Libertarians: 'the Unparty'

Why should you vote for Libertarians this year? Libertarians will treat you like an adult. Republicans want to be your father. Democrats want to be your mother. Greens want to be your bossy stepmother. Libertarians just want to be your neighbor. \nIf you think it should be harder to get a welfare check than it is to get a building permit, then you might be a Libertarian. If you want genuine world peace, where governments do not coerce, enslave and steal from us or fuel terrorism by spending our tax dollars and our children's lives to influence foreign wars, then you might be a Libertarian. If they ask you to take a urine test at work and you feel like offering to give them a taste test, then you might be a Libertarian.\nWe believe all voluntary relationships between consenting adults ought to be allowed. Government's role is to protect Americans from force and fraud, not to make decisions for us. As presidential candidate Harry Browne puts it, when you are a child, your parents keep your money for you and give you an allowance. That is what today's U.S. government does to us. Families on average now pay 47 percent of their income in taxes -- more than they do for clothing, housing and food put together. Libertarians see this as highway robbery. We want to stop paying for wasteful government programs and disastrous foreign interventionist warmongering. \nWe are the "live and let live" party. The "Unparty," to the Republican and Democratic colas, which few people can tell apart in blind taste tests. Libertarians want you to be free to live your life as you think it should be lived, not as Al Gore or George W. Bush or Ralph Nader think you should live it. According to his Web site, Harry Browne said, "These candidates are arguing over one basic issue: Which one is best qualified to run your life? Which one knows best what kind of school your child should attend? Which one knows how your health insurance company should treat you? Which one knows best how to determine how much of your own money you should be allowed to keep and decide the proper way for you to live?"\nAccording to National Libertarian press secretary George Getz, the federal government spends $1 million every five seconds. On what? Name your favorite government program. Can't think of one? Me neither. If you can, could it be run more cost-effectively by private enterprise? Or do you really think government bureaucrats are smarter or more conscientious than you, your friends, your church or your favorite private charity?\nAndy Horning, the Libertarian candidate for governor of Indiana, offers solutions to our education crisis. He believes, "Our public schools have little to do with kids; they're all about funds and salaries and political poker chips. We need to get the state government out of the picture." Horning would like to return decision-making on textbooks and testing to local school boards and individual schools. A home-schooler to his own three children, he emphasizes school choice and charter schools so parents can choose the right education for their children. He hopes to end the monopolistic "closed shop" union policy he says serves only politically driven adults, instead of children, according to his campaign Web site.\nBut can Libertarians win? You bet. We have twice as many elected officials as all the other alternative parties put together. In the 1999 election alone, we elected three Libertarians to city councils here in Indiana. And not one of the 300-plus Libertarians in office nationwide has ever voted for a tax increase. We advocate smaller, less intrusive government every time. \nThis year, we have a very winnable race in Monroe County with Steve Dillon for judge. There is no Democrat in the race. We hope Democrats, Greens and independents will go out of their way to unseat the 22-year incumbent Republican opponent, and pull an extra lever to vote for Dillon.\nLibertarians are fielding twice as many candidates for office as all the other third parties put together -- 1400 nationwide and 113 in Indiana. This is the third presidential election in a row that voters in all 50 states can vote for Libertarians -- a ballot access feat that has never before been accomplished by a third party in this country. Libertarians offer alternatives that could bring discouraged, frustrated citizens back to the polls. \nThank you for reading this, checking out www.lp.org and voting your conscience Nov. 7. Watch this space for information about Steve Dillon for judge.