From LP.org
National Platform of the
Libertarian Party
Adopted In Convention, May
2004, Atlanta Georgia
Preamble
As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in
which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives, and no one is
forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.
We believe that respect for individual rights is the
essential precondition for a free and prosperous world, that force and
fraud must be banished from human relationships, and that only through
freedom can peace and prosperity be realized.
Consequently, we defend each person's right to engage in
any activity that is peaceful and honest, and welcome the diversity
that freedom brings. The world we seek to build is one where
individuals are free to follow their own dreams in their own ways,
without interference from government or any authoritarian power.
In the following pages we have set forth our basic
principles and enumerated various policy stands derived from those
principles.
These specific policies are not our goal, however. Our
goal is nothing more nor less than a world set free in our lifetime,
and it is to this end that we take these stands.
Table of Contents
- Individual Rights and Civil Order
- FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY
- CRIME
- VICTIMLESS CRIMES
- THE WAR ON DRUGS
- SAFEGUARDS FOR THE CRIMINALLY
ACCUSED
- JUSTICE FOR THE INDIVIDUAL
- JURIES
- INDIVIDUAL SOVEREIGNTY
- GOVERNMENT AND MENTAL HEALTH
- FREEDOM OF COMMUNICATION
- FREEDOM OF RELIGION
- THE RIGHT TO PROPERTY
- THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY
- GOVERNMENT SECRECY
- INTERNAL SECURITY
- THE RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS
- CONSCRIPTION AND THE MILITARY
- IMMIGRATION
- FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION AND
GOVERNMENT DISCRIMINATION
- WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND ABORTION
- FAMILIES AND CHILDREN
- SEXUAL RIGHTS
- AMERICAN INDIAN RIGHTS
- Trade and the Economy
- THE ECONOMY
- TAXATION
- INFLATION AND DEPRESSION
- FINANCE AND CAPITAL INVESTMENT
- GOVERNMENT DEBT
- MONOPOLIES
- SUBSIDIES
- TRADE BARRIERS
- PUBLIC UTILITIES
- UNIONS AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
- Domestic Ills
- ENERGY
- POLLUTION
- CONSUMER PROTECTION
- EDUCATION
- POPULATION
- TRANSPORTATION
- POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT
- HEALTH CARE
- RESOURCE USE
- AGRICULTURE
- OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH
ACT (OSHA)
- SOCIAL SECURITY
- POSTAL SERVICE
- CIVIL SERVICE
- ELECTION LAWS
- SECESSION
- Foreign Affairs
A. Diplomatic Policy
- NEGOTIATIONS
- INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL AND
FOREIGN INVESTMENTS
- HUMAN RIGHTS
- WORLD GOVERNMENT
B. Military
- MILITARY POLICY
- PRESIDENTIAL WAR POWERS
C. Economic Policy
- FOREIGN AID
- INTERNATIONAL MONEY
- UNOWNED RESOURCES
D. International Relations
- COLONIALISM
- FOREIGN INTERVENTION
- SPACE EXPLORATION
- Omissions
Statement of Principles
We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the
cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual.
We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise
sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in
whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere
with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.
Governments throughout history have regularly operated
on the opposite principle, that the State has the right to dispose of
the lives of individuals and the fruits of their labor. Even within the
United States, all political parties other than our own grant to
government the right to regulate the lives of individuals and seize the
fruits of their labor without their consent.
We, on the contrary, deny the right of any government to
do these things, and hold that where governments exist, they must not
violate the rights of any individual: namely, (1) the right to life --
accordingly we support the prohibition of the initiation of physical
force against others; (2) the right to liberty of speech and action --
accordingly we oppose all attempts by government to abridge the freedom
of speech and press, as well as government censorship in any form; and
(3) the right to property -- accordingly we oppose all government
interference with private property, such as confiscation,
nationalization, and eminent domain, and support the prohibition of
robbery, trespass, fraud, and misrepresentation.
Since governments, when instituted, must not violate
individual rights, we oppose all interference by government in the
areas of voluntary and contractual relations among individuals. People
should not be forced to sacrifice their lives and property for the
benefit of others. They should be left free by government to deal with
one another as free traders; and the resultant economic system, the
only one compatible with the protection of individual rights, is the
free market.
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Executive Summary
- Individual Rights and Civil Order
No individual, group, or government may initiate force against any
other individual, group, or government.
- Freedom and Responsibility
Individuals should be free to make choices for themselves and to accept
responsibility for the consequences of the choices they make.
- Crime
The appropriate way to suppress crime is through consistent and
impartial enforcement of laws that protect individual rights.
- Victimless Crimes
Only actions that infringe on the rights of others can properly be
termed crimes.
- The War on Drugs
The War on Drugs is a grave threat to individual liberty, to domestic
order, and to peace in the world.
- Safeguards for the Criminally Accused
Until such time as persons are proved guilty of crimes, they should be
accorded full respect for their individual rights.
- Justice for the Individual
We support restitution for the victim to the fullest degree possible at
the expense of the criminal or wrongdoer. We oppose the prosecution of
individuals for exercising their rights of self-defense.
- Juries
We favor all-volunteer juries and urge the assertion of the common-law
right of juries to judge not only the facts but also the justice of the
law.
- Individual Sovereignty
We favor an immediate end to the doctrine of "Sovereign Immunity" which
ignores the primacy of the individual, and holds that the State may not
be held accountable for its actions.
- Government and Mental Health
We oppose the involuntary treatment for mental health by health
officials or law enforcement.
- Freedom of Communication
We defend the rights of individuals to unrestricted freedom of speech,
freedom of the press, and the right of individuals to dissent from
government.
- Freedom of Religion
We defend the rights of individuals to engage in or abstain from any
religious activities that do not violate the rights of others.
- The Right to Property
All rights are inextricably linked with property rights. Property
rights are entitled to the same protection as all other human rights.
- The Right to Privacy
The individual's rights to privacy, property, and to speak or not to
speak should not be infringed by the government.
- Government Secrecy
We condemn the government's use of secret classifications to keep from
the public information that it should have.
- Internal Security
The defense of the country requires that we counter threats to domestic
security; however, we call for repeal of legislation that violates
individual rights under the color of national security.
- The Right to Keep and Bear Arms
We affirm the right to keep and bear arms and oppose all laws at any
level of government restricting, regulating, or requiring the
ownership, manufacture, transfer, or sale of firearms or ammunition.
- Conscription and the Military
We oppose any form of compulsory national service.
- Immigration
We hold that human rights should not be denied or abridged on the basis
of nationality and welcome all refugees to our country.
- Freedom of Association and Government
Discrimination
Individual rights should not be denied or enhanced at the expense of
other people's rights by government.
- Women's Rights and Abortion
Individual rights should not be denied or abridged on the basis of sex.
Recognizing that abortion is a very sensitive issue and that people,
including libertarians, can hold good-faith views on both sides, we
believe the government should be kept out of the question.
- Families and Children
We believe that families are private institutions, which should be free
from government intrusion, and that parents have the right to raise
their children according to their own standards and beliefs.
- Sexual Rights
We believe that adults have the right to private choice in consensual
sexual activity.
- American Indian Rights
American Indians should be free to determine their own system of
governance and should have their property rights restored.
- Trade and the Economy
The only proper role of existing governments in the economic realm is
to protect property rights, adjudicate disputes, and provide a legal
framework in which voluntary trade is protected.
- The Economy
Government intervention in the economy imperils both the personal
freedom and the material prosperity of every American.
- Taxation
All persons are entitled to keep the fruits of their labor. We oppose
all government activity that consists of the forcible collection of
money or goods from individuals in violation of their individual
rights.
- Inflation and Depression
Government control over money and banking is the primary cause of
inflation and depression.
- Finance and Capital Investment
Regulation of financial and capital markets represses capital ventures.
- Government Debt
We support a constitutional amendment requiring government budgets be
balanced by cutting expenditures and not by raising taxes.
- Monopolies
Government is the source of monopoly, through its grants of legal
privilege to special interests in the economy. We advocate a strict
separation of business and State.
- Subsidies
The unrestricted competition of the free market is the best way to
foster prosperity. We oppose all government subsidies.
- Trade Barriers
Tariffs and quotas give special treatment to favored special interests
and diminish the welfare of consumers and other individuals.
- Public Utilities
We advocate the termination of government-created franchise privileges.
The right to offer services on the market should not be curtailed by
law.
- Unions and Collective Bargaining
We support the right of free persons to associate or not associate in
labor unions. An employer should have the right to recognize or refuse
to recognize a union.
- Domestic Ills
Current problems in such areas as energy, pollution, health care
delivery, decaying cities, and poverty are not solved, but are
primarily caused, by government.
- Energy
We oppose all government control of energy pricing, allocation, and
production.
- Pollution
Pollution of other people's property is a violation of individual
rights. Strict liability, not government agencies and arbitrary
government standards, should regulate pollution.
- Consumer Protection
We support strong and effective laws against fraud and
misrepresentation.
- Education
We advocate the complete separation of education and State.
- Population
The American people are not a collective national resource. We oppose
all coercive measures for population control.
- Transportation
We support transit competition and deregulation.
- Poverty and Unemployment
We support the repeal of all laws that impede the ability of any person
to find employment. The proper source of aid to the poor is voluntary
efforts of private groups and individuals.
- Health Care
We favor restoring and reviving a free market health care system. We
advocate a complete separation of medicine and State.
- Resource Use
Resource management is properly the responsibility and right of the
legitimate owners of land, water, and other natural resources.
- Agriculture
Farmers and consumers alike should be free from the meddling and
counterproductive measures of the federal government -- free to grow,
sell, and buy what they want.
- Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)
We call for the repeal of OSHA, which denies the right to liberty and
property to both employer and employee and interferes in private
contractual relations.
- Social Security
Replace the fraudulent, bankrupt Social Security system with a private,
voluntary system.
- Postal Service
We propose allowing free competition in all aspects of postal service.
