COMMENTARY: The Gary Johnson presidential campaign seems to be the Libertarian Party’s best chance at winning the White House to date. That possibility seems to have lots of people scared out of their minds.
Courtesy photo
Mike Blessing
So let’s take a look at some ways that a Libertarian Administration would conduct business.
First, we need to understand that libertarianism is all about the non-aggression principle: No one has the right to initiate force or fraud against anyone else, nor to threaten or delegate that initiation. No exceptions will be granted “under color of law.”
Also understand that we’re not looking to be Romney/Bush Republicans with “L” after our names. If we wanted that, we would simply cut to the chase and sign up as Democrats.
With that in mind, here are some examples of the policies that our prospective Libertarian Administration will undertake:
First, a Libertarian Administration will not seek to expand the size, intrusiveness or expense of government by one iota, on any issue. We’re not looking to grow the federal government — not by 2 percent, much less the 10 or 20 percent that a Clinton or Trump administration will attempt. At worst, we will freeze it where it’s at when we take the reins.
The 2017 budget that we receive on Jan. 21 will be the budget for 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.
No, we’re not looking to expand the welfare state one bit. Nor are we looking to create more regulations upon business or your personal life. Those regulations stifle creativity, growth and economic progress.
Second, the White House will become a pardon factory. All of the people in prison solely for federally-mandated victimless crimes — sawing off a shotgun barrel, having more than a certain amount of marijuana, draining a puddle on their own property — will be pardoned, because they didn’t really do anything wrong.
Third, we’re going to stop putting people in prison in the first place for those victimless crimes. After Obama decided that he can pick and choose which parts of Obamacare he can enforce, we can choose not to enforce the victimless crime laws, as well — and we’re going to call for the repeal of those laws.
Fourth, we’re going to drastically reduce taxes, if we can’t wipe them out completely. This idea that we’re going to settle for a 25-30 percent national sales tax is nonsense. If we’re going to compromise on a tax rate, it will be more like 5 percent. And disregard that “revenue neutrality” hogwash — that’s just pundit-speak for, “We don’t really have to cut spending.”
Fifth, we’re looking to fundamentally transform the welfare state from what it is now — a massive, top-down, bureaucratic system for legalized vote-buying — into something that actually helps the people it’s supposed to help. We’ll turn the various agencies into 501(c)(3) charities and forbid them from taking tax money or lobbying governmental bodies in their charters. Then the people who support them will know that their donations will go a lot further.
Nor do we support any corporate welfare. No more bailouts, no more tax-funded football stadiums, movie subsidies, or contracts for white-elephant projects. The “Albuquerque Rapid Transit” inanity is a prime example of this.
Sixth, on foreign policy: For decades, libertarians have been defamed as “isolationists.” True isolationism was Japan between 1635 and 1853, or China between 1757 and 1839. We simply don’t want America to be micromanaging the affairs of the rest of the world.
Seventh, we will not support forced association under the rubric of “non-discrimination” or “public accommodation.” The slogan “NO means NO” used against rape apologists works just as well here. No Jew should have to bake a cake for a Nazi wedding. This concept should be applied consistently across the population.
To summarize, We the Libertarians simply want to live our own lives, and let everyone else live theirs.
Mike Blessing moved to Albuquerque in 1994 and has been active in the libertarian movement since 1996, writing for The Libertarian Enterprise, as well as letters to the editor to various newspapers, and ran The Weekly Sedition on Albuquerque’s Channel 27 from 1997 to 2011. Mike also has a personal blog at Nemo Me Impune Lacessit.