redbloodedamerica:

Larry Sharpe, A Candidate with Better Ideas

I
live in New York State.  One of many where politicians spend more money than we
have.  My governor wants to
raise taxes, but this man says there’s a better way to raise money:  “We can lease naming
rights on our infrastructure – bridges, tunnels, the
Triborough bridge can be called the “Staples Bridge” or the “Apple bridge.”  Companies
would pay because bridges are seen by lots of people.  “Hundreds of thousands of
vehicles pass by and see that big sign.  That’s valuable,” says Larry Sharpe, libertarian candidate for New York Governor.  Most people we asked didn’t like the idea.  People don’t
like this.  It’s commercializing.  “Absolutely.  Shake your face and say, ‘This doesn’t
sound good’ if you want to.  And you’re going to wind up in a place where the tax
burden is insanely high,” says Sharpe.  Our governor just had a beautiful new bridge built and he named it after his father.  “Yes, he did.  That’s true.  We actually have an imperial bridge named after our royal family. I’m
embarrassed,” Sharpe explains.  

Sharpe is the Libertarian candidate.  We libertarians don’t worship
politicians and don’t think they deserve monuments just because they got
elected.  “I tell you what  I’ll do.  He’s [Andrew Cuomo]

got $30 million a year.  He can keep his
name on that bridge and he has to take care of the maintenance,” says Sharpe.  

Sharpe’s campaign is attracting new people.  His rallies
have bigger crowds than third party candidates normally get.  And Sharpe’s original
ideas help get him speaking roles at big events and media coverage.  One poll found sharp getting 13%.  And after people here is campaign pitch, 25% support him.  

Some
of Sharpe’s positions surprised me.  He’s a libertarian.  I assume he wants to cut
these wasteful programs.  “Of course not,” he says, “Look, the issue here is you don’t want to
just pull the rug out from [under] people.  Because when you do that, they become afraid.”  If people are afraid they rarely vote for you.  So, you would keep all these government programs? “Yeah.  I said no new programs.”  And you would keep existing… ”Sure.  Why, who said I’ll get rid of them?”  I just assumed, because they’re
inefficient, they’re bloated.  “So, get rid of them?  That’s the worst idea.  Let me be very clear about something.  If you pull the rug out from somebody, somebody is going to be afraid.”  

Sharpe focuses on his alternatives to taxes.  Why hasn’t
this been done? “Because no one has any new ideas.  There’s no ideas how I’m going to fix anything or do anything right.  It doesn’t even exist.  I’m a third party.  I have to
have ideas or no one will listen to me,” he explaisn.  

The MTA, New York’s subway system, is falling
apart.  So Sharpe says rent out
the tracks at night.  “We have so many lines in the MTA right now that are not
being used at all at night.  Home Depot or Google or Amazon or whomever they can
decide.  They can use these freight lines.  They’ll help pay for maintenance
obviously.  And they’ll pay to move their freight.  Again, win-win-win.”  

Then Sharpe
said something else that surprised me.  "There are systems out there that are both
safe and unionized, so we keep unions happy and our workers safe and be cheaper.”  Why do you want to keep the unions happy?  “Because they’re unionized.  Why would I not want to keep unions happy,” he asked?  Because unions can be destructive.  “They can be.  Absolutely.”  You don’t think of a libertarian as a “pro-union” guy.  "Unions are part of our First
Amendment.  It’s people getting together saying they won’t do [x] until you
do [y].  Nothing wrong with that at all.”  It raises prices.  "Fine.  That’s okay.  It is what it is.  Collective bargaining is fine.  My issue with unions has always been: Are you
forcing me to be in a union?  Are you forcing unionized labor?  If you’re forcing it, I’m a libertarian – I have a problem with that.  But if you’re voluntarily doing it, I don’t have a problem with it at all,” he says. 

Sharpe is the rare politician who proposes new ideas that might
actually reduce the burden of government.  And I like it that there’s at least one candidate who doesn’t want to make
government bigger.  New programs?  “No.  I’m libertarian.  No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,” he ejects.  Are you going to take
care of people?  “You know what party I’m part of, right?  Libertarians believe that
you should be as conservative or as liberal as you want to be as long as you
don’t want to force yourself on others.”

This is not any way an endorsement of Sharpe, nor the Libertarian Party.  I just happened to had recently listened to an interview of Sharpe on @quitefranklytv the other day and thought it was interesting that Stossel also did a quick interview with him as well.  But honestly, anything other than the status quo of the Cuomo regime would better for New Yorkers.  You can watch that full interview here.