- Civil Service
The Civil Service system entrenches a permanent and growing bureaucracy
and is inherently a system of concealed patronage.
- Election Laws
We call for an end to government control of political parties,
consistent with First Amendment rights to freedom of association and
freedom of expression, and propose electoral systems that are more
representative.
- Secession
We recognize the right to political secession by political entities,
private groups, or individuals.
- Foreign Affairs
The United States government should return to the historic libertarian
tradition of avoiding entangling alliances, abstaining totally from
foreign quarrels and imperialist adventures, and recognizing the right
to unrestricted trade and travel.
- Diplomatic Policy
- Negotiations
The important principle in foreign policy should be the elimination of
intervention by the United States government in the affairs of other
nations.
- International Travel and Foreign
Investments
We call upon the United States government to adhere rigidly to the
principle that all U.S. citizens travel, live, and own property abroad
at their own risk.
- Human Rights
We recognize the right of all people to resist tyranny and defend
themselves and their rights against governments or political and
revolutionary groups.
- World Government
We oppose U.S. government participation in any world or international
government. We oppose any treaty under which individual rights would be
violated.
- Military
- Military Policy
Any U.S. military policy should have the objective of providing
security for the lives, liberty and property of the American people in
the U.S. as inexpensively as possible and without undermining the
liberties it is designed to protect.
- Presidential War Powers
We favor limiting the presidential role as Commander-in-Chief to its
original meaning, namely that of the head of the armed forces in
wartime.
- Economic Policy
- Foreign Aid
We support the elimination of tax-supported military, economic,
technical, and scientific aid to foreign governments or other
organizations.
- International Money
We favor withdrawal of the United States from all international money
and credit schemes, the World Bank, and the International Monetary
Fund.
- Unowned Resources
Individuals have the right to homestead unowned resources, both within
the jurisdictions of national governments and within unclaimed
territory.
- International Relations
- Colonialism
We favor immediate self-determination for all people living in colonial
dependencies and the termination of subsidization of them at taxpayers'
expense.
- Foreign Intervention
We would end the current U.S. government policy of foreign
intervention, including military and economic aid, guarantees, and
diplomatic meddling. We make no exceptions.
- Space Exploration
We oppose all government restrictions upon voluntary, peaceful use of
outer space.
- Omissions
Our silence about any other particular government law, regulation,
ordinance, directive, edict, control, regulatory agency, activity, or
machination should not be construed to imply approval.
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I. Individual Rights and Civil Order
No conflict exists between civil order and
individual rights. Both concepts are based on the same fundamental
principle: that no individual, group, or government may initiate force
against any other individual, group, or government.
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Freedom and Responsibility
The Issue: Personal responsibility is
discouraged by government denying individuals the opportunity to
exercise it. In fact, the denial of freedom fosters irresponsibility.
The Principle: Individuals should be free to
make choices for themselves and to accept responsibility for the
consequences of the choices they make. We must accept the right of
others to choose for themselves if we are to have the same right. Our
support of an individual's right to make choices in life does not mean
that we necessarily approve or disapprove of those choices. We believe
people must accept personal responsibility for the consequences of
their actions.
Solutions: Libertarian policies will promote a
society where people are free to make and learn from their own
decisions.
Transitional Actions: Repeal all laws that
presume government knows better than the individual how to run that
person's life. Encourage private sector dissemination of information to
help consumers make informed decisions on products and services.
Enforce laws against fraud and misrepresentation.
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Crime
The Issue: The continuing high level of
violent crime -- and the government's demonstrated inability to deal
with it -- threatens the lives, happiness and belongings of Americans.
At the same time, governmental violations of rights undermine people's
sense of justice with regard to crime. Victimless crime laws themselves
violate individual rights and also breed genuine crime.
The Principle: The only justified function of
government is the protection of the lives, rights and property of its
citizens.
Solutions: The appropriate way to suppress
crime is through consistent and impartial enforcement of laws that
protect individual rights. We applaud the trend toward private
protection services and voluntary community crime control groups.
Transitional Action: We call for an end to
"hate crime" laws that punish people for their thoughts and speech,
distract us from real crimes, and foster resentment by giving some
individuals special status under the law. Laws pertaining to
"victimless crimes" should be repealed. We support institutional
changes, consistent with full respect for the rights of the accused,
which would permit victims to direct the prosecution in criminal cases.
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Victimless Crimes
The Issue: Activities which do not affect
anyone but the actor have been criminalized by government on the basis
of encoding a particular morality into law.
The Principle: Only actions that infringe on
the rights or damage the property of others can properly be termed
crimes.
Solutions: We favor the repeal of all federal,
state and local laws creating "crimes" without victims.
Transitional Action: In particular, we
advocate:
A. the repeal of all laws prohibiting the production, sale, possession,
or use of drugs, and of all medicinal prescription requirements for the
purchase of vitamins, drugs, and similar substances; the repeal of all
laws restricting or prohibiting the use or sale of alcohol, requiring
health warning labels and signs, making bartenders or hosts responsible
for the behavior of customers and guests, making liquor companies
liable for birth defects, and making gambling houses liable for the
losses of intoxicated gamblers; the repeal of all laws or policies
authorizing stopping drivers without probable cause to test for alcohol
or drug use; the repeal of all laws regarding consensual sexual
relations, including prostitution and solicitation, and the cessation
of state oppression and harassment of homosexual men and women, that
they, at last, be accorded their full rights as individuals; the repeal
of all laws regulating or prohibiting the possession, use, sale,
production, or distribution of sexually explicit material, independent
of "socially redeeming value" or compliance with "community standards";
B. the repeal of all laws regulating or prohibiting gambling;
C. the repeal of anti-racketeering statutes such as the Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which punish peaceful
behavior -- including insider trading in securities, sale of sexually
explicit material, and nonviolent anti-abortion protests -- by freezing
and/or seizing assets of the accused or convicted; and
D. the repeal of all laws interfering with the right to commit suicide
as infringements of the ultimate right of an individual to his or her
own life.
We demand the use of executive pardon to free and exonerate all those
presently incarcerated or ever convicted solely for the commission of
these "crimes." We condemn the wholesale confiscation of property prior
to conviction by the state that all too often accompanies police raids,
searches, and prosecutions for victimless crimes. Further, we recognize
that, often, the Federal Government blackmails states which refuse to
comply with these laws by withholding funds and we applaud those states
which refuse to be so coerced.
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The War on Drugs
The Issue: The suffering that drug misuse
has brought about is deplorable; however, drug prohibition causes more
harm than drugs themselves. The so-called "War on Drugs" is in reality
a war against the American people, our Constitution and the Bill of
Rights. It is a grave threat to individual liberty, to domestic order
and to peace in the world.
The Principle: Individuals should have the
right to use drugs, whether for medical or recreational purposes,
without fear of legal reprisals, but must be held legally responsible
for the consequences of their actions only if they violate others'
rights.
Solutions: Social involvement by individuals is
essential to address the problem of substance misuse and abuse. Popular
education and assistance groups are a better approach than prohibition,
and we support the activities of private organizations as the best way
to move forward on the issue.
Transitional Action: Repeal all laws
establishing criminal or civil penalties for the use of drugs. Repeal
laws that infringe upon individual rights to be secure in our persons,
homes, and property as protected by the Fourth Amendment. Stop the use
of "anti-crime" measures such as profiling or civil asset forfeiture
that reduce the standard of proof historically borne by government in
prosecutions. Stop prosecuting accused non-violent drug offenders, and
pardon those previously convicted.
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Safeguards for the Criminally Accused
The Issue: Instant-punishment policies
deprive the accused of important checks on government power -- juries
and the judicial process.
The Principle: Until such time as persons are
proved guilty of crimes, they should be accorded full respect for their
individual rights. We oppose any concept that some individuals are by
nature second-class citizens who only understand instant punishment and
any claim that the police possess special insight into recognizing
persons in need of punishment. We oppose reduction of constitutional
safeguards of the rights of the criminally accused.
Solutions: Cases must no longer be treated as
"civil" strictly to avoid the due process protections of criminal law.
Government must no longer be allowed to seize property for criminal
offenses, prior to civil or criminal proceedings. Full restitution must
be made for all loss suffered by persons arrested, indicted, tried,
imprisoned, or otherwise injured in the course of criminal proceedings
against them that do not result in their conviction. When they are
responsible, government police employees or agents must be liable for
this restitution.
Transitional Action: Police officers must be
prohibited from using excessive force on the disorderly or the
criminally accused, handing out what they may consider to be instant
punishments on the streets, or using preventive detention and no-knock
laws. The judicial system must be reformed to allow criminal defendants
and civil parties to a court action a reasonable number of peremptory
challenges to proposed judges, similar to their right under the present
system to challenge a proposed juror.
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Justice for the Individual
The Issue: The present system of criminal
law is based almost solely on punishment with little concern for the
victim.
The Principle: The purpose of a justice system
is to provide restitution to those suffering a loss at the expense of
those who caused that loss. In the case of violent crimes, an
additional purpose is to defend society from the continued threat of
violence.
Solutions: We support the following:
a) restitution for the victim to the fullest degree possible at the
expense of the criminal or wrongdoer;
b) an end to the prosecution of individuals for exercising their rights
of self-defense; and
c.) an affirmation of the right of the victim to pardon the criminal or
wrongdoer, barring threats to the victim for this purpose.
Transitional Action: End all "no-fault"
insurance laws, which deprive the victim of the right to recover
damages from those responsible in the case of injury. Affirm the right
of the victim to pardon the criminal or wrongdoer, barring threats to
the victim for this purpose. Change rape laws so that cohabitation will
no longer be a defense against a charge of rape.
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Juries
The Issue: The right to a trial by a citizen
jury is an important check on the infringement of our rights by
government. Current practice has seriously eroded that protection.
The Principle: Juries should be composed of
volunteers, not forced jurors. In addition, the common-law right of
juries, to judge not only the facts but also the justice of the law,
should be recognized and encouraged.
