What Are Libertarians?

Libertarians are self-governors in both personal and economic matters. They believe government's only purpose is to protect people from coercion and violence. They value individual responsibility and tolerate economic and social diversity.

The LP was highly instrumental in getting the FDIC to rethink its "Know Your Customer" program. This program was designed to get your bank to watch your banking habits and report any "strange" deviations to the government. Check out the Web site, DefendYourPrivacy.com, and join the 50,835 who have signed the electronic petition. (LP News May 1999) By the way, this issue is not dead, as of 8/99. Keep alert for more information.

Number of Americans arrested in 1997 for murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assualt (combined): 717,720. Number of Americans arrested for marijuana offenses: 695,200. 87% of those were arrested for possession. ("Playboy Magazine" April 1999)

Percentage of federal prisoners incarcerated on drug charges: 59. For violent crimes: 2.5. ("Playboy Magazine" April 1999)

Number of Americans in federal and state prisons in 1980 for violating drug laws: 23,900. Number of people in federal and state prisons in 1996 for violating drug laws: 292,794. ("Playboy Magazine" April 1999)

A new federal law encouraging states to build a computerized database of infants with birth defects is a chilling proposal that smacks of government eugenics research and should be opposed by every American. (LP News June 1999)

New Jersey state troopers are paying hotel employees $1,000.00 to spy on their guests, who match certain drug smuggling profile criteria, and anonymously snitch on them to police. The Libertarian Party calls this practice, "a shocking police tactic." (LP News June 1999)

Look how well public education is doing! Literacy levels have declined over the past 30 years, despite significantly increased resources for public schools: In 1955, there were 27 students per teacher; by 1990 there were 17. In 1949, there were 19 pupils per staff member; by 1990 there were nine.

Government employment at all levels rose by 324,000 in 1998, according to the Nelson D. Rockefeller Institute. Local government grew the most.

Federal agents can seize a person's house, car, boat or other property by invoking more than one hundred different federal statutes involving everything from wildlife to taking money out of the country or making large bank withdrawals or deposits. In Miami, the $150,000.00 home of an elderly Cuban-American couple was grabbed after they were convicted of holding illegal weekly poker games for their friends and relatives on their patio. A federal appeals court eventually reversed the seizure, saying it was excessive punishment. (USA Today, May 27, 1999)

Since 1979, federal seizures under forfeiture laws have increased 25-fold. More than $5 billion in property has been confiscated from accused private citizens and businesses. Seizures by state and local government has increased 100-fold since the early 1980's. The Clinton administration is pushing to make forfeiture laws even more sweeping.

If you are concerned about what you have just read, joining the Libertarian Party can help to make a difference. Being part of the silent majority or attending a few rallies won't help make a permanent change, but your registration in the Libertarian Party will send a constant signal. Do something positive for the future of our country: participate.

Libertarian Books

Lost Rights - The Destruction Of American Liberty - Journalist Bovard presents an entertaining and outrageous expose of the misuse of government control. He maintains that the only way many government agencies can measure their "public service" is by the number of citizens they harass, hinder, restrain or jail. Lost Rights provides an analysis of the bloated excess of government and the plight of contemporary Americans.

The Road To Hell - The Ravaging Effects Of Foreign Aid And International Charity - Before you mail another check to Save the Children or join the Peace Corps, read this book. Michael Maren shows that the international aid industry is a big business more concerned with winning its next big government contract than helping needy people. The problem isn't a lack of charity missions in the Third World, but that the best intentions of these idealists are often inadvertently destructive, thanks to a deadly combination of their naiveté and the willingness of native elites to exploit them. Maren spent many years in Africa living this life. This is a splendid, literate, muckraking memoir of his experiences.

Who Will Tell The People: The Betrayal Of American Democracy - An inquiry into the putative decline of democracy in the US. Unlike many observers, Greider (Secrets of the Temple, 1987, etc.) goes beyond the manifest deficiencies of electoral campaigns to focus on the politics of governance--and he concludes that so- called monied interests are ascendant in Washington's power centers. By the author's anecdotal account, the institutionalized intervention of these corporate advocates into administrative as well as legislative affairs costs ordinary citizens dearly--from purposefully lax enforcement of federal law and indulgent treatment of casino capitalism through an inequitable tax system. In Greider's canon, the sorry state of the union does not lack for guilty parties. He blames the ebb of democracy in America on both major political parties (which cater to affluent elites), the press (which no longer mediates between the public and its representatives), big business (as exemplified by the awesome influence wielded by General Electric Co.), and even the populace (whose activism has been limited of late to grass-roots concerns). Greider goes on to argue that the cold war's end offers the US a historic opportunity to renew its democratic principles and to apply them on a global basis. For starters, he proposes that a citizenry committed to challenging the status quo could make multinational enterprises more accountable to society at large, if need be by denying them access to the vast domestic marketplace until they measure up to populist standards of responsibility. Whether the heterogeneous American people have an agenda as explicitly progressive as Greider assumes (and embraces) will strike many as a very open question. Still, a provocative and sobering assessment of how self-government's reach can exceed its grasp.

The Concise Guide To Economics - Sets out the arguments in favor of the free market in 37 short chapters covering topics ranging from minimum wage laws, to price gouging, regulation, inflation, price controls, history of economic thought, the calculation debate, etc.

The Road To Serfdom - By Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, this classic by two of the 20th century's leading libertarian thinkers has established itself beside the works of Orwell and others as a timeless meditation on the relationship between human freedom and government authority. Hayek argues that empowering government with increasing economic control leads not to utopia but to horrors such those seen in Nazi Germany.

The Pinocchio Effect - This book by Dan Carlin outlines which freedoms have been eroded and how the process of restricting rights actually operates. It looks at the various forces and interests involved, and traces the reasons they act as they do. From the insurance industry to the legal system, from big business to crusading special interest groups, The Pinochio Effect examines how they interact in ways that limit liberty, and then suggests ways we might reverse these trends and still achieve the reforms Americans want.

Don't forget to check out the books in my NRA room.

Interesting Libertarian Links

FIJA Link

U.N. Threat To Our Freedom - My observations and concerns on a recent trip to the U.N. There are links to other sites, including the U.N.

U.S. National Debt Clock - This site would be funny if this wasn't such a serious matter. Makes you stop and think.

Laissez Faire Books - A San Francisco-based Libertarian book seller. The world's best outlet for Libertarian literature.

The Cato Institute - A Washington-based Libertarian think-tank. Read discussions on current-events and topics from the right-thinking, logical point of view. Want to understand how economics really works? Check out Cato's very informative site.

Reason Magazine Online - A nationally circulating magazine espousing Libertarian principles.

The Independent Institute - The mission of The Independent Institute is to transcend the all-too-common politicization and superficiality of public policy research and debate, redefine the debate over public issues, and foster new and effective directions for government reform. Good site.

Thomas - Legislative information on the Internet.

Free-Market.Net - The mother of all links to free-market information, groups and Web pages. A site of links.

World Net Daily - The Internet's leading independent news site.

The Hepaestian Forge - A collection of essays, polemics, broadsides, and rants, including: Philosophy, Objectivism, and Libertarianism. An intellectually stimulating site. Nice lamps, too.

Advocates For Self-Government - Find out which celebrities call themselves Libertarian.

Institute for Humane Studies - The public policy arm of George Mason University, one of the foremost academic libertarian institutions.

Bureaucrash - They use creative activism to fight an information war against the outdated, statist ideas that characterize most youth politics. A bit radical - youth oriented.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul - Ron Paul may be a registered Republican, but he's a Libertarian at heart.

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