Ask Libertarian Presidential Candidate Michael Badnarik

Our first interview subject for politics.slashdot.org is the Libertarian Party candidate for US President, Michael Badnarik. You can read his blog to learn more about him. Standard Slashdot interview rules apply: Post your questions today in this discussion. Moderators do your thing. We'll select ~10 questions, and hopefully get answers later this week.

Comments

First Question

[Oculus Habent]

Other than winning, what hopes do you have for the Libertarian Party in the 2004 election?

Re:First Question

[FortKnox]

Even before this question:
Do you feel like you even have a chance of winning, considering that you are in a third party?

Re:First Question

[Rei]

Or, also:

"While it is certainly true that a flat tax would be easier to calculate, are you concerned with its effect on the poor? More specifically, since the poor benefit more in comparison to their tax burden from government programs funded by this money, it would seem like the primary effect would be to increase the disparity of wealth in America, leaving the poor with even less capital to afford "bootstrapping". As America already has the greatest wealth disparity in the industrialized world, are you not concerned about a decrease in social mobility and the general situation of the poor from such a tax plan?"

Re:First Question

[DuckDodgers]

1. The long term capital gains tax rate is 15%, substantially lower than the 25, 28, 33, and 35% tax brackets that affect people making $29,000 and up.

2. The Social Security tax, and the hidden employer contribution, is capped at $87,000 income. The people making over $87,000 a year pay proportionately the least to Social Security, will require its benefits the least, and stand the collect the most in payout.

I'm not a flat tax advocate - I'm just pointing out that thanks to long term capital gains and Social Security our current system often taxes the middle class proportionately more than the rich.

Re:First Question

[Golias]

Asking a question like, "do you feel like you even have a chance of winning?" ammounts to pretty much the same thing as asking him, "are you a complete nut-job with no connection to reality?"

The question I want to ask is:

Most small third-parties usually set the bar at getting a 5% result or better in as many states as they can, because in most states that usually means "major party" status, which often comes with some public election finance money that will set them up with a better chance for future elections. Since the Libertarian Party officially rejects the concept of public financing of elections, what are your goals for this election, and what do you hope to gain by reaching them?

Re:First Question

[jadavis]

This argument does not stand up very well in my eyes. Are taxes on "the rich" too low? How about we make the taxes 100%? Or maybe we could just have a tax system where you get taxed exactly enough to leave you with the same amount of money as everyone else?

It's a fact that when you tax investments more, people invest less. The only way new jobs are created is by investment.

My point is that there's a balance. You don't want taxes to be 100%, and you don't want them to be 0%. If either of those happen, tax revenue is $0. Time and time again, tax rates are reduced and tax revenue is increased.

You accounted for none of these factors, so your implication that taxes should not be reduced in some brackets carries no weight at all.

Your post contains one other major logical flaw. If everone in the country benefits from a tax decrease (hypothetically), does it matter at all if the wealth disparity increases? Only to those who prefer to kill the neighbor's cow (so to speak).

Re:First Question

[feepness]

As America already has the greatest wealth disparity in the industrialized world, are you not concerned about a decrease in social mobility and the general situation of the poor from such a tax plan?

An extremely simple alternative to both flat and income tax is to use a national sales tax and then automatically refund money to every single person in the US. IE: overtax people at the register by an AVERAGE of (let's say, purely arbitrarily) $1K per person. Then refund that to the taxpayers.

The multi-billionaire gets $1,000 back on the $10,000,0000 he paid in taxes.

The working poor gets $1,000 back on the $500 he paid in taxes.

This is ridiculously simply, as progressive as you want it to be (simply fiddle with two numbers, sales tax rate, and refund amount -- higher refund = more progressive). And anyone can immediately look at their income/spending and eyeball their overall tax burden. People with similar incomes and spending habits will always have the SAME tax burden. What a concept!

Of course, it will never happen with the Republicrats in office.

Vote independent!!!

Re:First Question

[True Grit]

Yea, it does sound flippant. You see, child labor is now *illegal* in the US under Federal Law. Your link is to a report showing compliance and enforcement efforts by the states. In the "Good Ole' Days" the OP is referring to, child labor was legal and occurring on a massive scale. Robber Barons got filthy rich on the blood, sweat, and tears of 10 year olds.

I do agree that in many places of the world things are still like the "Good Ole' Days" that the US had, and I also agree there are unethical American companies willing to exploit overseas child labor, but I consider that to be a symptom of the Psychopathic Corporation, not specific to any country.

Question

[sethadam1]

Regarding our current system, what do you think can be done to encourage people to vote for third party candidates? It seems to me that most people still feel it's a "wasted vote."

Also, editors - great theme!

Re:Question

[celeritas_2]

How about: How can we change the system so people have the choice between multiple canidates and not just two?

Re:Question

[TykeClone]

A 3rd party can win in the US. Look at Jessie "The Governor" Ventura of Minnesota - he won as a third party candidate.

Even in Presidential elections, third parties have won. The Republicans started out as the anti-slave party in the mid-1800's and won the Presidency.

The problem with third parties is that they're X-Lite - where X = Republican or Democrats. And that they are typically one issue horses - so they have trouble getting people to buy-in.

In Minnesota, Ventura ran as a different candidate. He already had name recognition (which is important), and was running against the liberal republican candidate and the even more liberal DFL candidate. He differentiated himself from the other candidates and was able to win.

There's no reason why the libertanian candidate can't win - but saying "Pot should be legal" and "there should be no regulation with no middle ground" (which is what that party is perceived to stand for) won't win it. They need to do better.

Re:Question

[TapTapTheChisler]

They're called the Borda and Single Transferrable Vote systems. Take a gander: http://www.deakin.edu.au/fac_buslaw/sch_aef/public ations/wp/wp2201.pdf

Re:Question

[Maltheus]

As a friend from England said, 'you keep saying you have a liberal and conservative party. We see it as you have a conservative and a more-conservative party.'

Given that conservatives are for smaller government, I'll never understand this sentiment. If we were conservative, we'd probably have much better relations with the world since our government wouldn't have trillions of dollars to impose it's will upon the world. I guess the English actually believe George Bush when he claims to be a conservative. And if they believe that, I have some weapons of mass distruction to sell them. ;-)

I guess people are so often confused because we have a mix of socialist and fascist trends in our society. The largest corporate interests petition to government to socialize portions of the economy (ex. heavy regulations) in order to eliminate the competetion. Then they use their new status as monopolists (or blatant colluders) to order the government to do their bidding (ie. wars, anti-union laws, tax breaks, or to direct govt. spending their way). So now we have fewer companies in control of more assets, which undermines capitalism, and we have a behemoth state that becomes the world's largest consumer. That's not a bad thing if the money were directed towards infrastructure (ie, roads, schools, etc.) or capital investments, but we spend it on war, bribes and bureaucracy. We are not at all conservative economically or politically.

War and Christrianity, does not a conservative make. War-mongering christians are just the voting block that republicans have targeted, whereas the democrats have gone after immigrants and hedonists. The voting block does not make the label, the ideology does.

Re:Question

[sploxx]

This seems to be a problem everywhere.
The "drift to the center" also occurs here in germany. Actually, there is now a movement to form a new party left to one of germany's two big parties (SPD) because some people are annoyed. It's probably a matter of time before the other end of the political spectrum will be extended, too...

I don't really know how election campaigns are fought in the U.S. (But US foreign policy is an important issue worldwide, i.e.
many people here are very interested in your november elections); But in our political system, I see at least one problem in a too "cost/benefit"-worried campaign. It seems that political agendas are mainly formed as follows:

1. Parties order polls about controversial issues.
2. The polls are evaluated and costs are associated to each issue, with mainly the following factors taken into the equation:
a) importance of the issue for the general public (i.e. number of votes lost/gained for yes/no to the particular issue)
b) importance of the issue to the members of the party (a political party can't bear with a massive member loss)
3. The political agenda will be written according to the scores given by the evaluation of the polls.

Especially a) leads to a equalization of political agendas. And it seems that b) gets less and less important if one iterates this process because party members are gradually replaced with new ones from the public (which is preconditioned by very similar agendas). At the same time, many people get frustated about politics.

IMHO, this is what you get if you run a political party like you should run a company, only with votes instead of money.

Personal Responsible Corporations?

[FriedTurkey]

How does the Libertarian Party, whose platform is a complete free market economy with personal responsibility, expect the economy to prosper with the recent corporate scandals such as Enron?

Re:Personal Responsible Corporations?

[finkployd]

I wonder if the idea of a corporation as being it's own citizen is nonlibertarian, in which case they could just say that the individuals involved in the scandal could all be individually sued by the people they wrongfully ripped off.

Cop out answer or not, that is my opinion. And I consider myself a Libertarian (or more accurately, that is the party most closely aligned with my opinions)

The whole idea of limited liability seems stupid to me. Imagine the accountibility inside of corporations if everyone was responsible for covering their own butt, and not just hiding behind a corporate veil. Whistleblowers would get to these Enron type of things much quicker because when it is your ass on the line legally, turning a blind eye just to keep your job a little longer is not a good option.

Finkployd

Re:Personal Responsible Corporations?

[Marlor]

Similarly, in the Libertarian worldview, why is "Big Government" bad, while "Big Corporations" are fine. Ideally power shouldn't be centralized, but if it is going to be centralized somewhere, shouldn't it be in an institution that is directly accountable to the people, i.e. the Government?

Re:Personal Responsible Corporations?

[thefirelane]

I think the original poster was thinking more along these lines: Fraud may still be illegal, but under a "perfect" libertarian government, would an entity like the SEC even exist? After all, it is the job of the SEC to regulate the markets. Doesn't that very job contradict the libertarian ideals? If the there isn't an entity regulating the markets, how do you catch the Enron's, the WorldCom's, the CNBC talking heads that are hyping a company that they have money invested in, etc?

• 1) Not all government regulation must entirely disappear under Libertarian ideas, this is a grey area... we can debate about where to put the stopping point, but we all agree that the start needs to happen
• 2) Other posters have mentioned that there would be many 'private SECs'... these people apparently don't know much about current corporate auditing as they are describing nearly an identical system
• 3) I would like to show that Enron was caused by government regulation, and would have been stopped if there were less government regulation: Back in the day, rich people invested in stocks. They owned shares of companies that made money. When a company made money, it divided this money among its owners (shareholders) and mailed it to them in the form of dividends. One day some government genius said "Look at this, this is a massive form of income and it is only being used by rich people. Therefore, we can tax this, and only tax the rich people, it is a great new source of income!". This was done, and the tax on dividends went up. Now the rules of the game have changed, so it will not be played the same way as in the past. Under the new system, it is cheaper to sell off shares for a profit. Companies realize they can still distribute the money to their investors, but they do so by buying their own shares with their profits (or just sit on the profits). This causes the outstanding share value to rise, allowing the current share holders to sell the shares and get their money under the less heavily taxed capital gains rate.
  
