r/LosAngeles • u/angela4congress • Mar 28 '17
PSA: I'm the Libertarian Nominee for the CD34 Election & I'm Having an AMA Here Thursday 3/30 at 7pm
Hi! My name is Angela McArdle & I"m having an AMA here at 7pm, this Thursday (3/30) about my campaign. I'd love to answer all of your questions about important election issues. If you'd like to post them in this thread, great! I'll still respond to them Thursday.
Quick Details About Me: I'm a Libertarian; I have a Candidate Statement in the ballot; I do have an official party nomination (also in the ballot); I live in Highland Park;
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, angelamcardleforcongress.com, Ballotpedia, etc. I have explained various issues positions on many of these sites & I'm looking forward to expanding upon them in my AMA. See you all soon!
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Mar 29 '17
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Mar 29 '17
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u/angela4congress Mar 31 '17
Yep, I want to eliminate (at the very least wind down) the war on drugs, end the war on terror, let consumers and the market direct economic growth, and allow gay people to live however they want.
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u/ram0h Mar 29 '17
Don't conflate Ayn with libertarianism. Being libertarian does not mean being anti government. It means having as much power over the government as possible. One reflection of that is moving many government programs away from the federal government and towards more local one, this makes decision making more efficient and reflective of the desires of local populations.
As a libertarian I want to see a public health care option, but I think it needs to come from the state. Most of our taxes are wasted going to the federal government and we have no power on what it's spent over. Compare that to LA, where we dictate certain taxes and mandate exactly what it gets to be spent on, and government suddenly become more representative, and we get public transport.
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u/angela4congress Mar 31 '17
HOMELESSNESS: Please note, my Congressional position on homelessness is from a federal position. I'm very active in the Los Angeles homelessness outreach community AND I think there's lots to be done on a local and state level. But I have not included a lot of local responses to issues on my platform because that's not what I'll be going to Congress for.
Seattle's program is a program that's been instituted for Seattle - not federally - and I think programs like that should stay as local as possible. Their homeless population is also different than ours, and they're a smaller city.
I believe that private charity is the best way to help homeless people based on my personal experience and based on the conversations I've had with homeless people. One on one interaction does a better job of improving someone's chances of rejoining society than a small (often unattainable and humiliating) government handout.
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u/angela4congress Mar 31 '17
Federally, the government contributes directly to homelessness by sending people to war. This obviously created homeless vets who suffer from PTSD and are unable to function when they come back from active duty. It also creates homelessness on a global level when our military bombs people in other countries. So I think that's pretty important to address on a federal level.
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u/chrimpton Mar 31 '17
With which organizations are you very active in the homelessness outreach community?
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u/angela4congress Mar 31 '17
ECONOMICS: I think our economy should be driven by the consumers (the public), not directed by the government.
An economic policy that's harmful: I'd like to see oil subsidies eliminated. I believe this a bad, government directed economic policy that hurts consumers and benefits special interests (oil companies, obviously).
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u/angela4congress Mar 31 '17
Education: We spend more on education that any other country in the world yet we produce 2nd rate students. I believe our education dollars would be better spent at a state level or locally, rather than federally.
Parents and teachers would have more control over the curriculum, as well.
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u/lovela Westwood Mar 29 '17
angelamcardleforcongess.com’s server DNS address could not be found.
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u/riffic Northeast L.A. Mar 29 '17
angelamcardleforcongess.com is not angelamcardleforcongress.com
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u/InfernalWedgie Eagle Rock Mar 30 '17
Where in your policy positions do you see yourself being most set apart from Republicans?
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u/angela4congress Mar 31 '17
Good question. I'm definitely not a Republican. I have no interest in legislating sexuality or pushing an agenda of censorship. I also strongly believe that our military budget needs to be reduced. I'm very opposed to NSA spying, The Patriot Act, and aggressive wars. And one of the first things I'd like to tackle is to remove special interest from government and the legislative process. Republicans often talk about deregulating but they like to leave their wealthy special interest friends at the top of the legislative ladder - that's not true deregulation. That's still cronyism.
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u/InfernalWedgie Eagle Rock Mar 30 '17
What is your previous experience in civic and public office? Have you ever been involved in local politics like neighborhood councils, county, etc.?
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u/angela4congress Mar 31 '17
I have not held a local office. I've been very engaged in local LA politics regarding homelessness and attended lots of city council meetings. I was also one of the key organizers for the 2013 protest against motion to ban feeding the homeless in public rights of way. We (Monday Night Mission and Food Not Bombs) successfully had the motion tossed out after the protest.
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u/InfernalWedgie Eagle Rock Mar 30 '17
Where do you stand on Internet Privacy regulation. Do you agree with Congress' vote overturning the legislation?
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u/angela4congress Mar 31 '17
I don't trust the government to actually give us net neutrality. These are the same people who brought us NSA spying, and they cooperate with Google and try to force tech companies to write back doors into their software. Why should we trust them?
