Libertarians on the Issues
Unlike the major parties, Libertarians base their political platform strictly on a single principle: the initiation of force or fraud against another person is always wrong. No one may threaten, injure, endanger, steal from, defraud, or trespass against another except in response to wrongdoing -- and the role of law is to set the ground rules for punishment. Here are some applications.
Taxes
Medieval serfs labored one day a week for their masters. In return, they got limited protection from marauding bandits. It was a lousy deal, but they were given little choice in the matter.
Today, the average American works more than three days a week for his master, Government. Real progress, eh?
Taxation is slavery. Oh ... you thought we had abolished slavery in the last century? Try not working for Government. Keep all that you earn. Government will confiscate your wealth and imprison you. If you fight for your freedom, you will be killed.
No, you are every bit as much a slave as that medieval serf. But there is one difference. You have a vote.
Self-Defense
The right of the people to keep and bear arms was recognized in the Constitution not because some people like to hunt or shoot skeet, but because no right is more fundamental than self-protection.
Robert Heinlein said it best: "An armed society is a polite society." Crime statistics are lowest where criminals worry that their would-be victims are armed, and highest where criminals know their victims will be unarmed. Furthermore, knowledgeable gun owners have few accidents. A police officer discharging his weapon is seven times more likely to hit an innocent bystander than is the ordinary citizen.
But the founders weren't even specifically concerned with a citizen's ability to repel robbers -- that was a trivially obvious right. They wanted to make absolutely sure that Americans never lost the ability to overthrow a tyrannical government (as they had just overthrown the tyranny of King George). Citizens were to be armed on a par with their own armies -- the armies they would have to fight if the government became tyrannical. The Founders expected you to keep (and maintain in good working order) an assault rifle. Grenades and Stinger missles optional.
The armed citizenry is the militia. "Militia!? Isn't that a group of white supremacist anarchist wackos?" Behold the power of the liberal media. Wackos can run a militia only if people like you turn it over to them. That leaves just one question: Will you support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic? Will you honor your responsibility as a member of the Constitutionally recognized militia? Learn more about the historical role of the militia in our country.
Education
Alexis de Toqueville marveled at how literate early America was. From tycoon to stableboy, we were remarkably well educated.
That was before we turned education over to government.
Today's high school honor students rarely have the command of English that an average sixth-grader attained in 1850. The comparison is equally dismal for most other subjects. What happened?
Students learn well when they value education, appreciate its cost, and have firm standards to meet. Those conditions are hardly satisfied today: The value of public education has plummeted. Many students can't imagine how education will benefit them. The costs of public education are invisible to the student. And students are held to this strict standard: "Whatever you do is just wonderful!"
We must separate school and state. Parents should pay directly for their children's education, and choose the schools they will attend. Because parents care deeply about their children's futures, they will carefully choose the best schools they can afford (seeking financial aid if necessary), and will monitor the quality of education their children receive. Private charities will provide scholarships for needy children.
And students will begin really learning again.
The War FOR Drugs
The saddest example of how government intervention produces the opposite results from those intended is the misnamed "War on Drugs." Like the prohibition of alcohol in the 1930s, the "cure" has turned the sniffles into a huge, malignant cancer.
- Unconstitutional law. As a responsible adult, you have the
right to do with your body whatever you choose -- even if your choice
is stupid and self-destructive. That right is among the many
guaranteed by the Ninth Amendment, so a constitutional amendment was
required to implement Prohibiton. Today, respect for the Constitution
is so far eroded that legislators, police agencies, and judges simply
ignore the Ninth Amendment. Drug laws have all the legitimacy of a
kangaroo court.
- An impossible goal. Even if the entire United States were made a giant maximum security prison, people would still be able to buy drugs of any kind on demand -- just as today's prison inmates do.
- Disastrous side effects. Substances that cost about as much to produce as sugar or soda pop would normally be cheap to buy. Make them illegal, though, and their prices soar -- promising phenomenal profits to those who will accept the risk. The risk is reduced by corrupting authorities and recruiting juvenile dealers, who will be punished lightly if caught, and who earn vastly more than they could at honest, minimum-wage work. Dealers can't resolve their disputes in court (obviously), and the resultant violence spills over to ruin innocent lives. A huge proportion of crime in America is simply users robbing and stealing (and killing) to support their habits. Addicts die from overdoses and adulterated drugs because their sources are anonymous and unaccountable. Kids who have harmed no one but themselves serve mandatory minimum sentences of a decade or more, while violent offenders are released early to relieve prison overcrowding.
- A proven alternative. For many years, the vast majority of adult Americans were smokers; today, smokers are a vanishing minority. Not law, but education and social pressure are responsible for the change. Yet studies have shown that addiction to tobacco is tougher to break than addiction to cocaine or heroin!
- An impossible goal. Even if the entire United States were made a giant maximum security prison, people would still be able to buy drugs of any kind on demand -- just as today's prison inmates do.
Drug abuse will decline when hysterical propaganda is replaced by medical information, when expectations of weakness and failure are replaced by expectations of good judgment and responsibility, and when government coercion is replaced by personal choice.
Debt and Deficit
All the Democrat and Republican discussion about reducing the national deficit is like arguing about how fast to jump off a cliff. The debt is how much the federal government owes, and the deficit is how much the debt increases in the current year. The national debt is pegged by the Treasury at over $5 trillion now. If we add in (as any business would be required to do) the unfunded liabilities such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, the actual debt is estimated at about $17 trillion. The deficit is roughly half a billion per year -- a third of which goes just to paying the interest on the debt!
