Fredrik Coulter

Fredrik Vladimir Coulter
At-Large Representative Libertarian Party of Volusia County
October 11, 2017—present
Region 7 Representative Libertarian Party of Florida
December 18, 2017—present
Predecessor:	Paul Stanton
Personal Details
Birth:	(1958-04-30) April 30, 1958 Glen Cove, New York
Education:	B.S - Computer Science; B.B.A. - Accounting; Masters of Accountancy; Masters of Public Administration
Occupation:	Government Bureaucrat
Residence:	DeLand, FL
Party:	Libertarian

Fredrik Vladimir Coulter (b. April 30, 1958) is a member of the Executive Committee of the Libertarian Party of Volusia County, in the position of At-Large Representative, and the Region 7 Representative of the Libertarian Party of Florida.

Political Life

His political interests started at a young age. During the Vietnam War, he went on strike at Princeton Middle School when the United States resumed bombing Haiphong. (During this time, there was a mass walkout at Princeton High School.) At the age of fourteen, he worked as a volunteer for the McGovern Presidential campaign.

Starting in the early 1980s, he began to vote for and donate money to Libertarian candidates. On August 18, 1998, he formally joined the Libertarian Party. Since that time, he has generally been registered as a Libertarian, although he has occasionally changed his registration in order to support a libertarian leading candidate of a major party during the party primaries. (Florida is a closed primary state.)

In 2017, after some concerns about the direction and leadership of the Libertarian Party, he decided to become more active in the party. He joined the Libertarian Party of Volusia County, the local affiliate. After attending a couple of meetings, he was appointed to the Executive Council as an At-Large representative. When the County affiliate was asked for volunteers for various committees of the Libertarian Party of Florida, they recommended his addition to the Libertarian Party of Florida's Convention Committee. He has subsequently been serving as an active member of the committee organizing the state's 2018 Annual Convention. At the November 2017 meeting of the Libertarian Party of Volusia County, he was appointed to their Legislative Affairs Committee, which has been tasked with updating the county affiliate's governing documents. In December 2017, he was appointed by the Libertarian Party of Florida as the Region 7 Representative. The seat had been vacant since the resignation of Paul Stanton from the Libertarian Party. In addition, he is acting as Deputy Treasurer for a non-libertarian candidate for the Volusia County Council At-Large position for the 2018 election.

Ideology

Fred describes himself as an incrementalist. He doesn't concern himself with the debates between anarchists, minarchists, limited government conservatives, fiscal conservatives, or other strains of libertarianism. He isn't concerned about the final goal of the party, just that it's in the direction of significantly smaller government. Also, as an incrementalist, he doesn't plan on a Great Leap Forward, rather focusing on a series of political battles shrinking the government. In general, he is not a believer in "this first, then that" policy development. The primary exception to this is in the realm of government finance. He feels that cutting taxes cannot occur prior to cutting spending. The deficit which occurs when taxes are lower than spending is merely a deferral of taxes, not a reduction of taxes. As such, any focus on lowering revenues to the government prior to cutting spending is merely a postponement of taxes which will eventually need to be collected plus interest.

He is strongly opposed to identity group politics, feeling that the focus of libertarianism is (and should be) the individual. Focusing on immigration status, ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, and other such identity groups is antithetical to libertarianism.

Despite his desire to significantly shrink the size of government, there is one area in which he would like to see additional spending. That's in the area of space exploration and settlement. While he supports all private activities in this area, he also supports governmental action in this area. He describes it as "a many eggs, many baskets" approach. In addition to the romance of exploration, he also feels that government grows less when there's a frontier for citizens to yearn for. The growth in the size of the federal government which occurred after the closure of the American frontier is evidence of this.

In terms of party politics, Fred supports greater transparency and greater accountability from party officials. His preferred methodology is policy and rule establishment. He feels that an organization without common policies and rules isn't an organization but a mob. It is too swayed by the leadership of the moment and has no underlying rationale. However, having dealt with large bureaucratic organizations, he is well aware of the dangers of the Iron Law of Bureaucracy. It is too easy to become wedded to the existing policies and rules. As such, all such policies and rules should always be reviewed to ensure that the goal of implementing the rule was met.

Academics & Skill Development

Between 1976 and the early 1980s, Fred made several attempts at college, primarily attending the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He became an active member of the Student Government (Polity) and the Science Fiction Forum. However, he never graduated.

In 1990, he enrolled as a full-time student at Stetson University. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in 1994. He continued on to earn a Masters of Accountancy in 1995. He returned to school at the University of Central Florida and earned a Masters of Public Administration in 2011.

In 2008, he earned his Competent Communicator designation from Toastmasters International, an international organization devoted to improving communication, public speaking, and leadership skills. He is currently the President of the Toastmasters at Twelve club in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Personal Life

Fred is the son of Fred Proffitt Coulter and Xenia Bibicoff Coulter, Ph.D. He is married to Lisa Kay Osterman Coulter, Ph.D., and has two daughters. Kathryn is a graduate of Stetson University, earning majors in mathematics and political science. She was a volunteer for the 2016 Sanders campaign. Christina is currently a student at Oklahoma City University, majoring in vocal performance and musical theater.

External Links

• Personal Activist Blog - https://libertarian.fredrikvladimircoulter.com