Solutions: In all cases to which the government
is a party, the judge should be required to inform the jurors of their
common law right to judge the law, as well as the facts, and to acquit
a criminal defendant, and to find against the government in a civil
trial, whenever they deem the law unjust or oppressive.
Transitional Action: End the practice in
capital cases of excluding jurors who are opposed to the death penalty
(referred to as "death qualification"), which denies capital defendants
the right to a trial before a jury representative of community values.
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Individual Sovereignty
The Issue: The government has placed itself
in a position of superiority above its citizens, has denied our rights
under a policy of "compelling state interest" (thereby becoming the
primary threat to our rights, rather than the protector of them), and
has denied its citizens their right to sue their government for redress
of grievances, claiming a position of sovereign immunity.
Principle: The only legitimate use of force is
in defense of individual rights -- life, liberty, and justly acquired
property -- against aggression, whether by force or fraud. This right
inheres in the individual, who -- with his or her consent -- may be
aided by any other individual or group. The right of defense extends to
defense against aggressive acts of government.
Solutions: Government must be returned to its
proper role as protector of rights, and once again be made accountable
for its actions to the individual citizen. Individual elected officials
and bureaucrats must be held accountable if their actions directly
violate the rights of individual citizens.
Transitional Action: We advocate an immediate
end to the doctrine of "Sovereign Immunity" which ignores the primacy
of the individual over the abstraction of the State, and holds that the
State, contrary to the tradition of redress of grievances, may not be
sued without its permission or held accountable for its actions under
civil law.
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Government and Mental Health
The Issue: Individuals are forcibly
medicated or denied medication, not based on medical need, but based
rather on a social agenda as enforced by government.
The Principle: Medication must be voluntary.
Solutions: We oppose the involuntary commitment
of any person to or involuntary treatment in a mental institution. We
strongly condemn Involuntary Outpatient Commitment (IOC), where the
patient is ordered to accept treatment, or else be committed to a
mental institution and forcibly treated. We oppose government pressure
requiring parents to obtain counseling or psychiatric drugs for their
children. We also oppose forced treatment for the elderly, the
head-injured, or those with diminished capacity. We are against the
invasion of people's homes and privacy by health officials or law
enforcement to either require or deny drug taking.
Transitional Action: We advocate an end to the
spending of tax money for any program of psychiatric, psychological, or
behavioral research or treatment. We favor an end to the acceptance of
criminal defenses based on "insanity" or "diminished capacity" which
absolve the guilty of their responsibility.
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Freedom of Communication
The Issue: We oppose any abridgment of the
freedom of speech through government censorship, regulation or control
of communications media, including, but not limited to, laws
concerning:
a) Obscenity, including "pornography", as we hold this to be an
abridgment of liberty of expression despite claims that it instigates
rape or assault, or demeans and slanders women;
b) Reception and storage equipment, such as digital audio tape
recorders and radar warning devices, and the manufacture of video
terminals by telephone companies;
c) Electronic bulletin boards, communications networks, and other
interactive electronic media as we hold them to be the functional
equivalent of speaking halls and printing presses in the age of
electronic communications, and as such deserving of full freedom;
d) Electronic newspapers, electronic "Yellow Pages", file libraries,
websites, and other new information media, as these deserve full
freedom; or
e) Commercial speech or advertising. We oppose speech codes at all
schools that are primarily tax funded. Language that is deemed
offensive to certain groups is not a cause for legal action.
We strongly oppose the government's burgeoning practice of invading
newsrooms, or the premises of other innocent third parties, in the name
of law enforcement. We further oppose court orders gagging news
coverage of criminal proceedings -- the right to publish and broadcast
must not be abridged merely for the convenience of the judicial system.
We deplore any efforts to impose thought control on the media, either
by the use of anti-trust laws, or by any other government action in the
name of stopping "bias." The Principle: We defend the rights
of individuals to unrestricted freedom of speech, freedom of the press
and the right of individuals to dissent from government itself. We
recognize that full freedom of expression is possible only as part of a
system of full property rights. The freedom to use one's own voice; the
freedom to hire a hall; the freedom to own a printing press, a
broadcasting station, or a transmission cable; the freedom to host and
publish information on the Internet; the freedom to wave or burn one's
own flag; and similar property-based freedoms are precisely what
constitute freedom of communication. At the same time, we recognize
that freedom of communication does not extend to the use of other
people's property to promote one's ideas without the voluntary consent
of the owners.
Solutions: We would provide for free market
ownership of airwave frequencies, deserving of full First Amendment
protection. We oppose government ownership or subsidy of, or funding
for, any communications organization. Removal of all of these
regulations and practices throughout the communications media would
open the way to diversity and innovation. We shall not be satisfied
until the First Amendment is expanded to protect full, unconditional
freedom of communication.
Transitional Action: We advocate the abolition
of the Federal Communications Commission.
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Freedom of Religion
Issue: Government routinely invades personal
privacy rights based solely on individuals' religious beliefs.
Arbitrary tax structures are designed to give aid to certain religions,
and deny it to others.
Principle: We defend the rights of individuals
to engage in (or abstain from) any religious activities that do not
violate the rights of others.
Solution: In order to defend freedom, we
advocate a strict separation of church and State. We oppose government
actions that either aid or attack any religion. We oppose taxation of
church property for the same reason that we oppose all taxation. We
condemn the attempts by parents or any others -- via kidnappings or
conservatorships -- to force children to conform to any religious
views. Government harassment or obstruction of religious groups for
their beliefs or non-violent activities must end.
Transitional Action: We call for an end to the
harassment of churches by the Internal Revenue Service through threats
to deny tax-exempt status to churches that refuse to disclose massive
amounts of information about themselves.
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The Right to Property
The Issue: We oppose all violations of the
right to private property, liberty of contract, and freedom of trade,
especially those done in the name of national security. We also condemn
current government efforts to regulate or ban the use of property in
the name of aesthetic values, risk, moral standards, cost-benefit
estimates, or the promotion or restriction of economic growth. We
specifically condemn all government interference in the operation of
private businesses, such as restaurants and airlines, by either
requiring or prohibiting designated smoking or non-smoking areas for
their employees or their customers. The taxation of privately owned
real property actually makes the State the owner of all lands and
forces individuals to rent their homes and places of business from the
State. We condemn attempts to employ eminent domain to municipalize
sports teams or to try to force them to stay in their present location.
The Principle: There is no conflict between
property rights and human rights. Indeed, property rights are the
rights of humans with respect to property, and as such, are entitled to
the same respect and protection as all other human rights. All rights
are inextricably linked with property rights. Such rights as the
freedom from involuntary servitude as well as the freedom of speech and
the freedom of press are based on self-ownership. Our bodies are our
property every bit as much as is justly acquired land or material
objects. The owners of property have the full right to control, use,
dispose of -- or in any manner enjoy -- their property without
interference, until and unless the exercise of their control infringes
the valid rights of others.
Solutions: We demand an end to the taxation of
privately owned real property. Where property, including land, has been
taken from its rightful owners by the government or private action in
violation of individual rights, we favor restitution to the rightful
owners.
Transitional Action: Repeal property tax laws
and force government to fund property protection services with user
fees.
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The Right to Privacy
The Issue: Privacy protections have been
eroded gradually over many years. The Social Security Number has become
a universal ID number, causing rampant and massive identity theft.
Government routinely keeps records on the bank accounts, travel plans,
and spending habits of law-abiding civilians, for no other reason than
they "might" commit a crime in the future.
The Principle: The individual's right to
privacy, property, and right to speak or not to speak should not be
infringed by the government. The government should not use electronic
or other means of covert surveillance of an individual's actions or
private property without the consent of the owner or occupant.
Correspondence, bank and other financial transactions and records,
doctors' and lawyers' communications, employment records, and the like
should not be open to review by government without the consent of all
parties involved in those actions.
Private contractual arrangements, including labor contracts, must be
founded on mutual consent and agreement in a society that upholds
freedom of association. On the other hand, we oppose any use of such
screening by government or regulations requiring government contractors
to impose any such screening.
Solutions: We support the protections provided
by the Fourth Amendment and oppose any government use of search
warrants to examine or seize materials belonging to innocent third
parties. We oppose all restrictions and regulations on the private
development, sale, and use of encryption technology. We specifically
oppose any requirement for disclosure of encryption methods or keys,
including the government's proposals for so-called "key escrow" which
is truly government access to keys, and any requirement for use of
government-specified devices or protocols. We also oppose government
classification of civilian research on encryption methods. If a private
employer screens prospective or current employees via questionnaires,
polygraph tests, urine tests for drugs, blood tests for AIDS, or other
means, this is a condition of that employer's labor contracts. Such
screening does not violate the rights of employees, who have the right
to boycott such employers if they choose. We oppose the issuance by the
government of an identity card, to be required for any purpose, such as
employment, voting, or border crossing. We further oppose the nearly
universal requirement for use of the Social Security Number as a
personal identification code, whether by government agencies or by
intimidation of private companies by governments.
Transitional Action: We also oppose police
roadblocks aimed at randomly, and without probable cause, testing
drivers for intoxication and police practices to stop mass transit
vehicles and search passengers without probable cause. So long as the
National Census and all federal, state, and other government agencies'
compilations of data on an individual continue to exist, they should be
conducted only with the consent of the persons from whom the data is
sought. We oppose government regulations that require employers to
provide health insurance coverage for employees, which often encourage
unnecessary intrusions by employers into the privacy of their
employees.
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Government Secrecy
The Issue: We condemn the government's use
of secret classifications to keep from the public information that it
should have.
The Principle: Government is the servant of the
individuals who own this country; withholding information that the
public has a right to know is dishonest, deceptive and a perversion of
the proper relationship between government and its employers.
