Shannon Sloan
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Shannon Sloan (Libertarian Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Louisiana's 6th Congressional District. She lost in the primary on November 3, 2020.
Sloan completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Sloan's professional experience includes working as a manager of production planning. She has been affiliated with the Libertarian Party of Livingston Parish and the Libertarian Party of Louisiana.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Louisiana's 6th Congressional District election, 2020
Louisiana elections use the majority-vote system. All candidates compete in the same primary, and a candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50 percent of the vote. If no candidate does, the top two vote recipients from the primary advance to the general election, regardless of their partisan affiliation.
Nonpartisan primary election
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Shannon Sloan completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Sloan's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Like a growing number of others, I became fed up with the 2-party duopoly working to control our lives, just in 2 different ways. Several years ago, I came across the Libertarian Party platform and realized it was exactly what I already believed - the government's job is to protect our rights, not make our decisions for us. I knew I had to be one less person keeping the duopoly in power, and I joined the Libertarian party.
I am a pro-life Christian and believe in the non-aggression principle, and that it's our responsibility to help our fellow man, not that of the government, which does so much less efficiently and at a far greater cost. I believe in personal responsibility and the individual's right to govern one's own life, whether I agree with their decisions or not (as long as they don't hurt anyone else).
I am running for U.S. Representative for Congressional District 6 to help educate others about the ideas and solutions of the Libertarian Party. The Libertarian Party is here, we are growing, and we welcome you to join us! - I believe in personal responsibility and the individual's right to govern one's own life, whether or not I agree with their decisions (as long as they don't hurt anyone else).
- The government's responsibility is to protect us from force or fraud, not to make our decisions for us or decide how we should live.
- I believe that all people have the right to freely offer goods and services on the market and that the free-market creates competition, lower prices, and better quality goods and services.
I am passionate about criminal justice reform, including the end of locking people in cages for making poor decisions that don't hurt others and to protect them from themselves. I support the right of the individual to make his or her own choices, whether or not I agree with them, as long as they are not hurting someone else. I oppose the death penalty because the justice system is proven to get it wrong on a regular basis, and the government just cannot be trusted to get it right. I want to see an end to the so-called "War On Drugs" which in reality is a war on people. I want to see healthcare, education, and the market as a whole privatized to create healthy competition, leading to better quality and lower prices for the consumer. I want to see an end to the welfare state and a significant reduction in taxes, leaving the fruits of our labor in our hands so that we can decide what causes we support, because we can run our lives better than the government can. I believe Americans give more to charity than any country in the world, and that charitable organizations can handle good will much more efficiently than the government ever will. I am running for office to raise awareness of Libertarian ideas and solutions that can truly lead to liberty and justice for all.
I am passionate about what I believe in and what is right. I do what I say and my word is my bond. I believe each individual has the inherent right to live their life the way they choose, and I recognize that right, whether I agree with their choices or not. Our political structure today is such that both sides of the two-party system are determined to force everyone to live their lives the way their choose...by their moral code. There will simply never, ever be peace in a society like this. One thing that people have significant difficulty understanding is that thinking something should not be against the law in no way means you are condoning that activity. Because one believes something is wrong means that he or she should not participate in such things, not that they have the right to forbid others from doing so. One side will never convince the other side to agree with their version or morality. The only way to bring people together is to acknowledge that each person has the right to choose the way they live, whether it is "right" or not. God gave us free will, and it is the responsibility of each individual to make their own choices, both good and bad, and live with the consequences of those choices. This is something I wholeheartedly stand by and is part of my character that would benefit all people of my district. This will help me bring people together rather than fuel the divide.
The core responsibility to someone elected to the U.S. House of Representatives is to protect the rights and secure the liberties of the people who elected him or her.
The Goal by E. Goldratt is a book that made an impact on me. Working in manufacturing, efficiency is critical, and this book demonstrates that the whole is only as good as its weakest link. Bottlenecks are real and influence the entire process, and addressing them improves overall efficiency and success. Just think about how the government could improve with greater efficiency, less red tape, and fewer bottlenecks.