  The problem now, is that the emphasis is shifted to raising the share price. The share price can be raised through dubious means, which is how Enron happened. If the system were not messed with, Enron could not happen, because if the CEO said "we have just made X billion dollars" investors would then rightly say "ok, fine send me a check". This can not be faked. Investors become the regulators, and they can decide to call back their money (dividends) or re-invest it in the company (by letting them keep it).

Re:Personal Responsible Corporations?

[Hatta]

How about eliminating corporations entirely? Corporate law is just a layer of legal junk that obscures what's really happening, interactions between individuals. We intuitively understand what's fair between individuals, corporations are legal fictions. I don't see a reason to keep them at all.

Why do you bother?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's clear it's always going to be a two horse race. What motivates you when there's zero chance of you getting into power?

are some free trade restrictions necessary?

[toasted_calamari]

Regarding your description of free trade vs. state corporatism at your website, How can we prevent the propagation of Multinational corporations without resorting to government regulation? Is that form of Government regulation a necessary evil, or is there a method for preventing the formation of huge multinationals and monopolies without the government restricting free trade? If so, how would this method be implemented?

Where are we headed?

[QuantumRiff]

Where do you see America in 5/10/15 years under its current leadership? Where do you see America in the same timeframe with you as the president? What broad steps will you take to get us there?

What OS do you use?

[GillBates0]

Seriously, though I know what the answer is likely to be. Politicians probably have bigger things to care about, But this is /.

Why should I waste my vote on you.

[nlinecomputers]

I tend to hold a Libertarian point of view but you have NO chance of ever being elected President. Aren't there more viable methods to get your viewpoint heard such as PACs or lobbyists?

Re:Why should I waste my vote on you.

[scorp1us]

Who will your electorial votes go to? I love in MD which is solid Democrat. I can vote fro either of the two parties and not have much utility in my vote.

OR I can vote for the 3rd party. if 5% of everyone votes for the 3rd party, then they get increased funding. Eventually, the 3rd party will be large enough to cause concern. At that point, theother parties realize that they are in jeopardy, that the american public is dissatified witht he existing paries.

In MD, our governor is libertarian, but is on the republical ballot. He ran as a Republican and is the 1st republican governor in over 25 years. We have 5 libertarians serving in public offices. Libertarians are the 3rd larget political party in the US.

Libertarians are becoming a formitable party.

Re:Why should I waste my vote on you.

[Rei]

My biggest problem with the libertarian stance is this: while it is certainly possible for the poor to go to college, and it is certainly possible for the poor to start a business, it isn't likely. In fact, statistically it is very unlikely. All people are unfortunately not created equal from birth, and that greatly affects their chances of ending up educated and wealthy.

My question to Badnarik is this: Since it, in general, takes money to make money, doesn't this imply that the poor are going to be severely disadvantaged by their birth? If the Libertarian party wants people's success in life to be due to their own wits and hard work, shouldn't it be supporting a free education, and supporting the estate tax? Otherwise, it seems to be just a way to allow "freeloading" - i.e., if your parents were wealthy, odds are you'll be wealthy too, whether you work hard or not.

Regulation

[Anonymous Coward]

Mr. Badnarik, as president, would you support breaking up monopolies such as Microsoft to enable competition?

Thank you.

In my experience

[iamdrscience]

In my experience, a lot of what the libertarian platform stands for makes a lot of sense and I whole-heartedly agree with. The problem is, the parts that I don't agree with seem absolutely batshit insane (i.e. privatizing sidewalks? WTF?). So my question is basically, do I find myself agreeing with you because I'm a little crazy or disagreeing with you because you're a little crazy.

Re:In my experience

[mothz]

That brings up an interesting point. Candidates from the mainstream political parties vary in their personal opinions. For example, there are plenty of pro-choice Republicans, Democrats who oppose gay marriage, Republicans who don't want to privatize Social Security, and Democrats who support(ed) the war on Iraq.

The smaller, up-and-coming parties are still trying to develop a public identity and carve a niche for themselves. As such, these candidates tend to be more closely aligned with the official party ideals. Do you feel that these strong ideals make third-party candidates seem too extreme to much of the public? What can your party do to impress voters who are more pragmatic?

Re:In my experience

[WindBourne]

It is a strange paradigm to some. One answer is that the LP party or you are crazy.

However, a better answer is that we go back to the fringes to prevent errosion of all the other principles. Think in terms of how for 200 years, the right of free speech or the right to own and carry guns was so vehmitly defended. The problem is that as soon as errosion starts, it is hard to stop. The patriot act was fairly intrusive, but no where near what the patriot act II is (it was passed on the day that Sadaam's capture was announced; Interesting that it passed both houses and the presendcy all in the same day as a rider on another bill). Likewise, over the last few decades there has been constant pressure to remove our right to own and carry guns.

While I can see value to public sidewalks, the problem is where do you stop?

Re:In my experience

[robochan]

...The problem is, the parts that I don't agree with seem absolutely batshit insane (i.e. privatizing sidewalks? WTF?)....

Really.
How is that any more/less "batshit insane" than taking the country to war under false pretenses or trying to categorize ketchup as a vegetable or calling fast-food workers manufacturing jobs or attempting to rewrite the United States Constitution so that it outlaws gay marriage?

Induce our vote

[tod_miller]

What are you views and hopes for privacy and security for the citizens of the internet age, and how do you proactively aim to safegaurd and give back our rights that have been eroded away. (INDUCE act, PATRIOT act, et al)

PATRIOT act

[keiferb]

What's your view on the Patriot act? What, if any, parts do you think need to be changed, and why?

Re:PATRIOT act

[Anonymous Coward]

Since the knee-jerkly obvious answer is "All of it needs to go", a more intriguing follow up would be : What parts of the Patriot Act do you agree with and think should stay / be augmented?

You know you can't win

[ellem]

I have voeted Libertarian the last 3 elections but this year the stakes are too high. You know you can't win. Have you considered "Deaning" your supporters and asking them to vote for Bush or Kerry depending on who you think should be President (besides yourself)?

What happens to people who fall between the cracks

[zzyzx]

The downside of removing the safety net is that there will be people who don't have the skills needed to succeed; we can't all be the best at what we do after all. Any system has winners and losers. What is your plan for the losers under your system? Charities only do so much after all.

odd background for a presidential candidate.

[Eric Seppanen]

Some background information: Dark Horse on the Third Ballot

Badnarik believes that the federal income tax has no legal authority and that people are justified in refusing to file a tax return until such time as the IRS provides them with an explanation of its authority to collect the tax. He hadn't filed income tax returns for several years. He moved from California to Texas because of Texas' more liberal gun laws, but he refused to obtain a Texas driver's license because the state requires drivers to provide their fingerprints and Social Security numbers. He has been ticketed several times for driving without a license; sometimes he has gotten off for various technical legal reasons, but on three occasions he has been convicted and paid a fine. He also refused to use postal ZIP codes, seeing them as "federal territories."

...He proposed that convicted felons serve the first month of their sentence in bed so that their muscles would atrophy and they'd be less trouble for prison guards and to blow up the U.N. building on the eighth day of his administration, after giving the building's occupants a chance to evacuate.

Re:odd background for a presidential candidate.

[Peyna]

There is much evidence that the 16th ammendment was NEVER RATIFIED by congress.

Congress doesn't ratify amendments, the states do. Give me your evidence that it was never ratified. I assure you it had long been put to rest that it was ratified, and the Supreme Court has addressed the issue numerous times and each time concluded that it was properly ratified. Thus, Congress has the power to levy an income tax.

The argument that the Amendment was not properly ratified is based on that the States did not all receive exactly replicas of the text of the Amendment (some things being as trivial as capitalization, misspellings, etc.) If similar rules are applied to other Amendments, women would not have the right to vote, black people might still only be 3/5ths of a person, etc.

The Supreme Court has very clearly decided the issue and repeatedly said that because the Secretary of State certified everything it is binding on the Courts, who do not have the power to rule about Constitutional Amendments anyway.

This argument has been dead since at least 1986.

Reaffirming the Constitution

[pegr]

Given the current political climate of entitlement, pork-barrel spending, and district vote-buying, how can we get this country back into compliance with the spirit and letter of the Constitution?

"Should have gone to..."

[DrEldarion]

When somebody you strongly dislike is running, it's very tempting to vote for the person who is more likely to win against them rather than the person whose views you agree with more.

What is your response to the people who say that a vote given to a third-party candidate is wasted and should have gone to one of the main two parties, if only to make sure that the "bad candidate" doesn't win?

Are you a PATRIOT fan? No, not football

[Triumph The Insult C]

Mr. Badnarik, a two-parter if I may ...
1. If elected, what stance would you take on the PATRIOT Act, DMCA, and INDUCE?

2. Would you do anything to try and reduce the influence of nutjob organizations (Fellowship, C-Street Center, etc) in federal politics? For that matter, would you do anything to return Washington to citizens and take it away from lobbyists/corporations?

purpose?

[mikeee]

The structure of the US voting system is such that two major parties appear to be the only stable political alignment (though on a couple of occasions, one of the major parties has imploded and been replaced).

Given this, why is a 3rd (4th/5th) party a good use of political resources, rather than explicitly trying to shift one or both of the major parties toward your viewpoint?

How can you even begin to be viable

[discovercomics]

How can you even begin to be a viable choice if you don't have candidates across the board in a majority of electorial races. Even if your positions are fantastic on the issues without at least a glimmer of support from the congress you are dead in the water.

Q: How would you be able to lead and govern effectively when you would very little support from the congress?

Howard Stern

[ellem]

Howard ran for New York Govener under your party's name. What do you think about:

Howard's fight with the current FCC

Howard's hard turn Left

Howard Stern being your FCC Commissioner.

How do you enforce rights in an ownership society?

[zzyzx]

As we've learned over the past few decades, free speech only applies to public property. Private owners can evict anyone they want for whatever reason. If there is no public property, how are free speech rights protected? Would there be any free speech rights at all in a Libertarian world for people who aren't well off enough to buy property?

Everyone is thinking it!

[ZipprHead]

Common, everyone is thinking it, who do think will win? And if Kerry looses what do you expect to see out of the current administration?

How about...

[gfxguy]

Could you explain your belief that the United States is to blame for 9/11?

Re:How about...

