A Pro-Death Libertarian? Not Me.

Kevin Colby wants us to know that he’s a pro-death Libertarian. In reality, he’s not much of a Libertarian at all, violates the Libertarian Party pledge against advocating the initiation of force and needs a remedial course in English grammar! But what irked me the most was his use of the Libertarian Party logo on a document whose policy positions are not entirely Libertarian.

Marriage and Adoption are Private Matters

I support gay marriages and adoption.

A Libertarian should be asking why marriage and adoption are the business of the state. These are, in fact, private matters and as such should not be political. So wouldn’t a true Libertarian position require the government to get out of the business of marriage contracts and adoption?

Libertarian Support of Abortion is Based on Liberty, Not Population Control

I support abortion rights: It’s a nice population controller, plus, I feel that teenagers have no business having babies due to maturity reasons.

The Libertarian Party is about liberty; NOT population control. Valuing personal liberty means valuing a person’s right to do as they choose (with their body) as long as they don’t infringe on others’ rights. This is the Libertarian basis for supporting a woman’s freedom to have an abortion.

Abortion is abominable. But I respect a woman’s right to do with her body as she pleases.

Private Medical Research Good, Public Bad

I am not much of a supporter on medical research on finding cures with cancer, AIDS and etc. … But, I feel that we need disease as a population controller. I consider my self “pro-death”.

A Libertarian needs to distinguish between publicly-funded and privately-funded medical research. The former is inappropriate, to say the least, but there is nothing wrong with the latter. In fact, I imagine most Libertarians value their own lives highly, and thus privately support medical research.

Replace the IRS with Nothing

I support to abolish the IRS for a simpler tax system. … Say for instance we had a 23% tax on goods and services. Well, wealthy people buy more and expensive items, so they will be the ones that get hurt the most in paying the tax. Also, we have approximately 12 million illegal immigrants who live here in the U.S. and do not pay tax. Well, they will have no choice in paying tax now since it will be on consumables.

We don’t need to replace the IRS with anything. Revenues from the income tax are small, and the various governments would get along just fine without it.

A 23% sales tax is outrageous. Don’t forget to add state and local sales taxes to that. In some places that will bring you up to 33%. Imagine buying a $6 ham sandwich and paying $2 of tax on it. If you thought the war on drugs was bad, wait till you see the black markets this creates.

What’s more, Mr Colby’s pragmatic argument is wrong. The rich have all the options in the world for where they buy their luxury items. To escape a 23% tax they will just fly over to gay Paris and buy their loot there. No tax paid. In fact, they’ll come out ahead.

But everybody else, the working poor, the middle class, etc., who actually spend most of their income on non-discretionary items, will find themselves unable to make ends meet. When the value of the dollar is declining and salaries are static or delining, few can afford a cost of living increase of 23%.

And the illegal immigrants are already skilled in creating their own free, “black” markets. To those they will simply add another. Easy, peasy.

Government-Managed Education Choice is an Illusion

I support education vouchers for our children. Our kids should have the choice of what school they want to attend. This should not be handled by the federal government. This should be handled by state and local governments.

We do need more choice, but vouchers are not the solution. We need to get government out of the business of education, period. This would remove any need for the arbitrary property taxes we see in many parts of the country.

Government-managed and -funded choice is an illusion. Only you the individual can possess or exercise free choice. Don’t settle for half-measures.

Force Sex Workers to Take Health Tests?

I support legalizing prostitution. You make them take a test for disease every week and you make them pay income tax. If we had the fair tax, then it would be alot easier to collect taxes from them.

This is absolutely outrageous. The Libertarian Party’s base principle is the abstention from advocating the initiation of force to achieve political or social goals. Making sex workers take a health test is an initiation of force.

You, sir, took this pledge when you joined the Libertarian Party:

“I certify that I do not advocate the initiation of force to achieve political or social goals.”

Force People to Save for Retirement?

I support privatizing Social Security. … The way that private Social Security would work is that the Government would force employers to offer basically almost a 401k type plan where you are forced to put a certain percentage of income into this retirement account …

More force being advocated by Mr Colby! He fails to explain why the government should even be involved in retirement financing. Americans are a self-reliant people fully capable of planning for their own retirements if only the government would stop taxing us so heavily and making impossible promises in return.

What About War, Civil Liberties, The Fed and The National Debt?

If Mr Colby is a Libertarian, why doesn’t he have anything to say about the Iraq War, the potential conflict with Iran, the increasing encroachments on our civil liberties, our growing national debt or the recent actions of the Federal Reserve that devalue our dollars?

These are the most pressing matters of our time, representing the failure of our national defense, war (and its attendant evils), a police state, bankruptcy and hyperinflation. These are issues that touch every American. We who call ourselves Libertarians need to make these issues a priority, for the others won’t much matter if these go the wrong way.

Photo by rick. Some rights reserved.

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