Solutions: We favor substituting the present
secrecy system with one in which no individual may be convicted for
violating government secrecy classifications unless the government
discharges its burden of proving that the publication either:
a.) Violated the right of privacy of those who have been coerced into
revealing confidential or proprietary information to government agents;
or
b.) Disclosed defensive military plans so as to materially impair the
capabilities to respond to attack. It should always be a defense to
such prosecution that information divulged shows that the government
has violated the law.
Transitional Action: Abolish the entrenched
system of classification of information except for all matters that
pass a private sector citizen review board and are determined as true
national security.
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Internal Security
The Issue: Lacking appropriate citizen
oversight, government bureaucracies have deprived citizens of their
privacy, property, and freedom, under the pretense that such action is
necessary to protect us from our enemies. Such actions include the
suspension of the right of habeas corpus during the Civil War, the
internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II, the
Patriot Act and the classification of "enemy combatants" today.
The Principle: The rights of due process, a
speedy trial, legal counsel, trial by jury, the legal presumption of
innocence until proven guilty, personal privacy, the freedoms of
assembly, expression and religion; and other individual liberties and
rights must not be denied on the basis of national security. The Bill
of Rights provides no exceptions for a time of war.
Solutions: Wherever possible, private security
agencies should replace public institutions. Agencies, public or
private, duly constituted to preserve the security of the nation must
be subject to independent oversight, accountable to the citizenry whom
they serve, and subject to the law, including full responsibility for
any violations of individual rights. Individual awareness of the
requirements of security must be the ultimate supplement to any public
protection.
Transitional Action: We opposed the
establishment of a new cabinet level Department of Homeland Security
and now call for its elimination. Abolish the subpoena power as used by
Congressional committees against individuals or firms. We oppose any
efforts to revive the House Internal Security Committee (or its
predecessor the House Committee on Un-American Activities), and call
for the destruction of its files on private individuals and groups. We
also call for the abolition of the Senate Subcommittee on Internal
Security. Intelligence and law enforcement agencies like the CIA, NSA,
and FBI must be prevented from abusing individual rights or else be
abolished.
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The Right to Keep and Bear Arms
The Issue: Governments at all levels often
violate their citizens' right of self defense with laws that restrict,
limit or outright prohibit the ownership and use of firearms. These
"gun control" laws are often justified by the mistaken premise that
they will lead to a reduction in the level of violence in our society.
The Principle: The Bill of Rights recognizes
that an armed citizenry is essential to a free society. We affirm the
right to keep and bear arms.
Solutions: We oppose all laws at any level of
government restricting, regulating or requiring the ownership,
manufacture, transfer or sale of firearms or ammunition. We oppose all
laws requiring registration of firearms or ammunition. We support
repeal of all gun control laws. We demand the immediate abolition of
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Transition: We oppose any government efforts to
ban or restrict the use of tear gas, "mace" or other self-protection
devices. We further oppose all attempts to ban weapons or ammunition on
the grounds that they are risky or unsafe. We favor the repeal of laws
banning the concealment of weapons or prohibiting pocket weapons. We
also oppose the banning of inexpensive handguns ("Saturday night
specials") and semi-automatic or so-called assault weapons and their
magazines or feeding devices.
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Conscription and the Military
The Issue: We oppose any form of national
service, including conscription into the military, a compulsory youth
labor program, or any other kind of coerced social program.
The Principle: Impressment of individuals into
the armed forces is involuntary servitude.
Solutions: Recognizing that registration is the
first step toward full conscription, we oppose all attempts at
compulsory registration of any person and all schemes for automatic
registration through government invasions of the privacy of school,
motor vehicle, or other records. We call for the abolition of the
still-functioning elements of the Selective Service System. We call for
the destruction of all files in computer-readable or hard-copy form
compiled by the Selective Service System. We oppose adding women to the
pool of those eligible for and subject to the draft, not because we
think that as a rule women are unfit for combat, but because we believe
that this step enlarges the number of people subjected to government
tyranny.
Transitional Action: We call for the immediate
and unconditional exoneration of all who have been accused or convicted
of draft evasion, desertion from the military in cases of conscription
or fraud, and other acts of resistance to such transgressions as
imperialistic wars and aggressive acts of the military. Members of the
military should have the same right to quit their jobs as other
persons.
We call for the end of the Defense Department practice of discharging
armed forces personnel for homosexual conduct. We further call for
retraction of all less-than-honorable discharges previously assigned
for such reasons and deletion of such information from military
personnel files. We recommend the repeal of the Uniform Code of
Military Justice and the recognition and equal protection of the rights
of armed forces members. This will thereby promote morale, dignity, and
a sense of justice within the military.
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Immigration
The Issue: We welcome all refugees to our
country and condemn the efforts of U.S. officials to create a new
"Berlin Wall" which would keep them captive. We condemn the U.S.
government's policy of barring those refugees from our country and
preventing Americans from assisting their passage to help them escape
tyranny or improve their economic prospects.
The Principle: We hold that human rights should
not be denied or abridged on the basis of nationality. Undocumented
non-citizens should not be denied the fundamental freedom to labor and
to move about unmolested. Furthermore, immigration must not be
restricted for reasons of race, religion, political creed, age or
sexual preference. We oppose government welfare and resettlement
payments to non-citizens just as we oppose government welfare payments
to all other persons.
Solutions: We condemn massive roundups of
Hispanic Americans and others by the federal government in its hunt for
individuals not possessing required government documents. We strongly
oppose all measures that punish employers who hire undocumented
workers. Such measures repress free enterprise, harass workers, and
systematically discourage employers from hiring Hispanics.
Transitional Action: We call for the
elimination of all restrictions on immigration, the abolition of the
Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Border Patrol, and a
declaration of full amnesty for all people who have entered the country
illegally.
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Freedom of Association and Government
Discrimination
The Issue: Discrimination imposed by
government has caused a multitude of problems. Anti-discrimination laws
create the same problems.
The Principle: Individual rights should not be
denied, abridged or enhanced at the expense of other people's rights by
laws at any level of government based on sex, wealth, race, color,
creed, age, national origin, personal habits, political preference or
sexual orientation. The right to trade includes the right not to trade
-- for any reasons whatsoever. The right of association includes the
right not to associate, for exercise of this right depends upon mutual
consent.
Solutions: While we do not advocate private
discrimination, we do not support any laws which attempt to limit or
ban it.
Transitional Action: We support repealing any
laws imposing discrimination by government, rather than extending them
to all individuals.
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Women's Rights and Abortion
The Issue: Recognizing that abortion is a
very sensitive issue and that people, including libertarians, can hold
good-faith views on both sides, we believe the government should be
kept out of the question. We condemn state-funded and state-mandated
abortions. It is particularly harsh to force someone who believes that
abortion is murder to pay for another's abortion.
The Principle: We hold that individual rights
should not be denied or abridged on the basis of sex. It is the right
and obligation of the pregnant woman, not the state, to decide the
desirability or appropriateness of prenatal testing, Caesarean births,
fetal surgery, voluntary surrogacy arrangements and/or home births.
Solutions: We oppose all laws likely to impose
restrictions on free choice and private property or to widen tyranny
through reverse discrimination.
Transitional Action: We call for repeal of all
laws discriminating against women, such as protective labor laws and
marriage or divorce laws which deny the full rights of men and women.
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Families and Children
The Issue: Government involvement in
traditional parenting responsibilities has weakened families and
replaced family-taught morals with government-taught morals.
The Principle: Families and households are
private institutions, which should be free from government intrusion
and interference. Parents, or other guardians, have the right to raise
their children according to their own standards and beliefs, without
interference by government -- unless they are abusing the children.
Because parents have these rights, a child may not be able to fully
exercise his or her rights in the context of family life. However,
children always have the right to establish their maturity by assuming
administration and protection of their own rights, ending dependency
upon their parents or other guardians, and assuming all
responsibilities of adulthood. A child is a human being and, as such,
deserves to be treated justly.
Parents have no right to abandon or recklessly endanger their children.
Whenever they are unable or unwilling to raise their children, they
have the obligation to find other person(s) willing to assume
guardianship.
Solutions: We recognize that the determination
of child abuse can be very difficult. Only local courts should be
empowered to remove a child from his or her home, with the consent of
the community. This is not meant to preclude appropriate action when a
child is in immediate physical danger.
Transitional Action: We would repeal all laws
that impede these processes, notably those restricting private adoption
services. In particular, we call for the repeal of all laws restricting
transracial adoption. We oppose laws infringing on children's rights to
work or learn, such as child labor laws and compulsory education laws.
We also oppose the use of curfews based on age.
We call for an end to the practice in many states of jailing children
not accused of any crime. We call for repeal of all "children's codes"
or statutes which abridge due process protections for young people.
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Sexual Rights
The Issue: Government has presumed to decide
acceptability over sexual practices in personal relationships, imposing
a particular code of moral and social values and displacing personal
choice in such matters.
The Principle: Adults have the right to private
choice in consensual sexual activity.
Solutions: We advocate an end to all government
attempts to dictate, prohibit, control or encourage any private
lifestyle, living arrangement or contractual relationship.
Transitional Action: We would repeal existing
laws and policies intended to condemn, affirm, encourage or deny sexual
lifestyles, or any set of attitudes about such lifestyles.
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American Indian Rights
The Issue: The rights of American Indians
have been usurped over the years.
The Principle: Individuals should be free to
select their own citizenship, and tribes should be free to select the
level of autonomy the tribe wishes.
Solutions: Indians should have their property
rights restored, including rights of easement, access, hunting, and
fishing.
Transition: The Bureau of Indian Affairs should
be abolished leaving tribal members to determine their own system of
governance. Negotiations should be undertaken to resolve all
outstanding differences between the tribes and the government.
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II. Trade and the Economy
We believe that each person has the right to offer
goods and services to others on the free market. Therefore we oppose
all intervention by government into the area of economics. The only
proper role of existing governments in the economic realm is to protect
property rights, adjudicate disputes, and provide a legal framework in
which voluntary trade is protected.
Efforts to forcibly redistribute wealth or
forcibly manage trade are intolerable. Government manipulation of the
economy creates an entrenched privileged class -- those with access to
tax money -- and an exploited class -- those who are net taxpayers.