[Anonymous Coward]

As far as I can tell he doesn't believe that the United States is to blame as such, but that the Government of the United States is to blame. It would help the discussion if you didn't misrepresent his views. That said, this belief can be accounted for quite easily. The 9/11 commision wrote a little book that while not blaming the US Government exlusively, leaves a strong impression that the US Government wasn't as effective as it might have been, or might be expected, if the people who are getting the big bucks where doing what they were supposed to be doing.

War on Iraq and other dictatorships

[philipdl71]

Do you believe that the U.S. Government has the right to invade countries run by dictators like Saddam Hussein and liberate the people by establishing a free society even if those countries do not threaten the United States?

In a nutshell, how does the libertarian principle of non-initiation of force apply to foreign dictators? Who or what has the right to unseat these dictators?

2 questions

[WindBourne]

1. Via a presidential order, GWB allowed past presidents to hide anything that they wanted by declaring it national security. Will you lift this order and restore our right to know what our past presidents have done?
2. Is your priority to balance the budget first and then cut taxes, or is to cut taxes followed by balancing the budget, the same way that Reagan and GWB has done?

Morality

[Anonymous Coward]

I am an ill-fitting member of one of the two dominant political parties. I have been interested in the past in libertarian ideals and thoughts and did some amount of research.

My understanding is that libertarians have a belief system where individual are free from regulation and rules.

This seems like a great way to live until I start running some of the possible scenarios and consequences to my family, specifcally my children.

What sorts of regulations and rules if any do libertarians believe are necessary to prevent the descent into "survival of the fittest"?

Global Economy

[ffejie]

Much of your platform involves removing troops and money from foreign lands. Although many people agree that we should focus on home before abroad, how do you respond to critics that say removing support from the UN, the World Bank etc. will cause the global economy to collapse?

Federal Regulators.

[Irvu]

I have seen several of your posters that include, among other things, the following bullet point: "Every Federal Regulator that we fire produces 150 new jobs, enough to re-hire all of those federal regulators and the able-bodied poor."

What I wanted to know is, how does that work exactlly. If I were to say fire a building safety inspector, an Air Traffic controller, or an inspector with the FDA how would that produce jobs? And, how would we guarantee that no adverse effect (salmopnella in the food) would result?

Assume Badnarik is elected

[maximilln]

If Michael Badnarik were to be elected as president of the United States of America, what would be the most likely offensive that he would encounter from the political back rooms of the Big Two? Would it be personal blackmail? Would it be a sex scandal? Would it be a collaborative set up along the lines of sinking Wall Street and then blaming it on the President?

What is the Libertarian contingency plan for elected officials who receive the short end of the scapegoat stick? Have Libertarians been targeted by such schemes in the past if and when they held positions of any significant political power? How corrupt is the game in Washington DC?

But is he able?

[hkb]

Was elected Executive Vice-President of his dormitory at Indiana University, and became a BMOC ('big man on campus') known for getting things done, while always maintaining the high principles instilled by his parents.

No offense, but that's not something I'd put as the first paragraph of my political resume for my PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES campaign.

Then again, it's his right to run.

became an independent computer consultant in 2001

heh.

Became interested in the U.S. Constitution in 1983 and began a life-long journey in self-study of this founding document of the country he is so proud to call his home.

This is respectable but hardly enough to qualify him for ruler of the free world. Though, he does get points for apparently being familiar with the meaning of the Constitution, unlike Bush, Ashcroft, Kerry, et al.

I don't really pay much attention to the progress of the Libertarian party, but if this is the best they can come up with...things are looking pretty sorry for them.

Morality?

[Milo Fungus]

Several (most?) of the American Revolutionaries believed in the moral tradition of Western Europe, including Christianity, chastity, honesty, etc. A representative quote is from John Adams, who said:

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

What are your views on this issue? Are your views consistent with the predominant views of the Founders? Please explain.

It is not difficult to argue that the importance of these values and morals are being diminished in our current society. Do you think there is a direct relationship between this change in our moral climate and the changes in civil liberties that have heppened in the last hundred or so years? Or do you think that these changes are not directly related to one another?

Re:Morality?

[Anonymous Coward]

This position is ridiculous. By my count, it is the "immoral" atheists who consistently defend civil liberties, while Christians are constantly trying to erode them. How many atheists try to ban books? Or dictate proper sexual behavior between consenting adults? Or what you can say in a public place? Face facts - Christianity brought us the Dark Ages, and if some have their way, would take us right back.

Any electoral votes?

[sharkb8]

I think we can all agree that, being a minor party, the Libertarians run little risk of getting any of the electoral vote. If that's the case, why do you run? I'm honestly curious, is it to educate voters, try to expand the two party system? Is it even to simply voice your views? Or is this merely the first step in total world domination?

Nader seems to have gotten away from doing what would be best for the country, and made his Independent Party bid an ego thing.

I agree that our current system of governance sucks, but the system was built so that things changed slowly, so that one person, pressident, or session of congress couldn't radically change America. Do you propose making incremental changes from the inside, or are you hoping for dissatisfaction with the current system to foster whole scale change in American politics?

Re:Any electoral votes?

[WindBourne]

I think we can all agree that, being a minor party, the Libertarians run little risk of getting any of the electoral vote.

That is not quite true. A few states have moved to breaking the electorial to being a % of the votes. In doing so, it has made the states more attractive to the minority parties. In addition, more states are trying to push it. Here in colorado, a number of ppl are pushing for it, but the republican powers are really fighting it. We will have to see if the citizens want to break the powers that be.

Gaining Acceptance

[dougermouse]

I have been following you since your improbable run at the convention, but this question is one that is on the lips of many people who started with interest but faded from the LP:

The usual LP line is interpreted as: Don't touch my money or my weed, which turns off a lot of moderate voters. Combine that with your semantics stands on ZIP codes people equate the LP with the Loony Party. People see the "Fringe" ideas first and completely loose interest.

How do you hope to fight the usual LP labels?

Non-compete clauses

[zzyzx]

Do you think that non-compete clauses in contracts should be acceptiable as long as both parties voluntarily agree to them?

If not, what other agreements are people not allowed to engage in?

If so, how do you stop people from hiding them in long, seemingly unrelated contracts in order to create a new class of indentured servants. Is a world where every single agreement you would ever make would have to go through a lawyer to make sure that there isn't some poison pill buried in there really a better and freer place than the one we live in now?

timing

[j1mmy]

I fully support the Libertarian platform and ideals and I have every intention of voting for you in November. My only beef with the libertarian approach is timing. You've stated that in your first couple months of holding office you'll eliminate the federal reserve, kick the U.N. out of the country, and bring as many of our troops home as possible, among other radical (but good) changes. My question is this: how do you plan to handle the societal impact of these changes? Eliminating the federal reserve is not something I'd expect to go over lightly in the financial markets, for example. Much of the Libertarian platform is a severe departure from the current state of the nation -- I feel that society would need time to adapt to these changes.

Intellectual Property

[geoff313]

As the offical Libertarian party cadidate for president, where do you stand on the issue of intellectual property? Should it be considered the same as traditional property, or should IP be not subjected to the same protections that physical property is? And do you feel that your personal views on the subject reflect the views of the majority of the party itself, or is this an issue that has the potential to polarize your party much the same way that abortion does for the Democrats and Republicans?

Why?

[DAldredge]

Why are you for unlimited immigration with no caps and no requirments?

The Environment

[Sotogonesu]

Mr. Badnarik, I see that the Environment didn't make your web site's issues list. If elected, what would you do to help preserve the planet?

Public Image

[Ralph Wiggam]

In many ways, my beliefs overlap the Libertarian Party platform. I am a big supporter of civil liberties and I feel those rights are being threatened.

Having just said that, I have never considered joining the Libertarian Party. My perception of Libertarians are that they are on odd mix of:
1) Urban people whose primary initiative is repealing drug laws.
2) Urban people whose primary initiative is fighting gun control laws.
3) Rural people whose primary intiative is changing property laws and taxes.

How do you respond to this perception? Do you feel there are seperate factions inside the party with different goals? How do you plan to get people like me into your party?

The good news for you guys is that if Kerry loses this election, I think a lot of self-identified Democrats (which I am not) are going to give up on the party. Come on. If a huge party like that can't find one guy who can beat an idiot like Bush, they don't deserve to be a major party.

-B

Given that our system is broken

[catbutt]

in such a way that third party candidates hurt their own causes by running (by taking away votes from the candidates who are most similar to them in the eyes of voters), why do you think your running is worth the risk of helping the worst candidate to win?

Are you interested in election reform to eliminate the spoiler effect (through such things as condorcet election methods), or would you prefer pretend the problem is not there, and not worry what damage is caused by your running for office?

Wacky Policies

[Reality Master 101]

One of the reasons I've never been able to even consider a Libertarian are some of the, frankly, wacky beliefs that many Libertarians hold, such as that private citizens should be able to have their own nuclear weapons (obviously a bad idea), completely private fire departments (fires SPREAD), etc.

First, do you believe in this sort of "purity", and if not, how can the Libertarian Party distance themselves from these people in order show yourselves as more practical? Right now, I think Libertarians are seen as ivory tower-ites who worship at altars of theory, while ignoring real world practicality.

Re:Wacky Policies

[Anonymous Coward]

-1 Flamebait

"...wacky beliefs that many Libertarians hold"

When you characterize a whole group by a misguided ideas espoused by a wacky few, you're clearly trolling. All you're saying is "I know a Libertarian who thinks such-and-such! That's crazy! They so stupid"

How your inflammatory drivel got modded up is beyond me. I guess it's more fun to bash a label than to ask an honest question.

1. I've never heard anyone that private citizens should own nukes. Most libertarians would be opposed to nuclear weapons, since they are purely an offensive, anti-civilian weapon. They have little or no use when it comes to legitimate defense of one's country and people.

2. It's easy to bash the idea of private services when you live in your mother's basement and it seems like fire, police, garbage, and other municipal services are provided "for free". The reality is that they're not, and libertarians feel that services should be paid for voluntarily by the people who need them. It is entirely possible for people in a town or city to voluntarily pool their resource for these things. That way, services are accountable for the value they provide and the efficiency with which they spend their budgets. If they're not, the private sector can find someone else to do the job.

Remember, the whole basis of libertarianism is freedom (and the responsibility that comes with it). Libertarians believe that using force to take another man's money or property is wrong, and that most things that are paid for with this stolen money are better provided by the citizens themselves.

You may feel free to critique libertarianism on either a moral or practical basis (most people prefer the latter), but calling us libertarians "ivory tower-ites" when we're fighting to reclaim the freedoms your forefathers died for is not helpful.

Nuclear proliferation

[SiliconEntity]

What would you do about the spread of nuclear weapons and other WMDs? Iran is now working on the bomb while Europe wrings its hands. North Korea has the bomb. What is the Libertarian position? Would you ever support attacking Iran to prevent them from going nuclear?