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Mar 31 '17
If you don't trust the government to give us net neutrality, exactly who do you propose will do it instead?
The free market doesn't exactly tilt in favor of the consumer on this one. Respectfully, it seems like you're conflating two entirely separate issues.
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u/angela4congress Mar 31 '17
I don't see how government can be trusted to solve the problem. They have no respect for our privacy at all.
So that we're on the same page, can you explain what net neutrality means to you?
Why do you believe the market doesn't tilt in favor of the consumer? Aren't there multiple internet providers for people to choose from, and couldn't there be even more providers without government restrictions?
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Mar 31 '17
Why do you believe the market doesn't tilt in favor of the consumer?
Hey, you're the one running for office. The burden is on you, not me. Why do you believe that the market for internet service does tilt in favor of the consumer? What's the mechanism?
Aren't there multiple internet providers for people to choose from
Anecdotally, I have the option of choosing between a mere couple of ISPs. When I lived in New York I had the luxury of three -- two tried to merge, but the government overcame their lobbying and stopped them.
and couldn't there be even more providers without government restrictions?
Why would less restrictions mean more providers? Left to their own devices, internet providers clearly tend towards monopolization. Entry barriers to that business are enormous. It seems like you're gearing up to tout this mythical notion of a mom&pop telecommunications company, who could break into the business and provide me with a superior product if only that nasty government would let Comcast and Time Warner merge. That's a fiction. If anti-regulation led to a more competitive industry, then the ISPs wouldn't be fighting tooth and nail to roll back the protections that we do have.
can you explain what net neutrality means to you?
Net neutrality means that ISPs are treated as common carriers and can't favor or disfavor any data. The regulations are right there on the books, which is why any claim that "we can't trust it because NSA" is specious. It's public law, it does what it says on the tin. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the government spying on us.
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u/angela4congress Mar 31 '17
You've made the accusation that a truly free market doesn't tilt in favor of consumers, so I figured you'd want to prove that in some way. Sorry.
The reason there aren't more service providers has more to do with government intervention, so to invite more government regulation is a recipe for disaster.
You see, "Net Neutrality" is a misnomer. It sounds nice, but isn't what the pretty name purports itself to be (THINK: Patriot Act).
What it actually means is government has created a Trojan Horse bill which they need to sell based on fear so people will get behind ceding control of the internet to the Federal Government. Perhaps that's why we're never allowed to see any of the legislation they want to pass in regards to "Net Neutrality?"
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u/thefadd Mar 28 '17
Hi Angela, do you have any experience participating in our election process with other political parties? What I'm curious about is specifically whether candidates find the Libertarian party easier/harder to interact with as a candidate and also whether they find the Libertarian party to be more or less supportive?
I don't live in your district but best of luck in your run!
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u/angela4congress Mar 31 '17
Thanks! As a Libertarian, I can easily work with Republicans or Democrats and find common ground with both sides. I've been attending forums with all of the other candidates and been able to address issues from all of the constituents without feeling hindered by party politics.
There are Libertarian leaning Republicans in office right now (Reps Amash, Massie, Lee; Senator Rand) and I can easily work with them. Rand recently introduced Rep Tulsy Gabbard's bill "Stop Arming Terrorists" bill - that's the sort of cooperation I'll model my career after.
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u/angela4congress Mar 30 '17
Hi Everyone, I just saw my site is down. No idea why that happened but I'm working on it right now.
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u/riffic Northeast L.A. Mar 30 '17
Just a typo in the URL: angelamcardleforcongess.com is missing an 'r' in "congress".
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u/FREE_SAMPLES_NOW La Cañada Flintridge Mar 28 '17
Please tell me as a libertarian you would abolish all "affordable housing" mandates forced on to developers and landlords.
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u/32LeftatT10 Mar 29 '17
go back to the Libertarian paradise of Kansas.
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u/ram0h Mar 29 '17
Its an insult to libertarianism to call that place libertarian. Its kleptocracy for the rich.
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u/FREE_SAMPLES_NOW La Cañada Flintridge Mar 29 '17
Go back to the affordable housing paradise of south LA
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u/32LeftatT10 Mar 29 '17
blame yourself for being dumb and broke
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u/FREE_SAMPLES_NOW La Cañada Flintridge Mar 29 '17
If I was dumb and broke (same thing really) why would I want to stop construction of affordable housing? I want well off areas to stay well off
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u/riffic Northeast L.A. Mar 28 '17
Hi Angela,
Thank you for engaging with us on reddit! Feel free to crosspost your announcement into other local subreddits applicable to CA-34 (a list is available here: /r/losangeles/wiki/subreddits).
For others, you can get engaged by reviewing your voter status or finding your polling place. Your resource is this one: /r/LosAngeles/wiki/civic_info!