We believe that all individuals have the right to
dispose of the fruits of their labor as they see fit and that
government has no right to take such wealth. We oppose
government-enforced charity such as welfare programs and subsidies, but
we heartily applaud those individuals and private charitable
organizations that help the needy and contribute to a wide array of
worthwhile causes through voluntary activities.
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The Economy
The Issue: Government intervention in
the economy imperils both the personal freedom and the material
prosperity of every American.
The Principle: The free market, which
respects individual rights in voluntary trade with other individuals,
should be allowed to function unhindered by government. The only proper
role of government in the economic realm is to protect property rights,
adjudicate disputes and provide a legal framework in which voluntary
trade is protected.
Solutions: To ensure the economic freedom
and enhance the economic well-being of Americans, we would implement
the following policies:
a. Dramatic reductions in both taxes and government spending;
b. An end to deficit budgets;
c. A halt to inflationary monetary policies;
d. The elimination of all government impediments to free trade; and
e. The repeal of all controls on wages, prices, rents, profits,
production and interest rates.
Transitional Action: We call for the repeal
of the income tax, the abolishment of the Internal Revenue Service and
all federal programs and services not required under the US
Constitution.
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Taxation
The Issue: Government manipulation of
the economy creates an entrenched privileged class -- those with access
to tax money -- and an exploited class -- those who are net taxpayers.
The Principle: All persons are entitled to
keep the fruits of their labor. Government activity should not include
the forcible collection of money or goods from individuals in violation
of their individual rights. No tax can ever be fair, simple or neutral
to the free market.
Solutions: Specifically, we: a.) support
the right of any individual to challenge the payment of taxes on moral,
religious, legal or constitutional grounds; b.) oppose all personal and
corporate income taxation, including capital gains taxes; c.) support
the repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment, and oppose any increase in
existing tax rates and the imposition of any new taxes; d.) support the
repeal of all taxation; and e.) support a declaration of unconditional
amnesty for all those individuals who have been convicted of, or who
now stand accused of, tax resistance. We oppose as involuntary
servitude any legal requirements forcing employers or business owners
to serve as tax collectors for federal, state, or local tax agencies.
We oppose any and all increases in the rate of taxation or categories
of taxpayers, including the elimination of deductions, exemptions or
credits in the spurious name of "fairness," "simplicity," or alleged
"neutrality to the free market."
Transitional Action: As an interim measure,
all criminal and civil sanctions against tax evasion should be
terminated immediately. In the current fiscal crisis of states and
municipalities, default is preferable to raising taxes or perpetual
refinancing of growing public debt.
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Inflation and Depression
The Issue: Government control over money
and banking is the primary cause of inflation and depression.
The Principle: Individuals engaged in
voluntary exchange should be free to use as money any mutually
agreeable commodity or item, such as gold coins denominated by units of
weight. We support the right to private ownership of and contracts for
gold.
Solutions: We call for the repeal of all
legal tender laws and of all compulsory governmental units of account,
as well as the elimination of all government fiat money and all
government minted coins. All restrictions upon the private minting of
coins must be abolished, so that minting will be open to the
competition of the free market. We favor free-market banking, with
unrestricted competition among banks and depository institutions of all
types. The only further necessary check upon monetary inflation is the
consistent application of the general protection against fraud to the
minting and banking industries.
Transitional Action: We call for the
abolition of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation, the National Banking System, and all similar national and
state interventions affecting banking and credit. Our opposition
encompasses all controls on the rate of interest. We also call for the
abolition of the Federal Home Loan Bank System, the Resolution Trust
Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, the National
Credit Union Central Liquidity Facility, and all similar national and
state interventions affecting savings and loan associations, credit
unions, and other depository institutions. To complete the separation
of bank and state, we favor the Jacksonian independent treasury system,
in which all government funds are held by the government itself and not
deposited in any private banks. Pending its abolition, the Federal
Reserve System, in order to halt inflation, must immediately cease its
expansion of the quantity of money. As interim measures, we further
support: a.) the lifting of all restrictions on branch banking; b.) the
repeal of all state usury laws; c.) the removal of all remaining
restrictions on the interest paid for deposits; d.) the elimination of
laws setting margin requirements on purchases and sales of securities;
e.) the revocation of all other selective credit controls; f.) the
abolition of Federal Reserve control over the reserves of non-member
banks and other depository institutions; and g.) the lifting of the
prohibition of domestic deposits denominated in foreign currencies.
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Finance and Capital Investment
The Issue: Government regulation of
capital markets inhibits investment, and creates marketplace advantage
for those with political access, through exemptions to laws against
fraud and breach of contract.
The Principle: Free markets should operate
unhindered by government regulation, while government should punish
fraud, theft and contractual breach without exception.
Solutions: We call for the abolition of all
regulation of financial and capital markets. What should be punished is
the theft of information or breach of contract to hold information in
confidence, not trading on the basis of valuable knowledge.
Transitional Action: We call for the
abolition of the Securities and Exchange Commission, of state "Blue
Sky" laws which repress small and risky capital ventures, and of all
federal regulation of commodity markets. We oppose any attempts to ban
or regulate investing in stock-market index futures or new financial
instruments which may emerge in the future. We call for repeal of all
laws based on the muddled concept of insider trading. We support the
right of third parties to make stock purchase tender offers to
stockholders over the opposition of entrenched management, and oppose
all laws restricting such offers.
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Government Debt
The Issue: Government debt forces
individuals to assume debt that they did not choose to incur; distorts
capital markets and rates and ruins the economy.
The Principle: Government must not incur
debt, nor should it be allowed to hold assets, for these are debts
incumbent on and assets taken away from the individuals of this
country.
Solutions: We support the drive for a
constitutional amendment requiring the national government to balance
its budget, and also support similar amendments to require balanced
state budgets. To be effective, a balanced budget amendment should
provide:
a. that neither Congress nor the President be permitted to override
this requirement;
b. that all off-budget items are included in the budget;
c. that the budget is balanced exclusively by cutting expenditures, and
not by raising taxes; and
d. that no exception be made for periods of national emergency.
Governments facing fiscal crises should always default in preference to
raising taxes.
Transitional Action: The Federal Reserve
must be forbidden to acquire any additional government securities,
thereby helping to eliminate the inflationary aspect of the deficit. At
a minimum, the level of government should be frozen.
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Monopolies
The Issue: We recognize that government
is the source of monopoly, through its grants of legal privilege to
special interests in the economy.
The Principle: Anti-trust laws do not
prevent monopoly, but foster it by limiting competition. We defend the
right of individuals to form corporations, cooperatives and other types
of companies based on voluntary association.
Solutions: We condemn all coercive
monopolies. In order to abolish them, we advocate a strict separation
of business and State. Laws of incorporation should not include grants
of monopoly privilege. In particular, we would eliminate special limits
on the liability of corporations for damages caused in non-contractual
transactions. We also oppose state or federal limits on the size of
private companies and on the right of companies to merge. We further
oppose efforts, in the name of social responsibility or any other
reason, to expand federal chartering of corporations into a pretext for
government control of business.
Transitional Solutions: We call for the
repeal of all anti-trust laws, including the Robinson-Patman Act, which
restricts price discounts, and the Sherman and Clayton Anti-Trust acts.
We further call for the abolition of both the Federal Trade Commission
and the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice.
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Subsidies
The Issue: The unrestricted competition
of the free market is the best way to foster prosperity.
The Principle: In order to achieve a free
economy, in which government victimizes no one for the benefit of any
other, we oppose all government subsidies to business, labor,
education, agriculture, science, broadcasting, the arts, sports, or any
other special interest. In particular, we condemn any effort to forge
an alliance between government and business under the guise of
"reindustrialization" or "industrial policy." Relief or exemption from
taxation or from any other involuntary government intervention,
however, should not be considered a subsidy.
Solutions: We call for the abolition of the
Federal Financing Bank, the most important national agency subsidizing
special interests with government loans. We also oppose all government
guarantees of so-called private loans. Such guarantees transfer
resources to special interests as effectively as actual government
expenditures and, at the national level, exceed direct government loans
in total amount. Taxpayers must never bear the cost of default upon
government-guaranteed loans. All national, state and local government
agencies whose primary function is to guarantee loans -- including the
Federal Housing Administration, the Rural Electrification
Administration and the Small Business Administration -- must be
abolished or privatized. Furthermore, the loans of government-sponsored
enterprises, even when not guaranteed by the government, constitute
another form of subsidy. All such enterprises -- the Federal Home Loan
Mortgage Corporation, the Federal National Mortgage Association, the
Farm Credit Administration, and the Student Loan Marketing Association
-- must either be abolished or completely privatized.
Transitional Action: We oppose any
resumption of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, or any similar
plan that would force the taxpayer to subsidize or sustain any
enterprise.
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Trade Barriers
The Issue: Tariffs and quotas serve only
to give special treatment to favored special interests and to diminish
the welfare of consumers and other individuals, as do point-of-origin
or content regulation. These measures also reduce the scope of
contracts and understanding among different peoples.
The Principle: Individuals trading with
individuals in other nations, voluntarily, should be the sole source of
regulation of international free markets. All trade barriers are
unnecessary and burdensome constraints.
Solutions: We support abolition of all
trade barriers and all government-sponsored export- promotion programs,
as well as the U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.S. Court
of International Trade. We affirm this as a unilateral policy,
independent of the trade policies of other nations.
Transitional Action: We advocate a complete
and unilateral withdrawal of the United States from all international
trade agreements, including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
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Public Utilities
The Issue: We believe government
involvement in the provision of utilities has weakened our free market
and limited the development and availability of state of the art
services.
The Principle: The right to offer, on the
market, such services as garbage collection, fire protection,
electricity, natural gas, cable television, telephone, or water
supplies should not be curtailed by law.
Solutions: We advocate the termination of
government-created franchise privileges and governmental monopolies for
such services.