Constitutional Ammendment 14 section 4

[Tellarite]

Knowing the constitution guru that you are I would like to know what your interpretation of the fourth section of the 14th ammendment is, which states:

"The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned."

Do you have a position on this issue? Does the "validity of the public debt" need to be questioned?

Intelectual Property Laws

[scorp1us]

I have scowered lp.org for the answer to this, but could not as it is not on the platform.

Libertarians aim to preserve personal liberty above all else. This would indicate that IP is not belived in, yet I think the party realized the nessesity for "securing for limited times [exclusive rights]" whether it be art or invention.

How would the LP shape IP in order to "advance the process of the arts and sciences", while balancing peronal liberties?

Economy

[hackstraw]

I see that you are opposed to the war in Iraq, and that you are big into seriously reducing the size of the government and taxes. However, the trend for the past 60 years or so has been to spend government money into deficit status on defense and wars, and then scramble ways to pay for that spending. My question is simple. What new idiology are you going to introduce as a motivation to spend the taxpayers' money and create/maintain jobs instead of defense and wars and why will people favor this change?

Copyright Questions

[Dante333]

I know that libertarians are strong defenders of property rights including "intellectual property". What, if any, limitation should be on the duration of copyrights? Are they too long, too short, or just right? How would you like to see the length of copyrights defined?

And as a second question, what role should the government play in enforcing copyrights? Should it be imposing laws that limit technology that might be used to infringe upon copyrights? Should it be actively pursuing people who violate copyrights through the criminal justice system? Or should that be redressed through civil courts between the copyright holders and infringer?

Copyrights

[HolyCoitus]

Having watched your constitution class and having kept up with your blog, I'm aware of where you stand on most issues. However, I don't believe you've taken a stand on copyrights and how you see them effecting technology and society. Do you view copyrights as an inherent right given to the person who created the work, or do you see it as a privilege given to those people by the government as a proxy for the people? Many people would say copyright has turned into a weapon for large corporations, established insitutions and people. The constitution grants a limited time protection for copyrights as you know, however the current terms being much greater than the author's life are hardly limited in the scope of insuring future creations by the author.

My question is, then, do you view the current copyright situation as constitutional and correct? If not, then what do you propose to change to weight the situation back towards the common person?

I have a question

[rd_syringe]

How do you feel about what the Democrats are doing to Ralph Nader, preventing free choice by blocking him from the ballot because of some insane notion that someone doesn't have the right to run for President if they're not a Democrat or a Republican? Have you had any troubles yourself in this regard?

libertarians and government health care

[Luyseyal]

Consider the following:

1. To engage in "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness", one must have, above all, Life
2. To adequately sustain one's Life in the modern age, one must visit the doctor, hospital, emergency room, etc. regardless of whether one can afford it, regardless of whether the problems were self-initiated or happened through no fault of one's own, and regardless of one's age
3. More and more healthy people are avoiding expensive health insurance which increases the amount of risk in insurance pools, increasing rates, as well as hospital expenses for more emergency visits by the uninsured
4. The Cato Institute said on CSPAN last August that in order for private health insurance to work, we must accept as a society that there will be people who die because they cannot afford the care they need
5. By definition, a government risk pool would be far wider than any private, competing insurance company

If Libertarians believe in efficient government that allows the rights of people to be expressed -- through Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -- why is it that they don't support a right to health care in the form of a single payer system that is demonstrably cheaper and more effective than the current or a deregulated system?

Cheers,
-l

Pharaphrase the Constitution

[nurb432]

In your own words, what does the constition and its bill of rights mean?

Abbreviated answers are acceptable, but please no 'political-speak'..

After that, what do you have planned to protect what you just have described, and how is that different then the other 2 main candidates plans?

How do you make it worthwhile?

[bwalling]

It's clear it's always going to be a two horse race.

Please take a look at history. This is not the case. The Republicans and Democrats are not the originals, they are just the ones we currently have. They certainly have done a lot to pass new legislation to protect their own positions.

I'm not interested in the motivation, I completely understand the motivation. I'd like to know what you think needs to be done to create credibility within the public mind for a third party. It seems that the presidency is a big thing to shoot for, and you could better spend your money winning seats in state legislatures, and move up towards the presidency. Why not start with attainable positions, and build?

next victim… I mean candidate

[capoccia]

Hey Taco--
Can we get Michael Peroutka of the Constitution Party as the next candidate? He is on the ballot in most states.

Free State project

[dkleinsc]

Where do you see the the Free State Project in New Hampshire leading, both for your party and for the nation in general?

Re:How do you enforce rights in an ownership socie

[zzyzx]

As we've learned over the past few decades, free speech only applies to public property.

Wrong. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights only exist for the purpose of limiting the power of the Federal (and State, theoretically) governments. It makes no other guarantees about the behavior of your fellow citizens and was never meant to.

How is that wrong. I said that issues involving free speech (and I should have said assembly) only affect public property. You're saying that it doesn't affect private property. We agree there.

As a side effect of this, a person is able to throw you off of his property for any reason, including saying things he doesn't like. What are you saying? You shouldn't be able to throw a burglar out of your house if he starts quoting "Mein Kampf", because that would be a violation of his free speech rights? What about the rights of the property owner?


You're missing my point. I'm not arguing that people should be able to go into my house and yell at me all night. I agree that private property should be, well, private. Rather I'm saying that if all public property is privatized, do civil rights have any meaning at all?

Public vs. Private.

[lynx_user_abroad]

Many of us on Slashdot have concerns about how Copyright and Patent law seem to be working in conjunction to lock-up ownership of ideas and prevent future innovation. One argument which gets trotted-out regularly is that many of today's most strongly protected ideas are built on top of a long history of prior innovations.

I have been struck by an analogous thread in the Libertarian Party which seems to favor private ownership over public ownership when it comes to things like Utilities, Property, etc. But the anaolgy holds that much of what we consider to be eligible for private ownership is "built on top of" a solid foundation of public ownership, and derives a good deal of it's value from it. The often cited example of this is private land which is worthless without the public roads lending access to it.

Can the Libertarian Party offer a platform of balance between the good of private property ownership and the necessity of public property ownership (government) or does the Libertarian Party offer another solution to replace the functions which we have traditionally relied on a government function to handle?

Libertarians for Life

[Tikiman]

You do not mention abortion on your page of issues. Are you a Libertarian for Life? Why or why not?

Drugs and Guns

[LookSharp]

Let me preface my question by saying I have voted for mainly Libertarian candidates for four years, and take a largely Libertarian political mindset when voting on ballot issues.

Mr. Badnarik, do you personally feel that the Libertarian Party's public image is tarnished by the perception that they cater to the interests of Drug Legalization and unregulated Gun Ownership?

I'm not looking for the party line, as I can read lp.org on my own. The idealogues who wrote the platform believe that personal responsibility trumps government oversight, which in my heart I believe is the right way for society to go.

I am someone who believes that guns are useful tools, but live in a household with unstable emotional variables so do not need to own one. I also have never taken recreational substances and don't feel that I'm missing out by avoiding them. I agree that our current state of government overregulates both of these issues (Guns and Drugs) to irrational extremes, to the detriment of the civil rights of responsible adults nationwide. On the flip side, the reality is that a large part of our population would be completely unable to function if left to their own sense of responsibility to make decisions regarding recreational drugs and weapons.

The point I'm getting at is that, as an intellectual and rational human being, I have a hard time "selling" the Libertarian Party as a viable alternative to our two party system. The LP clearly has a perception problem when like-minded civil libterians refer to the LP as "a bunch of gun and drug nuts." The crux of this gets lost when the candidates turn idealogues and say "Smaller Government! No Income Tax! Legalize Drugs! Hold sacred the Second Amendment!" All of these things are good, but this mindset excludes discussion on a lot of pragmatic issues that need addressed before American Society is ready to accept them as truth.

Thank you for your time.

What are your feelings about national service?

[Anonymous Coward]

I know Libertarians are generally against the draft (at least I am :) but how would you encourage adequate recruiting for the military and other necessary government functions? Would you ever consider a Heinleinesque "Citizenship through service" (at least for those who wish to immigrate here) or do you have another idea?

My question: Who the hell are you?

[Mr. Cancelled]

I'm a pretty big news buff, and I've never heard the Libertarian candidates name until now.

So I guess a more PC question than the one posed above would be "Please introduce yourself to the readers, and explain why it is that your party is being completely ignored in the mainstream press."

I'm guessing that the real answer will be something to the effect of "A 3rd party candidate doesn't stand a chance, so why waste the camera time", which is the mantra that the two main political parties chant over and over, but seriously... In the land of the free where anyone can supposedly become president, why is it that only the two most despised parties (albeit with the most members) constantly get all the press attention.

How can someone be given a fair chance if the partisan news coverage never covers them?

intellectual property rights and market regulation

[pyros]

Being a libertarian, you favor the absolute minimum level of government regulation of the economy. In the last few decades, intellectual property law has served to not only erode our fair use rights with intellectual property, but also to increase monopoly positions in industries like software development (with software patents and click-through and shrink-wrap licenses) and music and movies (Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, DMCA, and now possibly PIRATE and INDUCE). The Constitution lays out the framework for Congress to provide intellectual property rights, so I'd have to assume you support their existence. But do you think their implementation is fostering a free market where competition thrives to benefit consumers? As president, what direction would you want to see the intellectual property law landscape take?

Gay Marriage

[thrash_]

With the republicans making this into a wedge issue, where do you stand on gay marriage? Would you support an amendment to the Constitution banning it?

Re:How do you enforce rights in an ownership socie

[GypC]

I'm saying that if all public property is privatized, do civil rights have any meaning at all?

Sure, they mean exactly what they've always meant, that the government recognizes the rights outlined in the BOR as natural and inalienable, and will not interfere. Supposedly. For example, you can publish a newspaper saying whatever you like (as long as it is not obscene, etc.), but no shopowner is required to carry that newspaper. That's how it has always been.

As far as public property disappearing, I don't have the impression that much free speech of consequence is dependent on public property. Please give an example.

Presidential Debates access?

[e-celt]

The "bipartisan" (meaning "third parties need not apply") Commission on Presidential Debates says a candidate must be pulling 15% support in national polls in order to appear in the debates. Yet apart from media darling Ralph Nader, third party candidates are almost never mentioned by name in national polls. And the pollsters say they don't mention the third-party candidates because they don't pull enough support in the polls. Catch-22! Is there anything that the average citizen can do to help break this cycle and get you (and other Thirdsters) into the debates?

Privatizing Education

[EvilJello203]

The Libertarian Party platform advocates separation of education and state. How would you go about reforming the nation's educational system without a massive disruption to a student's schoolwork?

