Tony Wall
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Badnarik: You might be a Libertarian if... |
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Posted on: 07/05/04 - 09:28:51 |
This article is on the front page of the Kingsport Times-News today. That makes three articles and two tv interviews for the LP of the Tri-Cities. I'd like to thank Wayne Chastain and Mike Maness for their efforts in organizing a successful visit to the Tri-Cities for the Badnarik campaign.
Peace,
Tony Wall
Mountain Region Coordinator
Libertarian Party of Tennessee
Badnarik: You might be a Libertarian if...
Monday, July 05, 2004
http://www.timesnews.net/article.dna?_StoryID=3384703
By HANK HAYES
Times-News
BLOUNTVILLE - You might be a Libertarian if you think taxes are sky high.
You might be a Libertarian if you think the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is the only gun control law we need.
You might be a Libertarian if you think restoring a military draft is unconstitutional because it is involuntary servitude.
Michael Badnarik is a Libertarian, and he's running as the Libertarian Party's nominee for president of the United States of America.
But Badnarik, during an interview at a recent campaign stop at the Sullivan County Courthouse, lamented the fact that most people don't think like Libertarians - not to mention there are far more Democrats and Republicans than Libertarians.
"My biggest problem is that most people are unaware that the Libertarian Party even exists," he said. "It is simply a publicity problem, but I believe the Libertarian Party is on the verge of becoming an overnight success."
Badnarik said he is currently on the presidential ballot in 41 states. With a shoestring budget and 12-member staff, he is trying to appear on nightly local television news, get on talk radio and be quoted in the newspaper as much as possible in his travels. The fund raising that is happening now for his campaign is being bankrolled for a fall television advertising blitz.
"We think that if we can get the Libertarian message out, people will resonate with our platform," Badnarik said. "There's a great deal of discontent among the voters with the current (Bush) administration. They are not happy with (Democrat) John Kerry as an alternative to that. I believe that when people hear the Libertarian Party is available and they hear what our platform stands for, I think we'll be able to make a significant showing in November."
That Libertarian Party platform, Badnarik said, is based on individual rights and personal responsibility.
"We believe that in every decision about your life, you are a much better person to make that decision than the government," he said. "When our country started more than 200 years ago, we the people created state governments, and the state governments created the federal government. The federal government was intended to be extremely small and almost superficial.
"What has happened over the last 150 years is that more and more responsibility has been taken from the people and given to the states and ultimately to the federal government. We want to reverse that trend and give people more control over their lives by removing government regulations."
Here's where Badnarik stands on selected issues:
• On the U.S. mission in Iraq: "We are not doing the right thing. There is no clear evidence that Iraq had anything to do with the Sept. 11 disaster. The proper response to Sept. 11 would be to identify the people who perpetrated the crime, which as far as we know were Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida. It would have been completely appropriate to use military force to go in and retaliate against that subset. We are fighting terror. We are not in a war against another nation. It is inappropriate to take 100,000 of our troops and occupy a country killing innocent civilians even if those fatalities are accidental."
• On his plan for the economy: "We would eliminate NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and any other presumed free trade agreement. Those agreements are not about free trade. They are about managed trade, and what they really do is create a hostile economic environment in this country."
• On what he would do to shrink the size of government: "I would keep the military. I would cut the U.S. Department of Education. There is no Constitutional mandate for government to be in charge of education. The only way to teach our children is give control of the curriculum to the teachers and the parents and allow them to decide what will be taught and how it will be taught. We need competition between the schools, and that free market competition will always increase the quality of the service. We should eliminate property taxes for people who don't have children and allow parents to purchase the best education."
• On his foreign policy: "The Libertarian platform has a standard policy of non-intervention domestically and internationally. We should have economic ties with everyone, and entangling political alliances with no one. What we would do is bring our military home from 135 countries around the world and stop influencing their governments."
Badnarik, an Indiana native and computer programmer by trade, doesn't have a lot of political experience. His only elected job has been executive vice president of his dormitory when he attended Indiana University. He also ran unsuccessfully as a Libertarian candidate for the Texas House of Representatives in 2000 and 2002.
"One of the reasons I've avoided politics was because of all of the backbiting that I encountered while I was in college," he said. "I was turned off by the whole political process and people making decisions for expediency rather than ethics."
When asked how long it will take Libertarians to become a viable third political party, Badnarik said it won't take a miracle victory by him this fall.
"If I get a significant percentage of the vote, even if I only get 10 percent of the vote, whoever does go to the White House is going to be dusting off his copy of the Constitution and recognizing that it puts limitations on the government, and the next administration will look amazingly more Libertarian," he said. "I would be happy if either a Democrat or Republican got elected and started acting more like a Libertarian."
For more about Badnarik go to http://www.badnarik.org/.
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