Transitional Action: All rate regulation in
industries providing these services should be abolished.
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Unions and Collective Bargaining
The Issue: Government interference in
the employer/employee relationship has imposed undue burdens on our
economy, destroying the rights of both to contract in the free market.
The Principle: We support the right of free
persons to voluntarily establish, associate in, or not associate in,
labor unions. An employer should have the right to recognize, or refuse
to recognize, a union as the collective bargaining agent of some, or
all, of its employees.
Solutions: We oppose government
interference in bargaining, such as compulsory arbitration or the
imposition of an obligation to bargain. Therefore, we urge repeal of
the National Labor Relations Act, and all state right-to-work laws
which prohibit employers from making voluntary contracts with unions.
We oppose all government back-to-work orders as the imposition of a
form of forced labor.
Transitional Action: Government-mandated
waiting periods for closure of factories or businesses hurt, rather
than help, the wage-earner. We support all efforts to benefit workers,
owners and management by keeping government out of this area. Workers
and employers should have the right to organize secondary boycotts if
they so choose. Nevertheless, boycotts or strikes do not justify the
initiation of violence against other workers, employers,
strike-breakers and innocent bystanders.
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III. Domestic Ills
Current problems in such areas as energy,
pollution, health care delivery, decaying cities, and poverty are not
solved, but are primarily caused, by government. The welfare state,
supposedly designed to aid the poor, is in reality a growing and
parasitic burden on all productive people, and injures, rather than
benefits, the poor themselves.
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Energy
The Issue: Government regulation of the
energy industry has resulted in high prices, shortages, lack of
competition, stunted exploration and development of alternative energy
sources, and displaced responsibility for wrongdoing in the energy
markets, while granting advantage in existing markets to those with
political access.
The Principle: We favor the creation of a
free market in oil by instituting full property rights in underground
oil and by the repeal of all government controls over output in the
petroleum industry. Any nuclear power industry must meet the test of a
free market. Full liability -- not government agencies -- should
regulate nuclear power. We oppose all government control of energy
pricing, allocation, and production, such as that imposed by the
Department of Energy, state public utility commissions, and state
pro-rationing agencies. We oppose the creation of any emergency
mobilization agency in the energy field, which would wield dictatorial
powers in order to override normal legal processes.
Solutions: All government-owned energy
resources should be turned over to private ownership. Nuclear energy
should be denationalized and the industry's assets transferred to the
private sector. We oppose all government subsidies for energy research,
development, and operation. We oppose all direct and indirect
government participation in the nuclear energy industry, including
subsidies, research and development funds, guaranteed loans, waste
disposal subsidies, and federal uranium enrichment facilities.
Transitional Action: The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission should be abolished. The Price-Anderson Act, through which
the government limits liability for nuclear accidents and furnishes
partial payment at taxpayer expense, should be repealed. We support
abolition of the Department of Energy and the abolition of its
component agencies, without their transfer elsewhere in the government.
We oppose all government conservation schemes through the use of taxes,
subsidies and regulation. We oppose the "strategic storage" program,
any attempt to compel national self-sufficiency in oil, any extension
of cargo preference law to imports and any attempt to raise oil tariffs
or impose oil import quotas.
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Pollution
The Issue: Toxic waste disposal problems
have been created by government policies that separate liability from
property. Present legal principles, particularly the unjust and false
concept of "public property," block privatization of the use of the
environment and hence block resolution of controversies over resource
use. We condemn the EPA's Superfund whose taxing powers are used to
penalize all chemical firms, regardless of their conduct. Such
clean-ups are a subsidy of irresponsible companies at the expense of
responsible ones.
The Principle: Pollution of other people's
property is a violation of individual rights. Strict liability, not
government agencies and arbitrary government standards, should regulate
pollution. Claiming that one has abandoned a piece of property does not
absolve one of the responsibility for actions one has set in motion.
Solutions: We support the development of an
objective legal system defining property rights to air and water.
Rather than making taxpayers pay for toxic waste clean-ups, individual
property owners, or in the case of corporations, the responsible
managers and employees should be held strictly liable for material
damage done by their property.
Transitional Action: We call for a
modification of the laws governing such torts as trespass and nuisance
to cover damages done by air, water, radiation, and noise pollution. We
oppose legislative proposals to exempt persons who claim damage from
radiation from having to prove such damage was in fact caused by
radiation. We demand the abolition of the Environmental Protection
Agency. We also oppose government-mandated smoking and non-smoking
areas in privately owned businesses.
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Consumer Protection
The Issue: Government consumer
protection regulation restricts the competition of the free market and
replaces the individual's right to make independent choices with
government-determined, "one size fits all" standards.
The Principle: Consumer demand rather than
legislative mandate should drive consumer safety and protection. We
support strong and effective laws against fraud and misrepresentation.
However, we oppose paternalistic regulations, which dictate to
consumers, impose prices, define standards for products, or otherwise
restrict risk-taking and free choice.
Solutions: We encourage consumer activism
that would boycott and economically sanction those businesses that
adversely affect human health and/or damage the environment, passing
costs on to the general public. We look to independent entities such as
Underwriters Laboratories, Consumer Reports and other testing
organizations as models for grassroots consumer-driven certification.
Transitional Action: End governmental
interference in consumer affairs by eliminating the Consumer Product
Safety Commission, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Food and
Drug Administration and other ineffective governmental organizations.
Repeal laws mandating use of safety equipment such as seat belts or
crash helmets, which can be more effectively driven by consumer action
in the marketplace.
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Education
The Issue: Government schools lead to
the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of
individuals. Compulsory education laws… spawn prison-like schools with
many of the problems associated with prisons…
The Principle: Education, like any other
service, is best provided by the free market, achieving greater quality
and efficiency with more diversity of choice.
Solutions: We advocate the complete
separation of education and State. Government ownership, operation,
regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended. We
call for the repeal of the guarantees of tax-funded,
government-provided education, which are found in most state
constitutions. We condemn compulsory education laws…and we call for an
immediate repeal of such laws. Until government involvement in
education is ended, we support elimination, within the governmental
school system, of forced busing and corporal punishment. We further
support immediate reduction of tax support for schools, and removal of
the burden of school taxes from those not responsible for the education
of children.
Transitional Action: As an interim measure
to encourage the growth of private schools and variety in education,
including home schooling, we support tax credits for tuition and other
expenditures related to an individual's education. We likewise favor
tax credits for child care and oppose nationalization of the child-care
industry. We oppose denial of tax-exempt status to schools because of
those schools' private policies on hiring, admissions and student
deportment. We support the repeal of all taxes on the income or
property of private schools, whether profit or non-profit.
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Population
The Issue: We regard the tragedies
caused by unplanned, unwanted pregnancies to be aggravated, if not
created, by government policies of censorship, restriction, regulation
and prohibition.
The Principle: The American people are not
a collective national resource. We oppose all coercive measures for
population control.
Solutions: We oppose government actions
that either compel or prohibit abortion, sterilization or any other
forms of birth control. Specifically, we condemn the vicious practice
of forced sterilization of welfare recipients or of mentally retarded
or "genetically defective" individuals. We call for the repeal of all
laws that restrict anyone, including children, from engaging in
voluntary exchanges of goods, services or information regarding human
sexuality, reproduction, birth control or related medical or biological
technologies. We equally oppose government laws and policies that
restrict the opportunity to choose alternatives to abortion.
Transitional Action: We support an end to
all subsidies for childbearing built into our present laws, including
welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children.
We urge the elimination of special tax burdens on single people and
couples with few or no children.
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Transportation
The Issue: Government interference in
transportation is characterized by monopolistic restriction, corruption
and gross inefficiency. We condemn the re-cartelization of commercial
aviation by the Federal Aviation Administration via rationing of
take-off and landing rights and controlling scheduling in the name of
safety.
The Principle: The transportation industry
should not be treated differently from any other industry, and should
be governed by free markets and held to strict liability.
Solutions: We call for the dissolution of
all government agencies concerned with transportation -- including the
Department of Transportation, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the
Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety
Board, the Coast Guard, and the Federal Maritime Commission -- and the
transfer of their legitimate functions to competitive private firms. We
demand the return of America's railroad system to private ownership. We
call for the privatization of airports, air traffic control systems,
public roads and the national highway system.
Transitional Action: As interim measures,
we advocate an immediate end to government regulation of private
transit organizations and to governmental favors to the transportation
industry. In particular, we support the immediate repeal of all laws
restricting transit competition such as the granting of taxicab and bus
monopolies and the prohibition of private jitney services. We urge
immediate deregulation of the trucking industry.
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Poverty and Unemployment
The Issue: Government fiscal and
monetary measures that artificially foster business expansion guarantee
an eventual increase in unemployment rather than curtailing it.
Government programs are inefficient, paternalistic, demeaning and
invasive of privacy.
The Principle: The proper source of help
for the poor is the voluntary efforts of private groups and
individuals. No worker should be legally penalized for lack of
certification, and no consumer should be legally restrained from hiring
unlicensed individuals.
Solutions: We seek the elimination of
occupational licensure, which prevents human beings from working in
whatever trade they wish. We call for the abolition of all federal,
state and local government agencies that restrict entry into any
profession, such as education and law, or regulate its practice. We
oppose all government welfare, relief projects and "aid to the poor"
programs.
Transitional Action: We call for the
immediate cessation of such fiscal and monetary policies, as well as
any governmental attempts to affect employment levels. We support
repeal of all laws that impede the ability of any person to find
employment, such as minimum wage laws, so-called "protective" labor
legislation for women and children, governmental restrictions on the
establishment of private day-care centers, and the National Labor
Relations Act. We deplore government-fostered forced retirement, which
robs the elderly of the right to work. To speed the time when
governmental programs are replaced by effective private institutions we
advocate dollar-for-dollar tax credits for all charitable
contributions.