Is intellectual property real?

[scottzak]

In your health care position paper, you say you can lower prescription drug costs by eliminating wasteful restraints on the market. You're probably right, and I think the biggest restraint is the artificial monopoly granted through patents.

Do you think that property rights naturally extend to a person's published ideas and uterrances, or is the copyright clause of the US constitution an unwarranted restraint of the market?

Spending

[Juhani]

How would you propose to curb or eliminate "deficit spending" which in my view seems to breed a society that has no fiscal responsibility?

Software Patents

[diakka]

As you are probably aware, software patents are a very important issue to the Free Software/Open Source Community. Software patents pose a serious threat. They can impede software development and rob our community of valuable code that would otherwise be availble for anyone to use. And although my political views have a strong tendency towards Libertarianism, I am largely ignorant of how you and the Libertarian party views software patents. Where you stand on the issue of software patents?

Electoral Reform

[albeit]

What is the Libertarian position on proportional representation (http://fairvote.org/pr) and instant runoff voting (http://fairvote.org/irv)?

Approval voting?

[j1m 5n0w]

Do you support approval voting or some other non-plurality voting system as a way to allow voters to support less popular candidates without "throwing their vote away"?

-jim

Re:Approval voting?

[Da Twink Daddy]

Gah! How can you mention other voting methods without discussing the condorcet method. Mathematically, it's a generalization of both our current voting system and approval voting. It has many objective advantages over both, and kicks the crap out of IRV.

In any case, approval voting should be approved now.

here goes

[MORTAR_COMBAT!]

Would you approve of, and what would you think would be the results of, the following election reforms:

1. Abolition of electoral college, president is elected by simple popular vote.

2. Federal mandate that electoral votes from a state be split proportional to the popular vote within that state. (e.g. if California splits 60-40 Kerry-Bush, then their electoral votes are split 60-40 as well). This helps move away from the very brittle "all or nothing" electoral system, where as few as 1 fraudulent or defrauded vote can change the outcome of the national election for president.

3. Constitutional amendment granting naturalised citizens the eligibility to run for president or vice president. This would allow for the 2008 ticket for the new political party, C.O.P. (Cast Of Predator) to field Arnold Schwartzeneggar and Jesse Venutra as their presidential ticket.

Lastly a question: is the democratic system as instituted in the United States hopelessly mired in a two-party stranglehold, leaving corporate interest in defacto charge of the discussion? Is legal election reform necessary, or even possible?

Instant Runoff Electoral College

[dynamo]

Background:
I've been a registered Libertarian my entire life, and I have so far voted for the Libertarian candidate (Harry Browne) in every presidential election since I turned 18. I'm a strong believer in what the libertarian party stands for, and I'd like to see them become the majority party someday.

I recently have been VERY impressed with Dennis Kucinich, in fact he is the first democrat OR republican I have ever had any real respect for. I even re-registered as a democrat for just long enough to support him in the democratic primary, then registered back to libertarian. But the democrats have tacitly ignored him and everything he stands for - his attempt has essentially proven that attempts at true progress 'within the system' as a member of a majority party are, for now at least, not going to do anything.

------------
I've been thinking about voting for Nader, because he is the one out there making the biggest fuss about ending the war RIGHT NOW, ASA-MF-P, and that is the most important issue and the most correct answer I'm hearing out there. This is only an option for me because I live in CA, and it's a foregone conclusion that no matter what I do, Kerry will get CA's 55 electoral votes.

I hate bush enormously. I want to see him lose at any cost. He should be stopped by any means necessary. I would vote for Kerry if I thought it would make a difference. But aside from protesting the Vietnam war shortly after leaving it, I don't have much to respect him for. It's just an anti-bush vote. I'm sure the situation is the same for millions of others.

On to my question.

We all know that, in 2004 at least, the libertarian party is not going to _WIN_ the presidential election. What you are doing now is ideally greasing the wheel for next time. It's too contentious a race to piss off the democrats like Nader is doing and loudly, vocally denounce Kerry as a less ideal solution than yourself. I suggest you publicly acknowledge what everyone -- especially the more independent voters -- already knows. That while Kerry may not be ideal candidate for us, he is a hell of a lot better than the lunatic cowpoke marionette doll we have running the place right now. I am asking you, as someone who has spent his entire adult life advocating and supporting the Libertarian party (and who will continue to) -- please pledge that in the case that the Libertarian party does not win the presidency outright, you will direct any and all Electors you may get in the Electoral College to give their votes to Kerry. This way the libs can be shown as having part of the vote, without being 'spoilers'. And on the off chance that you the libs do get enough votes to run the place, you will not have committed to give up the presidency.

I realize things are very different on a scale below the electoral college. I don't have a solution for that. But I do think there need to be more public voices advocating for what Colorado is trying to do on their ballot this election --- split electoral votes according to percentage of state vote received. Please think about doing that.

Public Funding of Space Exploration

[Chip Wilson]

This year we witnessed the first flight by a private spaceship to pass the boundary into space. In your opinion, is there any legitimate purpose for a publicly funded civilian space program? Do you believe that public funding of NASA hurts the private space industry?

What is your stance in Intellectual property?

[isotope23]

I would like to know your stance on the current laws governing intellectual property.

Would you support rolling back copyright length to the orignal term?

What is your general stance on copyrights and patents?
In your view, should the government be able to create and enforce such an artificial monopoly?

If you do support IP laws, would you support a geometric licensing fee to force IP into the public domain after a few years?

I.E.:
First five years free
Sixth year = $1000.00
Seventh = $5000.00
8th = $25000.00
9th = $125000.00
Etc. until such time as the patent or copyright is no longer profitable to license and becomes public domain...

A smaller government and less laws.

[Anonymous Coward]

I am all for a smaller government. And I'm all for reducing the numbers of laws or even enforcing the laws equally VS lawmakers such that when laws like the DMCA get passed, the Grandkids of the Senator(s) get fined/locked up with the hopes that lawmakers would engage thier brains WRT the laws.

But many companies and people seek to externalize their costs and engage in things like pollution, deceptive accounting et la.

How do you propose to change things in such that the corrective invisible hand of Adam Smith is a good solid knockout VS the present girly slap that corporate staff now get?

2 examples-Bhopol. The ex-head of the plant that killed and sicked many people is 'retired' in Hoffman Estates in Il. His in-action caused alot of death and suffering...why is he not doing time? How about Gulf Minerals - the Board decided to not repair the air scrubbers, thus polluting the 200 miles downwind of the plant. The 'punishement' - the corporation was dissolved. The board members - they still have all the money and property they had before and none have done jail time.

International Intervention

[Herbmaster]

What do you think should be the standard for US military intervention in foreign lands? Clearly there are cases where a lot of lives will be lost if an external party doesn't intervene. Specifically, I'm thinking of the genocide occurring in Darfur right now. What action do you think the US should take, if any?

Almost

[roystgnr]

It's called Condorcet Voting, and unlike IRV it's supported by mathematicians.

Libertarian Extremism

[MischaLeChatte]

Most members of the public are scared by what is viewed as "extremism" in the Libertarian party. "End the war on drugs" and "Abolish the IRS" are scary changes for many people to make all at once. Why does the party resist pushing a more incremental platform? Why won't the party say things like "In our first term we will legalize marijuana and marijuana only. We will closely study and follow the ramifications of this policy in terms of savings to our military and police forces, crime rates, prison overcrowding, and market factors such as pricing and tax revenues generated. At the end of x number of years we will judge the experiment and debate expanding or restricting other drugs." The party always seems to know where it wants to go, but it is weak in explaining to the people how we will go about getting there.

Convincing fearful public to let go of government.

[Maul]

I hear a lot of complaints from friends and relatives about how they dislike the government getting involved with their lives too much. At the same time, they are afraid to let go of their "presumed" security that they falsely believe the government gives them. This prevents them from accepting the Libertarian view that government power should be reduced.

Unfortunately, people have lived for so long with an unconstitutionally invasive government and have been spoon fed lies from fearmongers that they need a massive government.

I believe this is the strongest challenge the Libertarian Party faces. This is especially true since 9/11, since many people assume giving the government more power will protect them.

What are your strategies for convincing people that their lives would be better and safer by reducing the power and scope of the government rather than increasing it?

Also, where do you personally place the blame for the origins of government bloat? Do you think the root cause is an apathetic public unwilling to stand up to the government, or have we (as a whole) merely been tricked by slick politicians?

Sept. 11, 2001

[Noexit]

Mr. Badnarik, how would you have responded to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center? Would you have perceived the attack as an act of war, or as a criminal act? Please outline your view of the nature of the attack, how you would have handled it and how you might handle future attacks.

How to reform Electoral College?

[code_rage]

There have been proposals to eliminate the electoral college. Notably, Slate has run a series of pieces calling it "America's worst college." Slate's coverage has examined some of the political difficulties in trying to change the system and has proposed some possible solutions.

It's clear from the results of 1992 that the electoral college, as currently implemented at the national and state level, tends to turn small spreads into large ones, and eliminates 3rd parties altogether. As a 3rd party candidate, this must be an important issue to you (after ballot access, perhaps the most important one).

How do you propose to address this? Would you support an amendment to the US Constitution to abolish the Electors in favor of direct popular vote? Or, would it make more sense to address it state by state, using legislation to split the electors proportionately within each state (as Maine and Nebraska do)?

Re:No wasting this year...

[khadzia]

I have heard this argument so many times, I'm not sure why I still address it.

Regardless of whether you "like" Bush or Kerry, they definitely have different positions on a wide range of positions. Only if you don't care about any of the following issues can you truly say it "doesn't matter"

**** Gay Rights
+ Bush is for the marriage amendment
+ Kerry is againts the amendment

**** Abortion Rights
+ Bush is pro-life
+ Kerry is pro-choice

**** Gun Control
+ Bush is letting the Assault Weapons Ban expire (at least not actively trying to extend it)
+ Kerry wants to extend the ban

**** Taxes
+ Bush wants to make his tax cuts permanent
+ Kerry wants to undo the Bush tax cuts for the top 5% (? the percentage could be wrong)

**** Stem Cells
+ Bush declared that only X number of stem cell lines made before a certain date are allowed to be used in federally funded research
+ Kerry wants to allow new lines

I simply think that the third party people out there just want something different and are trying to blur the differences in the two parties for their own ends. (Pat Buchanan left the Republican party because of this, and Ralph Nader called Gore "Bush Lite"). However a viable 3rd party if successful, would fall into the same problems of both of the current parties, special interest groups trying to steer the party.

Re:What happens to people who fall between the cra

[Kombat]

I don't know about you, but I'd be a hell of a lot more willing to donate if I wasn't so busy making ends meet on what little of my earnings government "allows" me to keep.