Libertarians would not reduce, but eliminate the deficit -- and budget a surplus to amortize the debt. How? By eliminating all but the few legitimate (Constitutional) functions of the federal government, such as national defense, courts, and law enforcement.
The most urgent cuts would be in entitlement programs -- shameless giveaways that cost us 10.9 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP). The Clinton administration is fighting to raise that to 21 percent by 2030, while a successful Republican "revolution" would shave that percentage back to 20.3. Makes you feel all warm and safe....
Health Care
The health care "crisis" has been entirely manufactured by government.
- Insurance has been perverted; originally a marvelous device
for spreading the risks and costs of uncommon calamaties (such
as serious injury or disease), it has become a group pre-payment plan
for all medical needs, from routine check-ups and aspirin
tablets to heart transplants. Since you are paying a share of the
expenses for everyone in your insurance pool, you lose out if you
receive fewer medical services than others do. Naturally, then, you
want to get as much service for your premium dollar as possible (as
does everyone else). But, since everyone is demanding more services,
costs skyrocket -- and your premiums along with them.
- FDA approval of new drugs is deathly slow. Bureaucrats get little credit for approving a safe drug, but lose their careers if they approve an unsafe one; they're in no hurry to take personal risks. As a result, hundreds of patients die before the drugs they need are allowed onto the market. But it's sheer, meddlesome arrogance that has the FDA seeking now to regulate simple dietary supplements.
- Research priorities for government-funded medical institutions are guided by politics, not science.
- Licensing of medical practitioners is unnecessary and costly. Bad doctors, for example, are rarely disciplined by their professional "union" -- and their license gives a false sense of security to patients. Talented and capable individuals lacking an M.D. are prohibited from providing services that they would excel at.
- Medicare and other government health subsidies have inflated costs, promoted fraud, and reduced the standard of care provided.
- FDA approval of new drugs is deathly slow. Bureaucrats get little credit for approving a safe drug, but lose their careers if they approve an unsafe one; they're in no hurry to take personal risks. As a result, hundreds of patients die before the drugs they need are allowed onto the market. But it's sheer, meddlesome arrogance that has the FDA seeking now to regulate simple dietary supplements.
Libertarians would let individuals pay for their own medical expenses and catastrophic insurance. They will shop for the best values, monitor the honesty and efficiency of their providers, buy only the services they really need ... and slash their health care costs dramatically. They certainly need no bureaucracy to tell them which vitamins they are allowed to take!
Libertarians would let drug manufacturers release their products on their own authority -- and pay the costs if they injure patients through negligence. We would remove government funding for research and instead protect researchers' profits from the discoveries they make. We would allow anyone to provide medical services who honestly discloses his or her qualifications; laws covering fraud, negligence, and harm are the only government "safeguards" we need. And we would phase out government health subsidies, letting private charities take up the slack, and contracting with private insurers to fulfill existing obligations.
Immigration
We don't have an immigration problem. We have a welfare problem and a growing elections problem. Immigrants, legal or not, who come here to work hard and be self-sufficient are good for the economy. Their industry and ambition are moral beacons for the rest of us to follow. Those, however, who come to live on government benefits, drain America both economically and morally. Worse, liberal policies are now allowing illegal aliens to vote -- that is, vote themselves more extensive and secure freebies at the expense of working Americans. The solution is not immigration control, but election reform and the wholesale dismantling of the welfare state.
Foreign Affairs
Thomas Jefferson summed up Libertarian foreign policy: "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations -- entangling alliances with none."
America has been playing Policeman to the World, and it's time to hang up the toy badge. We have no business interfering with the internal economic or political affairs of other nations. Ganging up with other nations makes such interference no more legitimate. We should not support the United Nations or any other body promoting world government.
The proper role of the U.S. military is defending our own territory, and the best national defence is economic interdependence. What nation would attack its best customer, the supplier of its favorite trade goods, and the home of its most lucrative investments?
Human rights violations around the world are not the purview of our government. But individual American citizens should be free to give economic aid -- or their very lives -- in support of freedom for other peoples. Laws prohibiting this should be repealed.
Trade Policy
Libertarians stand for completely free trade. Preventing Americans from buying good products cheaply is supposed to help the economy? No.
The best foreign aid. There's simply no better way to encourage the growth of Third World countries than to buy their quality products. Why charge import duties on such products to protect American competitors, then tax those competitors (along with everyone else) in order to send millions in free relief to help people whose industries are failing?
The Environment
The environment is too important to entrust to government. A fact of human nature: people work hard and intelligently to preserve their own property, and they try to get as much use out of public property as they can.
Private ownership of our flora and fauna are the best guarantee that our environment will be properly cared for. The Nature Conservancy, a private charity, is an example of this approach: they buy up and maintain wildlife habitats all over America.
Juries and Justice
The jury stands between the awesome power of government and the defendant, deciding whether that defendant shall forfeit life, liberty, or property. Without the approval of the jury, the government cannot legally wield its power. A juror who determines that he has been misled by the court or the prosecution, or that justice is being denied a defendant, has the unreviewable power, the right, and the responsibility to vote for acquittal.
This provides an important protection against unjust laws, for juries can effectively nullify them by refusing to convict those accused of breaking them.
Today's courts, however, want the power of deciding the law for themselves. They refuse to allow juries to be informed of their power, and threaten defendants and their attorneys with contempt of court when they attempt to inform jurors. Jurors are told they must follow the instructions of the court, whether or not their consciences concur. It happens right here in Arizona.
It's time that courts, like witnesses, be required to tell the whole truth.
Now, either take a return link...
- To Maricopa County Libertarian Party home page
- To Libertarians at ASU home page
- To GPM Libertarian SIG home page
- Arizona Liberty Nexus
... or pick the next hot topic!
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