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Health Care
The Issue: Recent decades have witnessed
growing government involvement in the health care system. That
involvement has led to bureaucratic top-down management, rapidly
escalating prices, costly regulations, the criminalization of the
practice of medicine and a host of other problems. None of these
problems was prevalent prior to the time when government began to
increase its involvement. We believe that government involvement is the
principal cause of many of the problems we face in the health care
system today. The high cost of health insurance is largely due to
government's excessive regulation of the industry.
The Principle: We recognize the right of
individuals free from government interference and its harmful side
effects to determine the level of insurance they want, the level of
care they want, the care providers they want, the medicines and
treatments they will use and all other aspects of their medical care.
Government's role in any kind of insurance should only be to enforce
contracts when necessary, not to dictate to insurance companies and
consumers which kinds of insurance contracts they may voluntarily agree
upon.
Solutions: We favor restoring and reviving
a free market health care system. We advocate a complete separation of
medicine from the State. We support an end to government-provided
health insurance and health care. Both of these functions can be more
effectively provided in the private sector.
Transitional Action: We oppose any
government restriction or funding of medical or scientific research.
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Resource Use
The Issue: We oppose government control
of resource use through eminent domain, zoning laws, building codes,
rent control, regional planning, urban renewal, or purchase of
development rights with tax money. Such regulations and programs
violate property rights, discriminate against minorities, create
housing shortages, and tend to cause higher rents. All government
restrictions upon private use or voluntary transfer of water rights or
similar despotic controls can only aggravate the misallocation of
water. Forced surface-mining of privately homesteaded lands, in which
the government has reserved surface mining rights for itself, is a
violation of the rights of the present landholders.
The Principle: Resource management is
properly the responsibility and right of the legitimate owners of land,
water and other natural resources. We recognize the legitimacy of
resource planning by means of private, voluntary covenants.
Solutions: We advocate the establishment of
an efficient and just system of private water rights applied to all
bodies of water, surface and underground. Such a system should be built
upon a doctrine of first claim and use. The allocation of water should
be governed by unrestricted competition and unregulated prices. We also
advocate the privatization of government and quasi-government water
supply systems. Only the complete separation of water and the State
will prevent future water crises. We call for the homesteading or other
just transfer to private ownership of federally held lands.
Transitional Action: The construction of
government dams and other water projects should cease, and existing
government water projects should be transferred to private ownership.
We favor the abolition of the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps
of Engineers' civilian functions. We also favor the abolition of all
local water districts and their power to tax. We oppose any use of
executive orders invoking the Antiquities Act to set aside public
lands. We call for the abolition of the Bureau of Land Management and
the U.S. Forest Service. We oppose creation of new government parks or
wilderness and recreation areas. Such parks and areas that already
exist should be transferred to non-government ownership. Pending such
just transfer, their operating costs should be borne by their users
rather than by taxpayers.
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Agriculture
The Issue: America's free market in
agriculture, the system that feeds much of the world, has been plowed
under by government intervention. Government subsidies, regulation and
taxes have encouraged the centralization of agricultural business.
Government export policies hold American farmers hostage to the
political whims of both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Government embargoes on grain sales and other obstacles to free trade
have frustrated the development of free and stable trade relationships
between peoples of the world.
The Principle: Farmers and consumers alike
should be free from the meddling and counterproductive measures of the
federal government -- free to grow, sell and buy what they want, in the
quantity they want, when they want.
Solutions: Farmers, ranchers and all other
purveyors of goods and services in the agricultural free market must
operate unhindered by government regulation, while being policed by
private sector consumer protection agencies for quality, and held
strictly liable by government only against fraud and deception.
Transitional Action: The agricultural
problems facing America today are not insoluble. Government policies
can be reversed. Five steps can be taken immediately:
a.) abolition of the Department of Agriculture;
b.) elimination of all government farm programs, including price
supports, direct subsidies and all regulation on agricultural
production;
c.) deregulation of the transportation industry and abolition of the
Interstate Commerce Commission;
d.) repeal of federal inheritance taxes; and
e.) an end to government involvement in agricultural pest control. A
policy of pest control whereby private individuals or corporations bear
full responsibility for damages they inflict on their neighbors should
be implemented.
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Occupational Safety and Health
The Issue: The arbitrary and high-handed
actions of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration invade
property rights, raise costs and unjustly impose upon the business
community.
The Principle: This law denies the right to
liberty and property to both employer and employee, and interferes in
their private contractual relations.
Solutions: Private sector consumer activism
groups must be created to replace ineffective government agencies like
OSHA.
Transitional Action: We call for the repeal
of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
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Social Security
The Issue: Social Security is a
bankrupt, immoral pyramid-scheme that has trillions of dollars of
unfunded liabilities and yields below average returns for those trapped
in it. Any financial advisor who suggested investing in a program like
this would go to jail, but the members of Congress get off scot-free.
The Principle: In a free society,
retirement planning is the responsibility of the individual, not the
government.
Solutions: We favor replacing the current
fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, government sponsored Social Security
system with a private voluntary system.
Transitional Action: Pending that
replacement, participation in Social Security should be made voluntary.
Victims of the Social Security tax should also have a claim against
government property.
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Postal Service
The Issue: The present postal system, in
addition to being inefficient, encourages government surveillance of
private correspondence.
The Principle: In a free society, people
should be able to choose whatever postal service meets their needs.
Solutions: We propose the abolition of the
government Postal Service.
Transitional Action: Pending abolition, we
call for an end to the monopoly system and for the allowing of free
competition in all aspects of postal service.
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Civil Service
The Issue: We recognize that the Civil
Service is inherently a system of concealed patronage, which entrenches
a permanent and growing bureaucracy upon the land.
The Principle: The concept of "career
bureaucrat" is anathema to true liberty. We promote the Jeffersonian
concept of "citizen statesman" and would extend it to those performing
"necessary public service" functions, as long as those are not being
provided by the private sector.
Solutions: We therefore recommend a return
to the Jeffersonian principle of rotation in office.
Transitional Action: We propose the abolition of the Civil Service
system.
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Election Laws
The Issue: Electoral systems matter.
Many state legislatures have established gerrymandered districts and
prohibitively restrictive laws that effectively exclude alternative
candidates and parties from their rightful places on election ballots.
Such laws wrongfully deny ballot access to political candidates and
groups, and further deny the voters their right to consider all
legitimate alternatives. Various laws enable the federal and state
governments to control the elections of their own administrators and
beneficiaries, thereby further reducing accountability to citizens.
The Principle: Elections at all levels
should be in the control of those who wish to participate in or support
them voluntarily. As private voluntary groups, political parties should
be allowed to establish their own rules for nomination procedures,
primaries and conventions. No state has an interest to protect in this
area except for the fair and efficient conduct of elections.
Solutions: We propose electoral systems
that are more representative of the electorate at the federal, state
and local levels. There should be no state or federal restriction of
ballot access. Voters may submit their own choices including the option
of using "tickets" or cards printed by candidates or political parties.
Transitional Action: End government control
of political parties, consistent with First Amendment rights to freedom
of association and freedom of expression. We urge repeal of the Federal
Election Campaign Act and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which
suppress voluntary support of candidates and parties. Primary elections
should be returned to political party convention rather than being a
taxpayer subsidized public event. Add the alternative "none of the
above" to all ballots. In the event that "none of the above" receives a
plurality of votes in any election, either the elective office for that
term should remain unfilled and unfunded, or there shall be a new
election in which none of the losing candidates shall be eligible. In
order to grant voters a full range of choice in federal, state and
local elections, we propose proportional voting systems with
multi-member districts for legislative elections and instant runoff
voting (IRV) for single winner elections. To avoid fraud and
manipulation, electronic voting systems must use a voter verified paper
ballot as the ballot of count, recount, audit and record.
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Secession
The Issue: People are forced to be
subject to governments and to participate in their programs, usually as
providers of financial support, regardless of their wishes to the
contrary.
The Principle: As all political association
must be voluntary, we recognize the right to political secession. This
includes the right to secession by political entities, private groups
or individuals. Exercise of this right, like the exercise of all other
rights, does not remove legal and moral obligations not to violate the
rights of others.
Solutions: We support the right of
political entities, private groups and individuals to renounce their
affiliation with any government, and to be exempt from the obligations
imposed by those governments, while in turn accepting no support from
the government from which they seceded.
Transitional Action: As a transition step,
we support the right of political entities, private groups and
individuals to renounce their participation in any government program,
and to be exempt from the obligations imposed by that program, while in
turn accepting no benefit from the program from which they seceded.
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of Contents
IV. Foreign Affairs
American foreign policy should seek an America at
peace with the world and the defense -- against attack from abroad --
of the lives, liberty, and property of the American people on American
soil. Provision of such defense must respect the individual rights of
people everywhere.
The principle of non-intervention should guide
relationships between governments. The United States government should
return to the historic libertarian tradition of avoiding entangling
alliances, abstaining totally from foreign quarrels and imperialist
adventures, and recognizing the right to unrestricted trade, travel,
and immigration.
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Diplomatic Policy
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Negotiations
The Issue: Intervention by the
government in Washington in the affairs of other nations is an attempt
to impose our values on those nations by force.
The Principle: The important principle
in foreign policy should be the elimination of intervention by the
United States government in the affairs of other nations.
Solutions: We favor a drastic reduction
in cost and size of our total diplomatic establishment. We would
negotiate with any foreign government without necessarily conceding
moral legitimacy to that government
Transitional Action: We favor the
repeal of the Logan Act, which prohibits private American citizens from
engaging in diplomatic negotiations with foreign governments.
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International Travel and Foreign
Investments
The Issue: We recognize that
foreign governments might violate the rights of Americans traveling,
living or owning property abroad, just as those governments violate the
rights of their own citizens. Any effort, however, to extend the
protection of the United States government to U.S. citizens when they
or their property fall within the jurisdiction of a foreign government
involves potential military intervention. In particular, the protection
of the foreign investments of U.S. citizens or businesses is an unjust
tax-supported subsidy.