Surely, you realize that you only feel that way because you're accustomed to the current level of taxation, and anything less would feel like a "relief," right? I mean, if your taxes were suddenly reduced to 40%, would you say "Hallelujah, I'm donating half of my bonus 10% to charity!" ? I doubt it. You'd get used to 40%, spend the extra cash on a slightly bigger house and a slightly nicer car, then complain that you're overtaxed again, a few years down the road.

This argument can be logically extended through having your taxes reduced to 30%, 20%, and even 10%. You'd still groan and complain about having 1/10th of your income accosted by the government, and you'd claim that if they didn't take so much, you'd donate more to charity.

I'm not saying this would happen rapidly. It would happen over a period of decades. But no matter what the taxation level, people would get used to it, adjust their spending habits so that they're always living at the very edge of their means (or even slightly beyond it, thanks to credit), and complain about not having enough money. It's not just you, it's human nature. People just plain aren't as charitable as you seem to think they are.

Safty net VS charity

[TamMan2000]

Charity only does so much because our means to donate is severely hampered by government

People have a hell of a lot more purchasing power now than people did 50 years ago, right? Why are people not giving with the additional purchasing power?

I propose that the answer is that they are too busy keeping up with the Jones's. If everyone paid less taxes, everyone would have more money (an idea I don't nesesarily agree with, but for arguments sake...), do you think that people would give it to charity? No, some asshole is going to by a nicer car, then someone else with think they NEED that bling bling. More and more people will commit their additional disposable income to purchaces that they feel they need (do you drive a used honda civic, or compairable vehicle?).

The people that give now, after taxes, would keep giving. The people who think they can't afford to give now, will not think they can afford to give with low taxes.

I can't find any referances now (if any of you can post a link, I would appreciate it greatly), but I read a study a while back that showed people who give, give regardless of how much they have, and people who don't give, don't give regardless of how much they have.

Someone has to ask: Iraq

[KilobyteKnight]

I've considered myself a Libertarian since I first discovered the party when Andre Marrou ran for president in 1992. I even joined the party and agree with almost everything the party stands for down the line. There is one major issue I do have a different opinion on though: Iraq and the war on terrorism.

I disagree with your reasoning for why they hate us (as stated on your website). I believe they hate us because we do not have a system based on Islamic law. We both seem to agree that they do hate us. I believe we can't ignore that they have plotted, executed, and intend to continue executing a campaign of attacks on the United States.

I'm all for limited government, but protection against foreign enemies is definately one of the valid purposes of a federal government.

So much for the build up, here's the question: If you believe the Bush administration's policy on the war on terror is the wrong method, what would you as President do differently to put an end to (or at least significantly diminish) acts of terrorism?

Re: why the electoral college can be a good thing

[e2ka]

"The electoral college, while IMHO fairly broken, does at least guarantee that the votes of large expanses of farm country might have a chance of making a difference."

Large expanses... of land, not people. Why should someone from the farms have more voting power than someone from the city?

Also, it's not like the interests of the two demographics are mutually opposed. People in the city need to eat, you know.

How will you do it?

[cherrypi]

Michael, I'm really excited about your candidacy, and I'm looking forward to voting for you in the upcoming election.

My concern is, if you are elected, how will you implement your visionary policies concerning drugs, free-trade, and gun control? They all sound crucial and agreeable, but I haven't seen anything about how you'd push such reforms through congress - the last thing we need is expansion of the Imperial Presidency - where an irresponsible congress has left too much power open to usurping.

Can Libertarians contest in elections?

[teetam]

I ask this question as a libertarian - Why should libertarians contest in elections? After all, democracy is about the imposition of majority will on people with contrarian views and that is the opposite of liberty and other principles that the party stands for!

If you get elected, will you force your libertarian views on people who don't agree? Would that be a libertarian act?

Getting yourselves known

[JLSigman]

Here is South Carolina, you cannot depend on the Internet to get your message out. How do you plan to let the general public know about you in places were the Internet is not as possible?

Ideology vs pragmatism

[Charles Dodgeson]

Libertarianism certainly is an appealing ideology, but are you concerned that ideological based politics (whether yours or others) often precludes the adoption of pragmatic solutions to real problems?

Intellectual Property Balance

[stylee]

Are you concerned that the copyright and patent laws in the country have been used by powerful lobbying groups to stifle competition and the development of technological, scientific and artistic achievement? If so, what are you thoughts on how this problem can be fixed?

It seems to me that the original intent of these laws was to encourage achievements in those areas, but that now, the monetary interests of those who hold existsing copyrights and patents has been used to stifle development of new, competing, and other useful ideas. There has to be a balance between those seeking to protect the ideas they have created, and those seeking to develope new ones. How can that balance be reached?

What's your position on outsourcing/immigration?

[Whatsmynickname]

What's your position on illegal immigration and/or outsourcing? I would think a libertarian would say "keep the gov't out of it". However, at some point, doesn't having too much of either outsourcing or illegal immigration ultimately impact our national socio-economic stability?

The DMCA and such.

[John Pliskin]

What would your stand be on such laws like the INDUCE act, and the DMCA?

$

Simply not getting the Libertarian philosophy

[Qrlx]

Dear sir, I seem to consistently have a hard time squaring the Libertarian philosophy with the realities of the world we live in.

My belief is that Libertarianism appeals so strongly to Americans because we live in the land of plenty. Libertarianism is a very convenient political philosophy to have if you live in a country with abundant natural resources, plenty of land, and the world's largest military to maintain the hegemony.

In other words, if the cards are already stacked in your favor, yeah a "free market" is a good thing. Pay no attention to the slave labor who built this country or the former inhabitants who have mostly been ethnically cleansed.

Is Libertarianism really only appropriate for rich, "developed" countries such as the United States?

And please set me straight regarding what I see as pie-in-the-sky talk of "free markets." It might be true that free markets will result in competition and benefits for the consumer. But we will simply never know that. Look at all the barriers to free trade in our country and throughout the world. Those will not simply be swept away as cobwebs before a broom. And yet, Libertarianism seems particularly regulation-hostile, which makes me wonder if you think Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" was merely Communist propaganda of a hundred years ago.

I think an illustrative example would be the Enron or WorldCom bubbles. Both of those, you may agree, stemmed from some degree of deregulation in the market. And yet where is the payoff? It's in the offshore accounts of a handful of oligarchs. Now, you might argue that the method of deregulation was flawed, but the primacy of human greed cannot simply be "explained away" because regulators set the game in motion with poorly devised initial conditions. How can you be sure future deregulation won't be so disastrous? (It should be obvious, I'll trust my essential servcies like water and power to a bumbling government bureaucracy working for everyone over a cutthroat profit-driven corporation working for shareholders any day.)

From what I can determine, Libertarianism embraces the central tenets of Capitalism -- that people are lazy, and that people are greedy. I ask you: Are those really healthy core values to be driving your politics?

Finally I do wish you luck on achieving critical mass and taking over one of the smaller state legislatures. Better we perform our experiments in Capitalism on our own people than our unfortunate subjects in Iraq.

Geeks are CIVIL libertarians...

[bensyverson]

...not Libertarians. Most geeks just want the government off their back when it comes to information, free speech, and copyright/patent issues.

However, ask geeks whether they think it's a good idea to deny our poorest citizens the support and resources they rely on. Ask geeks whether they think it's a good idea to privatize the primary role of the government, which is to take care of its citizens. Ask geeks if they really think private companies will act in the best interests of society, rather than their bottom line. Ask geeks if they look forward to getting no help whatsoever from the government when it comes time to send their kids to school--not to college, but to kindergarten! Libertarians want to privatize everything, and our poorest citizens would pay the largest price.

Ask geeks if they agree with all that. Ask them if they're truly that devoid of compassion and civic responsibility. If they do, then they're truly Libertarian, and truly scary.

Ben

What is the purpose of your presidential campaign?

[WCityMike]

What is the Libertarian Party's long-term plan for actually winning an election?

As you'll see by no doubt many of the less kind replies here, a great majority of the nation does not consider third-party voting viable, although one could argue that inroads were made by Nader and Perot in past elections.

But, to my knowledge, no third-party candidate in the 20th century ever received enough votes, or polled high enough during campaigns, to have been a substantial, suspenseful competitor to the existing two political parties.

Does the Libertarian Party hope to ever be such a competitor? Or (truly, no offense intended) does your presence in a Presidential race merely give the Libertarian Party a public platform from which to more widely disseminate their platform and ideas -- in short, a public relations campaign repeated every four years?

Policy Question

[geekpolitico]

How do you respond to this situation?

A paper mill opens upstream from a small town. The mill begins dumping chemicals into the river. As the town's health problems slowly begin to increase, property values begin to drop. Eventually the townspeople are dying young of cancer, birthing children with horrific birth defects, and are too poor to be able to move.

This happens today when we have some sort of regulation. It has been empirically demonstrated that most Americans don't care enough about these issues to substantially alter their buying habits to prevent this from happening. If the government abdicates its regulation role, if we unfetter corporations from laws demanding that they behave within certain norms, if the government doesn't have resources to help these people, should we just turn a blind eye and think of these problems as the cost of doing business. Higher GDP built on the lives of someone else's children?

While it is very clear that the government regulates any number of things, it is not consequently the case that no regulation is a better solution.

Libertarianism

[WalterDGeranios]

In a strictly libertarian society, the costs of protection of rights fall on the owners of those rights -- not on the general public.

Are you saying that a strictly libertarian society would charge per-use fees for the protection of rights, or general fees? Because I don't think that the former is necessary to qualify as strictly libertarian, and the latter would essentially be "the general public" paying the costs.

I read some of your white paper on a comprehensive net asset tax. Isn't it a tax on production if the tax I pay increases when I make improvements on an asset that I've registered? Wouldn't it be better to tax solely on the unimproved value of the raw resource?

MOD PARENT UP

[camliner]

At least someone else pays attention to past news. Bush has said he would sign the bill to extend the ban if Congress could get it through on time.

National Missile Defense - Folly?

[SnakeStu]

In your opinion, is a National Missile Defense system folly, as some would say, and an example of corporate welfare through defense contracts, or is it "proven enough" to be a worthwhile expenditure of taxpayer funds as a necessary component of the defense of the nation?

How do you get changes made?

[deranged unix nut]

As I see it, the politicians who are able to make large changes have a lot of political power...in other words they have compromised many times and have a lot of people who owe them.

If you are elected president, how will you go about making changes?

Defending our country against terrorists?

