I would not vote for items like required ultrasounds before an abortion.  Male politicians ought to be very gracious and sensitive in discussing this issue at all.  For my position I would cite a surprising source:  Hillary Clinton.  Abortion should be safe, legal and rare.  (I mean it a bit differently than she does.)  It should only be legal in extreme circumstances (life, health, rape/incest and serious deformity) and not after 20 weeks.  I would have some regulations on abortions not for other similar industries, especially to ensure safety.  Why?  It is a willful taking of a human life.  Yes Planned Parenthood should be off the public dole.
• Guns?  I adhere pretty much to the VCDL position on guns.  I would also increase penalties for felons possessing guns to ten years and also the use of a firearm in a crime to ten additional years.
• Decriminalization – yes.  Oh, yes!  We need to have a commission to review the criminal code (and traffic too) for repeal.  Also need for white collar and other non-violent crimes some sort of misdemeanor treatment available to judges and juries as a lesser included offense.  Juries also ought to be told the range of punishment in voir dire and when it gets the case.

Need more to take the plunge?  Remember a few things when you are at that forum and you get asked about either abortion or guns:

Show the audience and your opponent a copy of the Constitution (I always thought when the Constitution was shown at the Dem convention last year some if not many asked:  What’s that?) and say:  Which right is explicit in the Constitution:  Abortion or the right to bear arms?  Then zing ’em with the text of the Second Amendment.

The next day’s Post (or Alexandria Gazette or Fairfax Times) would have (I’ll use my name as a nom de plume)  Sanders makes the OUTRAGEOUS charge that gun rights are more constitutional than abortion rights, in spite of the settled nature of the Roe decision in the law since 1972.  Prof. Idiot from Snowflake University answered my email by saying the right has a misunderstanding of the Second Amendment – it really arises from something like the National Guard…

And those individual meetings at 530 am at the favorite slug place (a slug is a NOVA slang term for a driver who gets a ride at a bus top into the Pentagon or Crystal City from say Lake Ridge.  Should have done it when I ran for delegate!) and you find the slugs who whisper to you – I like your positions and I even (careful placement of hand over mouth) voted for Trump.  Hand that guy or gal ten of your leaflets!

See?  Running for office is better than sex every day!  So report to your local GOP or Libertarian leader today.  And call me and I’ll find some time to brainstorm with you.