The Principle: We condemn all such
property-rights violations, whether the victims are U.S. citizens or
not. We call upon the United States government to adhere rigidly to the
principle that all U.S. citizens travel, live and own property abroad
at their own risk.
Solutions: We look forward to an era in
which American citizens and foreigners can travel anywhere in the world
without a passport. We aim to restore a world in which there are no
passports, visas or other papers required to cross borders.
Transitional Action: American embassies
should inform our citizens that they are subject to the laws of foreign
countries when they travel or invest in those countries. Our government
cannot insulate citizens from foreign laws when they travel abroad; our
embassies cannot assume the responsibility of protecting citizens from
the consequences of their own conduct while visiting nations outside
the United States.
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Human Rights
The Issue: We condemn the violations
of human rights in all nations around the world. We particularly abhor
the widespread and increasing use of torture for interrogation and
punishment. The violation of rights and liberty by other governments
can never justify foreign intervention by the United States government.
Today, no government is innocent of violating human rights and liberty,
and none can approach the issue with clean hands.
The Principle: We recognize the right
of all people to resist tyranny and defend themselves and their rights.
We condemn the use of force, and especially the use of terrorism,
against the innocent, regardless of whether such acts are committed by
governments or by political or revolutionary groups. Only private
individuals and organizations have any place speaking out on this
issue.
Solutions: We call upon all the world's
governments to fully implement the principles and prescriptions
contained in this platform and thereby usher in a new age of
international harmony based upon the universal reign of liberty.
Transition: Until a global triumph for
liberty has been achieved, we support both political and revolutionary
actions by individuals and groups against governments that violate
rights. In keeping with our goal of peaceful international relations,
we call upon the United States government to cease its hypocrisy and
its sullying of the good name of human rights.
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World Government
The Issue: Participation in any form
of world or international government threatens the sovereignty of the
United States, its citizens and its Constitution.
The Principle: The sovereignty of
individual rights is preserved only by minimal government, and
subservience to a world government is totalitarianism of a more severe
form than to a national government.
Solutions: We oppose U.S. government
participation in any world or international government. We support
withdrawal of the United States government from, and an end to its
financial support for, the United Nations. We oppose any treaty under
which individual rights would be violated.
Transitional Action: Specifically, we
oppose any U.S. policy designating the United Nations as policeman of
the world, committing U.S. troops to wars at the discretion of the
U.N., or placing U.S. troops under U.N. command.
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Military
-
Military Policy
The Issue: The potential use of
nuclear weapons is the greatest threat to all the peoples of the world,
not only Americans. Thus, the objective should be to reduce the risk
that a nuclear war might begin and its scope if it does.
The Principle: Any U.S. military policy
should have the objective of providing security for the lives, liberty
and property of the American people in the U.S. against the risk of
attack by a foreign power. This objective should be achieved as
inexpensively as possible and without undermining the liberties it is
designed to protect.
Solutions: U.S. weapons of
indiscriminate mass destruction should be replaced with smaller
weapons, aimed solely at military targets and not designed or targeted
to kill millions of civilians. We call for the replacement of nuclear
war fighting policies with a policy of developing cost-effective
defensive systems. Accordingly, we oppose any future agreement which
would prevent defensive systems on U.S. territory or in Earth orbit.
Transitional Action: We call on the
U.S. government to continue negotiations toward multi-lateral reduction
of nuclear armaments, to the end that all such weapons will ultimately
be eliminated, under such conditions of verification as to ensure
multi-lateral security. During arms reduction negotiations, and to
enhance their progress, the U.S. should begin the retirement of some of
its nuclear weapons as proof of its commitment. Because the U.S. has
many more thousands of nuclear weapons than are currently required,
beginning the process of arms reduction would not jeopardize American
security. We call on the U.S. government to remove its nuclear weapons
from Europe. If European countries want nuclear weapons on their soil,
they should take full responsibility for them and pay the cost. We call
for the withdrawal of all American military personnel stationed abroad,
including the countries of NATO Europe, Japan, the Philippines, Central
America and South Korea. There is no current or foreseeable risk of any
conventional military attack on the American people, particularly from
long distances. We call for the withdrawal of the U.S. from commitments
to engage in war on behalf of other governments and for abandonment of
doctrines supporting military intervention such as the Monroe Doctrine.
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Presidential War Powers
The Issue: Recent Presidents have --
on their own through declarations of "states of emergency" and with the
assistance of Congress via the War Powers Act -- expanded the role of
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to assume the power to wage
limited (and not so limited) war without the Constitutionally required
explicit Declaration of War by Congress. These wars often occur in
secret, funded and/or operated by the CIA, NSA, and other agencies not
directly accountable to the People.
The Principle: The role of
Commander-in-Chief, correctly understood, confers no additional
authority on the President.
Solutions: We favor a Constitutional
amendment limiting the presidential role as Commander-in-Chief to its
original meaning, namely that of the head of the armed forces in
wartime.
Transitional Action: We call for the
reform of the Presidential War Powers Act to end the President's power
to initiate military action, and for the abrogation of all Presidential
declarations of "states of emergency." There must be no further secret
commitments and unilateral acts of military intervention by the
Executive Branch.
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Economic Policy
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Foreign Aid
The Issue: The federal government
has used foreign aid as a tool of influencing the policy of other
sovereign nations under the guise of aiding needy people in those
nations. This forces American taxpayers to subsidize governments and
policies of which they may not approve.
The Principle: Individuals should not
be coerced via taxes into funding a foreign nation or group.
Solutions: All foreign aid should be
voluntarily funded by individuals or private organizations.
Transitional Action: Eliminate all
tax-supported military, economic, technical and scientific aid to
foreign governments or other organizations. Abolish government
underwriting of arms sales. Abolish all federal agencies that make
American taxpayers guarantors of export-related loans, such as the
Export-Import Bank and the Commodity Credit Corporation. End the
participation of the U.S. government in international commodity circles
that restrict production, limit technological innovation and raise
prices. Repeal all prohibitions on individuals or firms contributing or
selling goods and services to any foreign country or organization,
unless such provision constitutes a direct threat to the people of the
United States.
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International Money
The Issue: The federal government's
involvement in international currency markets undermines the stability
of the dollar, artificially inflates and deflates the currency and
undermines the free market.
The Principle: Individuals voluntarily
trading in free markets should be the only determining factor in the
value of goods and services
Solutions: The government involvement
in international money markets along with the Federal Reserve System
should cease, and private sector trading should be the only influence
in the value of money.
Transitional Action: The United States
must withdraw from all international paper money and other inflationary
credit schemes, and from the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund. We strongly oppose any bailout of foreign governments or American
banks by the United States, either by means of the International
Monetary Fund or through any other governmental device.
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Unowned Resources
The Issue: Governments and
international groups claim the right to unowned resources that they
have no jurisdiction over, imposing those claims against individuals by
force.
The Principle: Individuals have the
right to homestead unowned resources, both within the jurisdictions of
national governments and within such unclaimed territory as the ocean,
Antarctica and the volume of outer space.
Solutions: We oppose any recognition of
fiat claims by national governments or international bodies to
unclaimed territory. We urge the development of objective international
standards for recognizing homesteaded claims to private ownership of
such forms of property as transportation lanes, broadcast bands,
mineral rights, fishing rights and ocean farming rights.
Transitional Action: All laws, treaties
and international agreements that would prevent or restrict
homesteading of unowned resources should be abolished. We specifically
hail the U.S. refusal to accept the proposed Law of the Sea Treaty
because the treaty excluded private property principles, and we oppose
any future ratification.
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International Relations
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Colonialism
The Issue: United States colonialism
has left a legacy of property confiscation, economic manipulation and
over-extended defense boundaries.
The Principle: People have the right to
govern themselves as they see fit, without fearing that a large nation
will simply take control of them.
Solutions: While the United States
should be willing to accept expansion through other nations and
territories petitioning for statehood, we must not coerce any nation or
people into "unity" through military or economic action.
Transitional Action: We favor immediate
self-determination for all people living in colonial dependencies --
such as American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the
Virgin Islands -- to free these people from U.S. dominance, accompanied
by the termination of subsidization of them at taxpayers' expense. Land
seized by the U.S. government should be returned to its rightful
owners.
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Foreign Intervention
The Issue: Intervention in the
affairs of other countries has provoked resentment and hatred of the
United States among many groups and nations throughout the world. In
addition, legal barriers to private and personal aid (both military and
economic) have fostered internal discord.
The Principle: The United States should
not inject itself into the internal matters of other nations, unless
they have declared war upon or attacked the United States, or the U.S.
is already in a constitutionally declared war with them.
Solutions: End the current U.S.
government policy of foreign intervention, including military and
economic aid, guarantees, and diplomatic meddling. Individuals should
be free to provide any aid they wish that does not directly threaten
the United States.
Transitional Action: Voluntary
cooperation with any economic boycott should not be treated as a crime.
End all limitation of private foreign aid, both military and economic.
Repeal the Neutrality Act of 1794, and all other U.S. neutrality laws,
which restrict the efforts of Americans to aid overseas organizations
fighting to overthrow or change governments. End the incorporation of
foreign nations into the U.S. defense perimeter. Cease the creation and
maintenance of U.S. bases and sites for the pre-positioning of military
material in other countries. End the practice of stationing American
military troops overseas. We make no exceptions to the above.
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Space Exploration
The Issue: Government has
historically asserted a monopoly on space exploration.
The Principle: Voluntary, peaceful use
of outer space should not be regulated by government. Space related
activity is not a proper function of any government except for the
protection of the terrestrial borders of that nation and its people
located within that territory.
Solutions: We support all peaceful,
private, voluntary attempts to explore, industrialize and colonize any
extra-terrestrial resources.
Transitional Action: We support the
privatization of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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Omissions
Our silence about any other particular government
law, regulation, ordinance, directive, edict, control, regulatory
agency, activity, or machination should not be construed to imply
approval.
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of Contents
© Copyright 2006 National Libertarian Party
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