I first met Manny Klausner around 1975 when he spoke at the first meeting I organized for the Libertarian Party of West Los Angeles. We had not yet reached the level of more formal dinner meetings. Since I could not find a babysitter for my two small children, both still in diapers, I arranged for this to take place at a Shakey's Pizza Parlor close by. It was generally used by local groups and this was very informal. There were plenty of tables.
Soon there was a knock at my door. Evidently, someone had not taken well to what they were hearing discussed and a small ruckus had resulted. So the several attendees decided to come to my house. This worked out perfectly well. I made coffee and provided what refreshments I could and Manny's talk went forward to a perfectly civil discussion.
I was then the editor for our local newsletter, LiberLetter, an interesting exercise which vastly improved my skills. Then, I coordinated the petition drive for Roger MacBride, who was our Presidential candidate in 1976. One thing led to another and I was elected Chairman for Region 12 and then Southern California Vice Chairman, a post I was re-elected to for six serial terms.
This was a pivotal period in our history. Roger's focus as a candidate was encouraging local growth and independent local action using free market approaches. We opened our own pockets for seed money and never asked for the use of the money from memberships paid.
We grew rapidly. I began to hold Welcome Meetings for new members, set up a card catalog to keep track of members, and called the growing list of members regularly.
At the Welcome Meetings we provided literature on the ideological foundations for Libertarianism. These were discussions, not lectures. There was a reading list of books and other materials and these events would continue sporadically, separate from the dinner meetings which I also organized.
I was having fun. But I soon encountered individuals who viewed the LP as the means for using deceit, pressure and intimidation to forge a very different agenda. One of these people was Manual Klausner, who you likely know as one of the original owners of Reason Magazine, as it was acquired by Robert Poole and Tibor Machan
For instance, in the LP this is carried out by operatives who have been placed in the LP. That is also why right at the beginning they were placing these people. Not all are elected officers. Many of the think tanks which are supposedly free market. One of these is Manny Klausner, one of the three men who purchased Reason Magazine. I began to have questions about him myself when as Southern California Vice Chair in 1979 he called me.
I was organizing a Libertarian version of the ACLU since there were many Libertarian attorneys in Los Angeles and I could see this was needed. Manny very forcefully told me he was organizing such a group. That he never did so is irrefutable.
I had first met Manny when I had arranged for him to speak to our local group in West Los Angeles in 1975 while he was still running for the slot of VP candidate for the 1976 election.
I could not find a baby sitter so set up the meeting at a local pizza place. When that did not work out and Manny and the attendees had arrived they realized something unexpected made it impossible for them to have him speak there. So they came to my house which was one block away. I think Manny spoke about the election. I was busy chasing my small persons and providing coffee and such.
I liked Manny and trusted him at that point in time. I believed, without proof, that anyone espousing a belief in the ideas of freedom was a friend and could be trusted. It was long before I realized this was not entirely accurate. Soon after this I moved to a 'trust but check' protocol, that having nothing to do with Manny at that time.
I learned the attraction of power would cause people to act in ways which were not ethical or in alignment with their spoken words. The Internet did not yet exist but I was very practiced with researching a wide variety of things, some academic, some people and events.
Sometimes information comes to you from unexpected sources. I was researching an article on the organizing of the Libertarian Party in California in the late 1980s. Having discovered this took place at the home of Ed And Alicia Clark, then living in Las Feliz, a nice neighborhood in Los Angeles (They later moved to San Marino) This inquiry began when I was told by a fellow Libertarian, Jim Lorenz. an LP member and psychologist named Grosscup, whose place we had used as a nexus point for coordinating at least one ballot drive during this period, that
When Manny did not, himself, start the Freedom ACLU, which I knew we desperately needed, I began to watch him more closely.
You may remember, or you may not as this happened in California, the law suit brought by John Howard, at attorney in San Diego, filed a lawsuit in 1994 in support of free speech against UC Riverside. Article in Washington Post.
