40 specific positions lost in the 4000 missing words from 2004?

Rob Power wrote:

Rob) If there's anything specific in these revisions that you think should not have been removed or changed, please speak up. (Rob

It might help if your subcommittee did two things that ours did:

• identify all novel language
• for recycled language, identify what platform it came from

And since this is supposed to be a 2004 restoration effort, you owe it to Restore04 signers to list the specific positions that you left on the editing room floor when you went from the 14,000-word 62-plank 2004 platform to the 9700-word 30-plank "5Ws" draft.  When I compared your previous draft to the 2004 platform, I lost count at around 40 specific 2004 positions that you omitted.  I haven't even tried to count how many 2004 positions are missing in your latest draft.  Have you?

 

I do remember a few of your ommissions:

1. "We support a declaration of unconditional amnesty for all those individuals who have been convicted of, or who now stand accused of, tax resistance."
2. "Return to the historic libertarian tradition of avoiding entangling alliances, abstaining totally from foreign quarrels and imperialist adventures, and recognizing the right to unrestricted trade, travel, and immigration." [a line that had been in every platform from 1976 to 2004]
3. "We call for the elimination of all restrictions on immigration, the abolition of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Border Patrol, and a declaration of full amnesty for all people who have entered the country illegally." 
4. "Governments facing fiscal crises should always default in preference to raising taxes."

Interestingly, three -- perhaps all four -- of these 2004 positions elicit dissent from the candidate endorsed by the Outright Libertarians -- of which you are the Chair.  You also keep the 2006 gay rights plank nearly verbatim -- even as you throw jailed tax resisters and peaceful undocumented immigrants "under the bus".

 

Yes, these were all changes approved by the "rump" Portland convention, but I thought Restore04 considered Portland illegitimate.  How could the Portland delegates be so right in agreeing with you on gay rights and agreeing with your endorsed candidate on immigration, but be so wrong in wanting to sweep away most of the crusted-over 2004 platform?