Happy New Year!
In an effort to educate interested persons about the Libertarian party and their principles, I'm going to try and tackle the positions of the Libertarian party in pieces. It's my hope to find local applications to these principles, and perhaps get some discussions on how they may apply to local issues, and how we can use libertarian principles to guide our elected leaders into a more libertarian style of government in the Concho Valley.
The Libertarian Party of Texas 2010 Platform begins with a preamble that sets those principles in motion:
"As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their lives and no individuals are forced to sacrifice their values for the benefit of others."
"We believe that respect for individual rights is the essential precondition for a free and prosperous world, that force and fraud must be eliminated from human relationships, and that only through freedom can peace and prosperity be realized. Consequently, we defend each person’s right to engage in any activity that is peaceful and honest."
We clearly have our work cut out for us, as the current use of government in the United States, and to an extent locally, is far from a libertarian ideal. Individual rights, small government, and personal responsibility are the key ideals of libertarian thought. Group rights, large nanny-state government, and no responsibility are the marks of our current governmental situation, both liberal and conservative. The only difference between the two national parties is who gets the largess of federal funds: individual moochers or corporate moochers.
How do we, as individuals or even as a group, affect change to our government to more align towards libertarianism? I would suggest the following as a starting point:
Get Informed - keep up with local politics and council activities; read the local paper and article comments; check local political-leaning blog sites and social media; go to a council meeting.
Get Involved - register; vote; step up and speak your mind at council meetings; contact your city/county/state/federal representatives and tell them what you think.
What other ideas do you have? Please leave a comment if you have more to offer.
2011 is the year of "tilting windmills" for me. On the national level, politicians are on notice -- and our local politicians should be as well. They work for us, not the other way around, and it's time they get the message.
((Next week, we'll look more into the basic principles of the Libertarian Party.))
Good start for the new year.
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