My ideal presidential candidate

Wouldn’t it be ideal if we had a candidate for president whose platform included upholding all the tenets of the Bill of Rights, including the right to free speech, freedom of religion, and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures?

What if he was 100% pro-Second Amendment, with no exceptions?

Wouldn’t it be ideal if he did what politicians on Capitol Hill talk about but never do: Abolish the IRS and end income taxes?

Wouldn’t it be great if he were in favor of a strong national defense, but he didn’t send our troops on never-ending “peace-keeping” missions or conflicts in foreign lands when there was no direct threat to America?

What if he balanced the budget not once, but every year?

And then what if he dismantled the welfare state, eliminating billions of dollars in bureaucracy, and gave your money back to you so you could support the charities you think are doing the best job of helping people?

What if he felt the private and non-profit sectors could almost always do things better than the government?

Wouldn’t that be a candidate you would vote for?

Well, Virginia, you do have that choice, and that candidate will be visiting the Roanoke and New River valleys next week.

Who is this ideal candidate? It’s Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik, and he’s on the ballot in Virginia.

Is he going to win in November? Most likely not.

But his ideas are inspiring, and at the very least, they should be discussed and debated in the public forum. At least if this guy doesn’t win, maybe some of his ideas (and I hope they’re yours, too) will make an impression on the one who does. (You Bushies know what I’m talking about, don’t you?)

Heck, if enough people rally around the ideas of personal freedom and free enterprise and personal responsibility, maybe the next guy who is elected president will start listening to some of these “way-out-there” ideas.

You may find it hard to believe, but the Libertarian Party is the third largest and the fastest growing political party in the country, with more than 600 Libertarians in public office nationwide, and millions of votes in local, state, and federal elections. No, it’s not a huge amount, but it’s enough to show that Libertarians actually do win elections.

The party is bigger than the Reform Party of Ross Perot, Jesse Ventura and Pat Buchanan. It’s bigger than the Green Party that sponsored Ralph Nader’s candidacy in 2000.

Libertarians believe the answer to America's political problems is “the same commitment to freedom that earned America its greatness: A free-market economy… and the prosperity it brings; a dedication to civil liberties and personal freedom that marks this country above all others; and a foreign policy of non-intervention, peace, and free trade as prescribed by America's founders.”

We believe, to paraphrase a political saying, that a government that has the power to give you everything you want, has the power to take everything you have.

Contrary to popular belief, Libertarians are not anarchists. We believe in laws (laws that are constitutional), the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. The central tenet to the libertarian philosophy is this: You are born a free person, and as such, you have the right to live your life as a free person, exercising your own pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. You have the right to live your life the way you want, as long as you don’t infringe on the person or property of others as they exercise their rights to do the same.

It is a philosophy of individual liberty coupled with personal responsibility.

Libertarians believe that government should consist of the police and the courts to protect you from those who may infringe upon your rights, and the military, so that freedoms for all Americans may be safeguarded from foreign enemies.

Some conservatives claim that so much freedom would breed an “immoral” society. First of all, forcing your morals – whether conservative or liberal – on others through the police power of government is the height of immorality.

Too often, government at all levels has taken the place of the family, the church, community groups, and peers for instilling moral values in people. We have seen over the past several decades that government programs have increased, yet arguably the morals of society have declined. So more government is not the solution. Letting people’s families, churches, and social groups maintain influence over them is the answer, not the nanny-state.

Secondly, a libertarian society does have a code of ethics, so to speak. However, that code of ethics is not based on the changing whims of politicians or lobbyists, and it’s not dependent on who is president or governor, or whose party is in power, or whose judges are sitting on the benches. The code of ethics is based on the principle that no one is allowed to do anything that infringes on the on the person or property of another -- unless the other person willingly consents to it.

This country was founded on libertarian principles of constitutional government. We have strayed far from the Constitution and many of the ideals of our Founding Fathers. Whether you will vote for him or another candidate, you have a unique opportunity to hear Michael Badnarik talk about how we can get America back to those principles and ideals.

Mr. Badnarik will be in Roanoke Thursday, September 16, from 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. at a reception at Corned Beef & Co. in downtown Roanoke, and then he will give a speech in the Haymarket Theater of Virginia Tech’s Squires Student Center at 8:00 p.m. that same night. Both events are free and open to the public.

I hope to see you there!