What Do You Want from Politics and How Will You Get it?

by Harry Browne

May 31, 1998

While the Democrats and Republicans in Washington mud-wrestle over vouchers, Medical Savings Accounts, looting the tobacco companies, and regulating the size of your toilet, perhaps you should stand back and ask yourself what you really want.

Are any of the issues the politicians fight over going to change your life significantly? Or are these battles just more of the intramural squabbling-about-nothing that has dominated Washington for 50 years? Isn't the outcome predictable — that, no matter who wins on any issue, government will grow and your freedom to control your own life will shrink?

Libertarians ignore all this jostling, and are working instead to build the kind of society most non-politicians really want.

In a Libertarian America:

• You will pay no income, estate, or gift tax — because a government limited by the Constitution will be small enough to get by on today's tariffs and excise taxes.
  
  
• You will no longer be forced to pay 15% of your income to a fraudulent retirement scheme like Social Security. Every dollar you earn will be yours to spend, to save, or to give away as you see fit.
  
  
• You will be free to choose for yourself who decides which products are safe and beneficial. Government regulation will no longer run up the price of everything you buy, hold down the wages you earn, or keep life-saving medicines out of your reach.
  
  
• Your neighborhood will be safe because government will no longer foster a criminal black market in drugs (or in other products or services) that some people will buy regardless of their legality. The nightmare of Prohibition will finally be over.
  
  
• Every provision of the Bill of Rights will be honored. Your person and property will be safe from random searches and seizures, and your right to protect your family and home with firearms will never be compromised in any way.
  
  
• You will no longer fear that your children will fight in a foreign war, or that terrorists will target your city. A Libertarian government will mind its own business, quit making enemies abroad, and rely for peace on a strong defense against both missiles and invasion, rather than by threatening potential attackers with massive retaliation.
  
  
• With no income tax, you'll have the money to enroll your child in any private or religious school that meets your standards and values. Your children will no longer be captives of the educational bureaucracy.

Isn't this what you really want? An end to a $1.7 trillion government. An end to invasions of the Constitution. A society governed by individual liberty and personal responsibility — rather than by Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and Teddy Kennedy.

Ah, you say, it sounds good, but Libertarians can't win.

That's true (for now). But you can't win either. Even when you vote for the winning candidate, you don't get what you want. You get a constantly growing government and more attacks on your business, your income, and your family's values.

When did you last vote for a candidate who actually achieved what you wanted?

No party can give us a free America overnight — or even in one election cycle. The Republicans and Democrats have shown that — whether they have the White House or Congress — they will never give us what we want. The Libertarians, however, are building a party that could be big enough, strong enough, and rich enough to challenge the old parties in 2000, and take the first real step toward a Libertarian America.

Isn't that what you want? If so, call (800) 272-1776 for more information.

Or should you cheer on the mud-wrestlers as they thrash at each other over nothing?