Libertarian Principles

By Randall Gordon Weissbuch, MD

The United States was founded on the libertarian principles of individual freedom, free markets, private property, and limited government. As the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution reflect, individuals have the natural and God-given right to live their lives any way they choose, so long as their conduct is peaceful. It is the duty of government to protect, not destroy, these inherent and inalienable rights.

It has seduced us into believing that we cannot live without this political paternalism. It has weakened our moral fiber and our sense of self-reliance, self-esteem, voluntary charity, and community. It has damaged our families. It has hurt the poorest people in society. It has turned foreigners into enemies. It has trampled on our Constitution. It has undermined our commitment to the moral foundations of freedom and to the benefits of free markets.

The time has come for us to reevaluate our relationship to our government - to repeal, not reform, these immoral and destructive government programs - to recapture our commitment to the libertarian principles of free markets, private property, voluntary charity, and limited government that made our nation great - and to believe in ourselves again. It is time for us once again to lead the world to the highest reaches of freedom in history.

1. The War on Drugs

Individuals have the moral right to engage in what others might consider to be self-destructive behavior. This is the essence of human freedom. The war on drugs is not only a denigration of this right, it is also a failure from the standpoint of its own goals. Moreover, it has destroyed families, caused violent crime, encouraged government corruption, and trampled upon our Constitution. In sum, the war on drugs is destroying the very fabric of our society. It should be ended through the total legalization of all drugs.

2. Gun Control

People have an unfettered right to own weapons, not only to protect themselves from murderers, rapists, robbers, and the like, but also to protect themselves from the excessively tyrannical acts of their own government. All restrictions on gun ownership, including registration, should be repealed and the Second Amendment should be honored to the letter.

3. Education

There is no better example of socialistic central planning than public (government) schooling. A central board of commissars plans, in a top-down fashion, the educational decisions of thousands of children. The system depends on compulsory-attendance laws for customers, and funding is coerced through taxation. The results are predictable: students hate to learn and, even worse, are indoctrinated with the government's officially approved version of the proper role of government in a society. The only solution is a total separation of school and state - a repeal of compulsory-attendance laws and school taxes. Let the consumers decide the specific educational vehicle for each of their children and let entrepreneurs furnish those vehicles. The free market produces the best of everything - it will provide the best education possible.

4. Health Care

The financial crisis in health care is due to the passage of Medicare and Medicaid (on the demand side) as well as occupation licensure (on the supply side). The solution is a total free market in health care. Medicare and Medicaid should be repealed along with occupational licensure. There should be a total separation of health and the state.

5. Social Security and Other Welfare Programs

It is morally wrong for the state to take money from one person and give it to another. A person has the moral right to accumulate unlimited amounts of wealth and decide for himself what to do with that wealth - spend, invest, save, or donate. This right to choose is the essence of human freedom. Social Security is not a contract but rather a tax-and-welfare scheme, just like any other. Social Security, along with all other welfare programs, should be repealed immediately. Let each person decide for himself how to plan for his future. Let the truly needy be helped through the willing hearts of individuals, through voluntary action, through families, neighborhoods, church groups, civic groups, charitable organizations, and the like. We must recapture the American spirit of voluntary giving.

6. Taxation

It is morally wrong to initiate force against another human being. Therefore, no tax can ever be morally justified. The American people were wrong to enact the 16th Amendment, permitting the imposition of the national income tax. It should be repealed, along with the Internal Revenue Service, along with all of the programs the income tax funds. The privatized services which the American people believe are important can be paid for privately and voluntarily.

7. Free Trade and Open Immigration

Individuals have the moral right to engage in mutually beneficial transactions with anyone in the world. It is the duty of government to protect the exercise of such trades. Thus, people have the unfettered right to buy and sell goods and services with people all over the world. They also have the right to hire anyone from anywhere in the world. The government's incarceration and repatriation of foreigners who have crossed our borders in search of work is a moral disgrace. The only moral solution is free trade and open immigration - that is, open borders, entailing an abolition of the INS, Border Patrol, and U.S. Customs.

8. Occupation Licensure

Occupational licensure is nothing more than a protection racket, designed to protect privileged classes of people from the competition of others. Individuals should be free to engage in any enterprise they wish so long as there is no fraud, and consumers should be free to patronize or not patronize such businesses.

9. Foreign Aid

Foreign aid is simply welfare and bribery for foreign government officials. It should be ended immediately.

10. Foreign Intervention and Foreign Wars

One of the primary purposes of government is to protect the nation from attack or invasion. This does not mean interfering with the affairs or wars of other nations. Historically, U.S. intervention has done far more damage than good. It is time to bring all troops home and dismantle the military-industrial complex down to a level necessary to protect the nation from attack. No war should ever be waged without a congressional declaration of war.

11. The Role of Government in a Free Society

The role of government in a free society primarily involves three duties: (1) to keep the peace by arresting, prosecuting, and punishing murderers, rapists, burglars, trespassers, and others who initiate force against peaceful, law-abiding people; (2) to provide a judiciary that enables people to resolve disputes among one another; and (3) to protect the nation from invasion or attack.

12. Abortion

Individuals own their own bodies and have a Constitutional right to privacy (since those rights not taken away by the Constitution are retained by the people). Therefore, Roe v. Wade is legitimate. Government should not, in any manner. be involved in abortion, neither promoting and paying for it nor forbidding it.

CONCLUSION

People have a right to live their lives any way they choose, so long as their conduct is peaceful. This right is fundamental - it preexists government. The primary reason that government is called into existence is to protect the exercise of this right. No government, not even a democratically elected one, has the legitimate authority to regulate or interfere with the exercise of this basic right. In sum, people are endowed with inherent rights, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and use constitutions to call governments into existence, but governments whose powers are limited to the protection, not the destruction, of these fundamental rights.