[Theovon]

The US is a wealthy country that has collected itself a good number of serious enemies for that reason and many others. 9/11 taught us that in a serious way. Many people, including myself, feel that we are not in a position to passively defend ourselves against terrorists. We've done too many things, actively and passively, for us to even consider returning to our isolationist roots before the first and second world wars. Besides, the rest of the world has changed too; people who would harm Americans have become more and more powerful over the decades. Unless we take preemptive action to prevent future terrorism, the terrorists will be back.

Of the major political parties, the Libertarian party is generally my favorite. Libertarianism lacks the "tax me to death and give my money to those who won't work" attitude of the Democrats, and it lacks the bigotry and "morality police" attitudes of the Republicans. Libertarians also don't take action to squelch technological and scientific advancement. But the one place where I have to give the Republicans credit is that they don't wimp out when it comes to defending the country militarily. All political parties have been accused of "selling out to the enemy", but in my opinion, this is least likely to be true for the Republicans. [1]

My question to you is this: Given the Libertarian history of having an isolationist attitude, what is your policy on defending the country? Do you intend to cut back military and hope the problem goes away (which it won't), or do you intend to maintain or increase our strength so that when the enemy comes, and they will, we are able not just to defend ourselves on our own soil, but are ready to go to where the enemy is and neutralize them preemptively?

A corollary to my first question: What is your policy regarding our dependence on outsiders for energy? For far too long, we have been beholden to the middle-east for the bulk of our energy supply. Furthermore, oil cartels have politically interfered with development of alternative fuel sources for a very long time. I don't believe that global warming is caused primarily by burning of fossil fuels, but I do believe it's important that the US get away from fossil fuels so that we can become self-sufficient. While Hydrogen fuel cells for cars are a long way off, we already have things like ethanol, biodiesel, and other means of generating fuels that can be transported by the existing infrastructure and used in existing vehicles. [2] Do you have any plans for averting a future energy crisis by disconnecting us from those that could ruin our economy by cutting off our fuel supply at any moment?

Foot note [1]: Aside: As someone who strongly respects both Islam and Christianity, I would rather be under the tyranny of those who pretend to be Christians here in the US than be under the tyranny of those who pretend to be Muslims in the middle east.

Foot note [2]: The government pays many farmers NOT to grow as much food as they possibly could. This is stupid. If the government is going to interfere AT ALL, the surplus food should be bought and turned into fuel.

WWIV/Borders

[MSTCrow5429]

Dear Mr, Badnarik,

First, let my congratulate you on being the first 2004 Presidential candidate to be interviewed on Slashdot. I have been a Libertarian for perhaps 5 or so years now, and this will be the first Presidential election I will be old enough to vote in (missed the last by a hair). Now, I am in full agreement with most of the Libertarian National Campaign Platform, but I am most concerned with its positions on the War on Terrorists and our border policy. In my opinion, unilateral disengangment from the War on Terrorists will damage our strong alliances among the free nations who support freedom and democracy, as well as making us more vulnerable to terrorist attack. The terrorists have made it clear time and time again that they will not be satisfied if we give in to their demands (Spain), and that their goal is to destroy freedom worldwide, implementing an Islamist theocratic empire. The Libertarian Party cannot afford to be seen as an appeaser in World War IV, when the most important issue on the minds of voters is the War on Terrorists (ie World War IV). How do you propose to defend the United States' interests when the party currently shows no desire to defend them beyond our borders? Regarding our borders, will you mobilize the National Guard to defend the nation against illegeal aliens and terrorist infiltrators, or will you pursue a free border policy that is even worse than President Bush's illegal alien amnesty plan? I will be voting Libertarian for US Senate and House, but unless you are able to convince this Libertarian you are credible as Commander-in-Chief, I will be forced to vote for President Bush.

Sincerely, MSTCrow5429

Some questions from a progressive libertarian

[creideiki]

If I had to place my ideals under a specific label (though I hate political labels which are often used to avoid thinking about issues), I'd have to say I'm a progressive libertarian.

I'm with Mr. Badnarik 100% on most of his core stances (kudos too for recognizing state's rights in the drug war too). I'm a vehement believer in The Constitution (not that there aren't parts I don't agree with; I'd just prefer we obey it as written OR amend it - not pretend it says something else.) However, I'm curious about your stances on several things.

A stable dollar

You state, "The Constitution delegates the power to coin money to Congress. As your president, I'll insist that they discharge that responsibility instead of fobbing the job off on an external entity like the Fed. And I'll veto legislation for any such operation that doesn't meet the true test of money: It is either made of gold or silver, or can be redeemed for a fixed amount of gold or silver."

I take issue with the last sentence.

Money doesn't need to be redeemable for something in finite supply (in fact, as population increases, that's a bad thing) to be stable, it simply needs to be equally hard to earn. Tying the value of a dollar to a consumer price index or, even better, the population might be wiser.

It is also important to note that The Fed is not the external entity coining money. When banks and other lending institutions practice fractional reserve lending, they reduce the value of the dollar. [An explanation of this phenomenon can be found at http://www.progress.org/reform21.htm]

Would you propose or stand behind legislation to eliminate fractional reserve lending?

The social safety net

Centralized government programs have the net effect of making people less personally responsible. I think a lot of resistance to libertarianism comes from the feeling that they want to cut all the safety nets before something (private charity, LVT, whatever) is in place. Regardless, it would be disastrous to move immediately from a society in which the government has taken responsibility away from citizens to one where everyone is fully responsible for himself or herself.

What are your plans for migrating from one model to the other?

Government funding The Federal Income Tax is clearly constitutional (yeah, I know Ohio wasn't a state until 1953), but it still is a tax on labor, which is deleterious. The same goes for a sales tax. Other ways to fund the valid functions of government include a "head tax" and recovery of the rental value of things such as land, the electromagnetic spectrum, pollution permits, etc.

New Zealand and Australia are experimenting with LVT while Iceland is experimenting with pollition permits and citizen's dividends. I think there is room to be U.S. to be more progressive and foster more equality while adhering to the basic tenets of libertarianism.

What is your plan for funding government while remaining consistent to core libertarian principles?

Intellectual property

Clearly patents and copyrights are government-granted and, therefore privileges but are necessary for a technologically advanced society. It seems that lately things have been getting out of hand leading in part to some of the problems you site as issues (such as the cost of medicine.)

What are your feelings on the current length of intellectual property claims and the veritable "patent mill" that the USPTO has become? How would steer intellectual property back toward the constitutional concept of "for a limited time?"

Libertarians and Greens

[bmasel]

Can these groups ever ally, so that the US sees a real 2nd Party, or are we forever to witness a futile race for 3d place?

Libertarian Party and it's relation to Objectivism

[composer777]

Please pick whichever questions you want from my short critique of right leaning Libertarian philosophy. I have only read a bit of Rand, and am still learning about her philsophy, but I have quite a few concerns about it.

I am what one might call a libertarian leftist, in the sense that I believe in strong liberty but also that the state should be strong enough to provide at minimum an equal opportunity for it's citizens, if not, preferrrably, equal outcomes for roughly equivalent work(i.e. if two people work really hard, they should get rewarded, if they are both lazy, they shouldn't get that much, etc.).

I have some questions regarding right leaning libertarian philosopy. I have bought a few books, such as "Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal." What I have read in these books disturbs me. I read the writings of Rand, and I see someone who with almost religious zeal believes that rational thought can solve all of our problems, and that a just economy can be created only by deriving it from a philosophical foundation that includes man as a single entity as it's central focus. (I use the word "religious" on purpose, since it is impossible to deductively prove that deductive reasoning will yield the correct answers to all of life's problems, or even to the problem of creating a philosophy that will guide us towards a more just society. Believing that deductive reasoning alone will give one the anser to social problems is partially a matter of faith in that approach.) To explain why she takes the approach of having man as the center of her philosophy, rather than men (in the collective sense), she uses a loose analogy in the first chapter, saying that trying to build a society without using the concept of man at it's center is like trying to have a theory of the universe that doesn't talk about, or even attempt to identify individual stars, planets, celestial bodies, etc. Now, that makes sense, but I'm not so sure that the analogy is very useful. For example, do we need to have a theory of how neurons work, and a complete model of the brain, built from the atomic level on up, before we can attempt to comprehend things like personality, theory of the mind, etc? If not, then why would we need to have an economic theory that is built on the idea of human beings as discrete entities in order to build a just economic system? After all, we don't need to understand every detail of how neurons work to have a practical theory of the mind. If, on the other hand, you do insist that we need such a detailed model of the brain in order to understand the mind, then why shouldn't we extend Rand's analogy inward, and take it to it's rational conclusion that we shouldn't be talking about man, until we understand the brain, and shouldn't talk about the brain until we understand neurons, and therefore, shouldn't talk about neurons until we understand particle physics in it's entirely, and so on, and so forth. Why does Rand draw the line with man as the discrete element? How does she expect to gain insight into man, as a discrete entity, if she doesn't take her own advice and study all of the discrete elements of man?

The part that I find disturbing about Rand, is her lack of attention to empirical analysis. A theory can be wonderfully symetric and complete, beautiful to behold, etc., and when brought out into the real world, fail miserably to explain, predict, and guide. The reason is that theories can fail to highlight the important concepts, and as a result, distort our understanding of how the world works. I notice this quite a bit with Rand, and many libertarian forms of argument, they love to abstract problems into very contrived situations, pointing out only the things they believe are important, leaving invisible the parts that are inconvenient or that contradict their theory, and then, at least on the surface, they have an argument that is strong and logically satisfying. For example, when describing the process of negotiations between two parties, Rand says something to the effect of, 'If both partn

The Salamander Statement

[McSmiley]

Mr. Badnarik, during your recent visit to Tucson, you are quoted as saying

" Say you want to protect a salamander that's on my land. Well, get your own piece of land, and put the salamander there."

You imply that an ecological system can be subdivided as finely as property, and furthermore that any part of such an ecology has no intrinsic right of its own. Do you truly believe that we can prevent further environmental degredation with the view that what you kill on your property has no bearing on what may live on my property? Or do you believe that there is no value in nature beyond that which we define as capable of being owned?

Libertarians vs. Communists

[kindbud]

It is said that a stateless Communist society, the pinnacle of Marxist philosophy, cannot arise in reality because it would require its citizens to become universally enlightened to Marxist thought and social consciousness before the system would ever become anything but anarchistic chaos, or authoritarian despotism.

Isn't that also a fair appraisal of what a Libertarian society would require of its citizens? If the citizens of Libertarianland are unable to recognize their own englightened self-interest, won't that make the pure Libertarian society as much a pipe dream as the pure Communist society?

As a small-'l' libertarian senior undergrad...

[Money for Nothin']

Mr. Badnarik,

I have several questions.

