Candidate for
United States Representative; District 16

My views on politics and economy have been shaped and informed by my studies and life experiences. I graduated high school with deep beliefs rooted in liberalism. I believed all human beings should be free to pursue happiness and their own destinies in this world. Those core beliefs have not changed. However, two major life experiences have informed me on how best to preserve the classical liberal ideal of a free and peaceful society.

The first was as a college senior studying abroad in Argentina. I arrived in Argentina at the end of August in 2001 to what appeared to me a healthy and prosperous country. When I left in December both the economy and the Argentine government were in shambles. After decades of reckless economic policies the Argentine currency experienced a massive devaluation igniting riots, which forced an entire administration to resign. Argentina then had four more presidents in a two week period who were all unable to control the social chaos. Grocery stores with hardly any food, hungry people in the streets, and mass riots were part of my experience. I returned with a broad lesson that disregarding sound economics is no way to preserve a free society.

The second and most profound life changing experience was a deployment to Iraq in 2007. I served as an advisor to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 7th Division Iraqi Army. In my service I was posted in small villages in the al Anbar Province of Iraq along the Euphrates River. My role gave me exposure to both higher level planning meetings at the Iraqi and American commands, as well as on the ground experience executing the operations. This experience greatly informed my beliefs as they relate to human nature, the proper role of government, and appropriate use of force. In addition, while fighting the insurgency I quickly realized that disregarding basic economic logic was no way to promote a free and peaceful society. Villages recovering from the ravages of war needed sound economic thought just as much, if not more than a modern western nation. During my time in these villages I developed a simple model for understanding economics in order to help guide my actions as a military officer.

When I returned from this deployment I began to search for academics whose more complex theories matched and expounded on my own. To my frustration I found most mainstream economic and political theories contradicted my own real life experiences. What I did find was a smaller school of thought, outside the mainstream, which accurately accounted for everything I witnessed in both Argentina and Iraq. Natural Law and the Austrian School of economics presented me with paradigms which matched the reality I had witnessed. Although I do not directly mention Iraq or Argentina in the contents of this piece, the fundamental lessons are taken from my own experiences, which I have supplemented with the knowledge and theories of certain academics from the schools of thought mentioned.

As the problems and contradictions ingrained in our current system rise to the surface, I hope that the ideas expressed here will provide a way forward.

To learn more about Edward Gonzalez's philosophy of government, read his pamphlet, A Model for Government, which is listed in parts below.