Libertarian pushes 'smallest government' agenda
Friday, July 02, 2004
http://www.timesnews.net/article.dna?_StoryID=3384198
By HANK HAYES
Times-News
BLOUNTVILLE - "How many people here would really like to see the end of the IRS (Internal Revenue Service)?" Libertarian Party presidential challenger Michael Badnarik asked the small gathering attending a Libertarian-staged "Rally for Small Government" on the front steps of the Sullivan County Courthouse late Thursday afternoon.
People with smiles on their faces raised their hand.
"All of you people just voted Libertarian," Badnarik told them.
Badnarik had more hand-raising questions.
"How many people think that if you were a small business owner, that you know how to run your business better than the government and that if we could just get government regulations out of your life, you would be a lot more successful?" he asked. "How many people think small businesses would be better off?"
Hands went up again.
"You just voted Libertarian," Badnarik said with a smile.
"How many people think that it is involuntary servitude to force our sons and daughters to join the military against their will and send them overseas to kill and be killed?" he asked. "How many people think that's immoral?"
Hands again went into the air.
"You have just voted Libertarian," Badnarik said. "If you want government limited explicitly by the Constitution, you can have it. All you have to do is vote Libertarian."
Getting more people to think about voting Libertarian was Badnarik's main goal for the 75-minute rally, which was attended by mostly news media personnel, and Democratic, Republican and Independent candidates running for elected office in Sullivan County and other parts of Northeast Tennessee. About a dozen candidates got to make six-minute speeches about their ideas for small government while vehicles buzzed by the courthouse.
Badnarik, who won his party's nomination last May, spoke last and reminded everyone why they were there.
"This is a Libertarian event," he said. "The Libertarian Party has been around for 32 years for this explicit purpose - to try to make smaller government. I am so pleased to find out that Democrats and Republicans are taking us up on our idea. And if smaller government is a good idea and the Democrats want small government and the Republicans want smaller government, the Libertarians want smallest government."
Badnarik is promoting himself as an anti-establishment alternative candidate who will appeal to those not wanting John Kerry, George W. Bush or Ralph Nader in the White House.
"If you live in a log cabin, you need fire in order to survive," Badnarik said. "The fire is going to warm your house and cook your food. In fact, fire is such an important part of your life that you have a special place in your cabin for the fire. It's called a fireplace, ... Our founding fathers understood we cannot survive without government. Government is important. It's so important that our founding fathers created a special place for the government called the Constitution.
"Any time the fire gets outside the fireplace, we automatically and reflexively stomp it out. Any time the government gets outside the Constitution, we should automatically and reflexively stomp it out."
Badnarik, an Indiana native who has worked as an independent computer consultant, also said he wants to correct a "widely held assumption" that the U.S. Constitution bestows the American people with rights.
"How many people here fill out a government form that allows you to go to church on Sunday?" he asked. "That's because the First Amendment merely protects your right to freedom of religion. ... The Second Amendment merely protects my right to keep and bear arms."
For more about the Libertarian Party and Badnarik, go to www.lp.org.