(1) As a Republican-turned-Democrat-turned-very-briefly-Soc ialist-turned-Libertarian-turned-libertarian (all changes occurring throughout my undergrad years as a Comp. Sci major, Economics minor), in the 2 years since I've become a convert to the libertarian mindset, (specifically to Milton Friedman's very-rational, very-reasonable brand of libertarianism - I am a diehard Friedmanite), I've seriously considered starting a Libertarian organization at my university. But I am faced with the realization of a few problems:

1) It is difficult for me personally in good conscience to found a big-'L' Libertarian organization which would promote the Libertarian Party, a party which I have always seen as having at least 2 distinct problems:
A) The "Ralph Nader Effect." No matter the few advances the LP makes, it is not going to be very effective. Nor has the LP ever been effective; the highest popular vote for any LP Presidential was for Ed Crane, back in 1980 -- and he received about 1% of the popular vote. Even Socialist Eugene Debs did better during the 1912 and 1920 elections (6% and 3.2%, respectively, the latter of which he received while sitting in jail).

Love it or hate it, the LP is a 3rd party, and no 3rd party in the 228 year history of the U.S. has ever had any real significance. Ross Perot ran as an independent, once winning some 18% or so of the popular vote. But he was pulling votes from the left and right, so he wasn't blamed for "stealing" votes from the GOP or Dems (as though by rightful barony they should be given those votes).

And where is Perot now? Sitting on an oil rig somewhere, surely still listening for that "giant sucking sound" he thought he heard with those big ears.

B) The extremism and Randian doggedness to stick to principle. Love it or hate it, politics in a democracy is necessarily a game of compromise, because the votes of a diverse set of individuals remove the extrema of points from most actions in government. The LP takes a no-compromise, highly-principled stance on all its issues; this makes working with the LP in a practical sense rather difficult. This problem, I believe, contributes strongly back to problem A.

2) The LP is filled with nuts, and I'm sorry, but to be bluntly honest, you fit that stereotype like an expensive suit. Who else but a big-'L' Libertarian would be caught dead saying they would blow up the U.N. building on their eighth day of office, or avoiding registering for a driver's license?

Look, I agree with your principles 100%. I agree we should keep the U.N. at arm's-length and not let them make any decisions whatsoever about the direction of this country. And I agree that driver's licenses shouldn't require a fingerprint or SSN; nor should they have a barcode or really any other identifying info besides one's name, DOB, and license expiration date. But let's be serious -- these things exist whether we like them or not, and unless you take the issue to the courts, they are not going to be changed anytime soon, and childish daydreams of blowing up the property of those we don't like and running from the cops don't help your case in the eyes of most of the public.

Hence, do I want to start an organization promoting people whose intentions and general views I sympathize with very strongly, but the principles of which I realize cannot reasonably be fulfilled without compromise? Why, as a rational user of my time, should I waste my time starting such an organization in that case?

Mr. Badnarik, it is in my view that organizations such as the Cato Institute and The Economist magazine, and Reason magazine do a vastly-superior job of promoting libertarian philosophy than the LP ever has. Why should I start an organization which p

What can I do to break the two party strangle-hold

[MMHere]

What can I do personally to help break the two party strangle hold? I'd like other viable party choices; I'd also like to be able to choose a la carte from a list of political ideas/policies. Yet I feel as though my vote would currently be "wasted" if I choose Libertarian, Nader, or something else.

The existing two party system forces one to choose an entire package of ideas/policies. Significant parts of either package are highly unpalatable to me.

The two big parties are also very similar in several important ways, so I feel like I don't really have any good choice. Examples: Both front-running parties currently seem to be in favor of big government and highly confiscatory financial policies (i.e., tax me, spend it in ways over which I have little control). They also seem ready to legislate behavior in ways that are personally invasive. Let's leave aside for the moment their willingness to invade willy nilly into various strategic and weaker nations throughout the world...

I want other choices including:

* smaller federal government
* let me keep my money
* stay out of my social/personal life
* stop invading for oil

What do I do?

Intellectual Property Rights and the Eldred Act?

[PipianJ]

I had unfortunately not actually gotten a response the time I attempted to send an e-mail on these questions other than that you had been too busy to consider them, but perhaps you will have a chance to answer them now.

I am rather well read and acquainted with politics, unlike many people my age, and I strongly side with Libertarian ideology. However, as a soon-to-be younger member of the voting block, and planning on continuing education in the field of computer science, I hold certain issues in higher regards perhaps than most of the rest of the public, some of which you do not seem to discuss at length on your website.

In particular, I am curious as to your position on the state of intellectual property (IP) law in the United States. While owners of copyright certainly deserve to earn money from their creations for a limited time (as stated in the Constitution) Of late, we have seen much action by the holders of intellectual property to try to restrict the rights of consumers.

In particular, we have seen owners

- continually extend copyright terms to prevent anything from falling into the public domain, essentially attempting to hold copyrights lasting "forever minus a day" in order to avoid perpetual copyrights not expressly allowed in the constitution (e.g. The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, and the supreme court case Eldred v. Ashcroft)
- restrict the rights of users to time and space-shift their media by establishing draconic copy protection systems (that are easily removed, save for threats under their pet legislation, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, see http://www.anti-dmca.org/)
- try to generally restrict innovation in computer technology by allowing method and algorithm patents that last for 20 years (e.g. the LZW compression patent), rendering them worthless when they can finally be used.

As president, what would you do regarding IP law? Would you support the Eric Eldred Act (http://www.eldred.cc/) which would require minimal payments to maintain copyright past 50 years and create a central repository of held copyrights? Would you support limiting the ever-growing "rights" of corporations to hold copyrights and patents for these extended periods of time (by only allowing individuals and not corporations to hold copyrights and patents?)?

While I understand that as a libertarian, you are probably for a somewhat more lassez faire economy in terms of the rights of corporations to do more, and be restricted by the government less, but I believe that IP law is a critical flash point between traditional libertarian ideals of business without restrictions and people retaining their rights, so I would like to see which way you would lean on the issue of IP law.

Regardless of your opinion on the issue, I wish you the best of luck in your campaign for the nomination of the Libertarian Party.

Paradigm Shift

[Kylow]

As we all know, liberals favor freedom in social issues and control over economic issues while conservatives favor freedom in economic issues and control over social issues. However, increasingly it seems that both liberals and conservatives are tilting toward authoritarianism. Bush has signed into law various entitlement programs, as well as trade tariffs, and Democrats rarely criticize the War on Drugs any longer.

Do you think this shift toward authoritarianism by both major parties will result in a paradigm shift in the country where we no longer discuss liberalism vs. conservatism but rather, authoritarianism vs. libertarianism, and if so, would this allow the Libertarian Party to finally get the recognition it has worked hard for over the past few decades, or are we stuck with this conservatism vs. liberalism battle for ages to come?

Re:How will you keep Fox News viewers...

[watcher44]

Good point. Bill O'Reilly can't even keep it straight. He keeps calling Bill Maher a libertarian, when he is obvious the most left of lefty democrats. The truth is O'Reilly knows the difference and he is just harrassing the libertarians. But a few real libertarians have made it on the show. It's pretty funny when it happens. Old Bill gets pretty flustered.

Re:govt spending

[TamMan2000]

In large aircraft gas turbine design, and manufacturing, there are 3 main companys, at least 2 of which (GE, United Technologies) are not just aerospace companies, but rather do everything from air conditioners, to elevators, to aerospace (I worked for one of them, in the engine division). There are at least a dozen or so contracting organizations for each step of the design/construction/testing of such products, which compete for projects, frequently against members of the companies responsible for the overall product.

In my observation, the same stuff that lbmouse mentioned about budgets getting spent or going away causing waste happens in large companies too. Only there are twists... I saw managers that spent their budgets frivolously, because they new their projects were important, and that all they needed to do to get more funding was ask. I also saw managers not spend their alloted budget, at the expence of getting their job done, becasue, at times teh incentive to save money was greater than the incentive to do good work.

The company I worked for also would routinly pinch pennies at the expence of dollars worth of productivity. They would shut down the AC on hot summer days, because electricity was expensive, work in office areas ground to a halt with a long pants dress code in effect and 80+ degree office temperatures and windows that can't be opened. but since low productivity of workers couldn't be found on a balance sheet, and electricity could... Nobody cared. I even did an analysis based on a an asumption of a 50% cutback in unpaid overtime (a conservative estimate on my part) among engineers alone (left out financial types), and the cost of compensating an engineer, vs the stated savings from power consumption reduction, I got a factor of 5 increase in expences, I showed it to my boss, and he killed it, because saving money was the way to get promoted, and getting work done didn't matter.

It was bad...

Information Technology and the unemployed

[h8macs]

Over the past 4 years I and many others have been struggling to survive. In 2001 our focus changed direction to wars and I believe that the American people were pushed aside.

Some time after 9/11/2001 I sent an e-mail to the white house addressed to the president (yeah I knew it was futile but I was being optimistic). In this e-mail I addressed the concern of the airline industry having financial woes due to the grounding of all commercial aircraft for 3 days.

My opinion and suggestion was to NOT dump our tax dollars directly into the airlines, and to shift that spending to the Information Technology industry. Now I am not for a bunch of corporate government hand-outs; however I believe the hand-out to the airline industry was simply a band-aid.

A much better approach would have been to build up an industry that had been directly responsible for the abundant growth of the airline industry in the 90's, that would be Information Technology.

Information Technology is the future and for some reason we are being ignored. We are constantly being told that employment is up, jobs are available. Perhaps the president and his constituents should venture forth from the East coast.

California (silicon valley), Arizona (Silicon Desert) and Washington (silicon forest) all have felt the current administrations corruption and disregard first hand. We have been ignored and apparently the future is NOT where we are heading, over the last 4 years we have actually regressed. I do feel it is a fault of the current administration, and not just a mere coincidence.

Another hit to the American people was the idiocy of the tax refund from our surplus. Granted the 300 helped me a bit while I was unemployed however it did NOT help me keep my 401K. It is NOT helping me now.

My Question:
In short Mr Badnarik, what are your thoughts on the current state of affairs with regards to unemployment in general and specifically the Information Technology Industry?

US Intelligence Community

[sjanich]

There is much public policy discussion regarding changing or reforming the US Intelligence Community. What are your views on this? What changes, if any, to you propose.

Top Three Priorities

[sjanich]

What would be the top 3 priorities of a Michael Badnarik presidency?

Reasons to vote Libertarian

[forbin2k]

I am planning on voting Libertarian only in hopes that if enough votes pile up in the Libertarian column a major party will be compelled to revise their platform to include a more Libertarian outlook (much the way the budget balancing Reform Party resulted in the budget finally being balanced -- well it was nice while it lasted anyway).

My question for Mr. Badnarik is, "Is this a good reason to vote Libertarian?"