Page 148 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Consumer Protection and Privacy
of Congress after using a zip-code lookup mechanism to identify their
representative’s name and contact information. Their strategy also in-
volved reducing the visibility of the Libertarian connection, framing
the matter as a simple privacy concern of interest to all citizens. The
party then sent another message to its 10,000 electronic mail addresses,
asking recipients to do two things: visit the web site and pass the mes-
sage on other citizens. The party explained its strategy as follows: “We’re
hoping to create a chain letter–type phenomenon ... we hope to generate
tens of thousands of hits on this new web site – and tens of thousands
of complaints to the FDIC.” The party chose the FDIC from among the
four agencies because it would accept public comments electronically. 49
Almost as much to the party’s own surprise as anyone else’s, a “chain
letter–type phenomenon” is precisely what occurred. Party members
filed their comments, then solicited others who repeated the process.
In the three weeks between the launching of the web campaign and the
closingofthepubliccommentperiod,thepartydirectlybrokered171,000
messages from citizens to the FDIC, more than four times the size of its
own membership and far more than agency officials had ever received. 50
It was a stunning amplification of the strength of the Libertarian Party.
Other involved agencies also received loud public messages, but on a
far smaller scale. The Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency were not targets of the Libertarian-initiated
effort, and they each received but a few thousand comments, according
51
to agency officials. The Federal Reserve, by far the most prominent of
the four Know Your Customer agencies, received about 75,000 written
comments. 52
The remarkable public response to the previously obscure banking
rules helped Republicans on the two banking committees succeed. By
March, there was enough political momentum to kill the rules. At a
March 4 hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial

49
Libertarian Party, “LP Launches New Website to Defeat FDIC’s Know Your Customer
Proposal: Party’s Campaign Picks Up Speed as March 8 Public Comment Dead-
line Looms,” Libertarian Party News, online edition, March 1999, http://www.lp.org/
lpn/9903-KYC.html.
50
Source: Libertarian Party records, from personal interviews with Steve Dasbach and
George Getz.
51
Anonymousofficials,U.S.OfficeofThriftSupervision,personalinterviewswithDiane
Johnson for the author, May 22, 2000; anonymous officials, Office of the Comptroller
of the Currency, personal interviews with Diane Johnson for the author, May 26, 2000.
52
Anonymous official, Federal Reserve, telephone interview with Diane Johnson for the
author, May 9, 2000.
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