While there will not be 100% agreement on where lines are drawn, we absolutely have to get away from allowing political parties to draw their own lines. Lines are currently drawn by political parties to suit their interests and give them majority votes in these districts. It is important that we create an independent redistricting commission without political party influence to more fairly draw district lines, truly giving the power to the people and not to the 2-party duopoly. The corrupt practice of gerrymandering must absolutely be abolished. A look at the Congressional district map of southeast Louisiana demonstrates this problem perfectly.
The US House of Representatives is meant to represent the people, not the government. Congress has more power than the President himself, and that power to represent the will of and protect the rights of the people is HUGE. Unfortunately, that power is often used to satisfy the will of special interest groups and political parties rather than to protect the rights of its people.
Yes and no. Our political climate today is nothing to be proud of, and therefore, neither is having been part of it. More than people who know how to handle parliamentary procedure and act like "politicians", we need people passionate about serving the people and protecting their rights. That is more important than any previous experience in a corrupt government.
Those in government as a whole continue to put personal liberty on the back burner and rather protecting the rights of its people, they are working to come up with ways to control our lives and make decisions for us in order to mold their idea of the "common good". The 2-party system is controlling the media, the marketplace, and it's citizens, and that is not freedom. This is happening in all areas of public policy from healthcare, to taxation, to immigration, to criminal justice, to racial and gender equality, to the drug war, and everything in between. The trouble all stem from the gradual erosion of individual liberties controlled by both sides of the political aisle. That is the greatest challenge we currently face.
Liberty-minded candidates could benefit the people by taking part in all congressional committees. I believe that some of the highest priority committees in which to participate to have immediate impact would be the Appropriations, Armed Services, Budget, Education, Small Business, Judiciary, and Taxation Committees. I would take seriously the opportunity to participate in any Congressional Committee where I could have impact bringing back personal liberty for the people of this country.
I have mixed feelings on term limits. If people chose their representatives based on the merits of individual they truly want to represent them, I would not support term limits because the people should have the right to choose the best person to represent them regardless of time served. However, in our current political system. I believe people vote AGAINST people and political parties more often than they vote FOR people, and in this situation, term limits may do more good than harm.
Because the 2-party system currently controls our government rather than the people, that opportunity is not there for a member of the Libertarian party. Rather than creating that opportunity, I would prefer to dissolve that opportunity for ALL political parties. The corrupt old parties no longer represent the people's interests ahead of their own, and I do not believe there is any benefit to the parties having a leadership role in government. In fact, it absolutely does more harm than good.
While not having held the same position exactly, I admire Thomas Jefferson in many ways. He warned against government debt and individual dependence on the government. He believed in the states governing themselves rather than the federal overreach we have today. He believed in free commerce, and that a government with too much power is dangerous. While flawed, he was one of the best "politicians" in our nation's history in my opinion and politicians today can learn a lot from his example. I also would like to become the second Libertarian member of the U.S. House of Representatives, following after Michigan's Justin Amash who became the first.
As a member of the Libertarian Party, I hear such stories on a regular basis from fellow party members. Many of these stories come from former service members who were sent across the world to fight wars that we should never have been involved in in the first place. The stories of what they were asked to do are appalling, and for what? To be the world's policemen. This has got to change. I also hear stories from people who have spent time in prison for simple drug possession or sex work, with lives ruined under the guise of protecting them. It's not the government's job to protect us from ourselves any more than it is to protect other countries from their aggressors. That is not to say people both on our soil and in other countries don't need help that Americans and charitable organizations should not step up to address....it is only to say that is not the role of the U.S. government to take the money of the people and attempt to handle these things for them with far more red tape and at a far greater expense. The government's only role should be to protect the rights of its people.
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See also
External links
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on August 29, 2020
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