Accordingly, we oppose occupational and other licensing laws that infringe on this right or treat it as a state-granted privilege. We encourage certifications by voluntary associations of professionals. The Libertarian Party supports the decriminalization of prostitution. We assert the right of consenting adults to provide sexual services to clients for compensation, and the right of clients to purchase sexual services from consenting sex workers.
Employment and compensation agreements between private employers and employees are outside the scope of government, and these contracts should not be encumbered by government-mandated benefits or social engineering.
We support the right of private employers and employees to choose whether or not to bargain with each other through a labor union. Bargaining should be free of government interference, such as compulsory arbitration or imposing an obligation to bargain. Education is best provided by the free market, achieving greater quality, accountability, and efficiency with more diversity of choice. Recognizing that the education of children is a parental responsibility, we would restore authority to parents to determine the education of their children, without interference from government.
We favor a free market health care system. We recognize the freedom of individuals to determine the level of health insurance they want if any , the level of health care they want, the care providers they want, the medicines and treatments they will use, and all other aspects of their medical care, including end-of-life decisions.
People should be free to purchase health insurance across state lines. Retirement planning is the responsibility of the individual, not the government. Libertarians would phase out the current government-sponsored Social Security system and transition to a private voluntary system. The proper and most effective source of help for the poor is the voluntary efforts of private groups and individuals. We believe members of society will become even more charitable and civil society will be strengthened as government reduces its activity in this realm.
The protection of individual rights is the only proper purpose of government. Government is constitutionally limited so as to prevent the infringement of individual rights by the government itself. The principle of non-initiation of force should guide the relationships between governments. We support the maintenance of a sufficient military to defend the United States against aggression. The United States should both avoid entangling alliances and abandon its attempts to act as policeman for the world.
We oppose any form of compulsory national service. The defense of the country requires that we have adequate intelligence to detect and to counter threats to domestic security. This requirement must not take priority over maintaining the civil liberties of our citizens. The Constitution and Bill of Rights shall not be suspended even during time of war.
Intelligence agencies that legitimately seek to preserve the security of the nation must be subject to oversight and transparency.
We oppose the use of torture and other cruel and unusual punishments, without exception. American foreign policy should seek an America at peace with the world. Our foreign policy should emphasize defense against attack from abroad and enhance the likelihood of peace by avoiding foreign entanglements. We would end the current U. We recognize the right of all people to resist tyranny and defend themselves and their rights.
We condemn the use of force, and especially the use of terrorism, against the innocent, regardless of whether such acts are committed by governments or by political or revolutionary groups. We support the removal of governmental impediments to free trade. Political freedom and escape from tyranny demand that individuals not be unreasonably constrained by government in the crossing of political boundaries.
Economic freedom demands the unrestricted movement of human as well as financial capital across national borders. Libertarians embrace the concept that all people are born with certain inherent rights. Members of private organizations retain their rights to set whatever standards of association they deem appropriate, and individuals are free to respond with ostracism, boycotts, and other free market solutions. We support election systems that are more representative of the electorate at the federal, state, and local levels.
As private voluntary groups, political parties should be free to establish their own rules for nomination procedures, primaries and conventions. We call for an end to any tax-financed subsidies to candidates or parties and the repeal of all laws that restrict voluntary financing of election campaigns. We oppose laws that effectively exclude alternative candidates and parties, deny ballot access, gerrymander districts, or deny the voters their right to consider all legitimate alternatives.
When we outlaw child pornography, the prices paid for child performers rise, increasing the incentives for parents to use children against their will.
In , the party refused to vote on a resolution asking states to strongly enforce existing child pornography laws. The resulting conflicts between townspeople and the invading faithful can be deadly serious. But today more than ever, there is nothing remotely amusing about a group of wrongheaded extremists plotting to take over a government and impose its own dangerously eccentric views on an unwitting and unprepared majority.
With the story of Grafton, Hongoltz-Hetling was handed the American character in an ant farm. This New England hamlet twines together the most significant strands in our history: tax aversion, religious fervor, veneration of individual liberty, and a deep vein of cantankerousness, all counterbalanced by our equally powerful belief that we are on a God-given mission to establish on this continent a shining City on the Hill. Certainly, one cannot fault a writer for failing to anticipate the specific details of the present disaster.
This time last year, none of us could have foreseen that a new, fast-moving virus would spark a global pandemic, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives, nor that wearing a mask to prevent infection would be viewed as a political statement. But the test of a great writer, or a great editor, is the ability to look deeply into a specific set of circumstances and to extrapolate from them, to assess the present and then take a leap of faith into a prophetic vision of the future.
In the Grafton experience, we see clearly the chaos that can be created when a significant chunk of the community rejects the strictures of government, science, and the notion of community itself. As I write this, more than , American lives have been sacrificed to failures of government at almost every level, and to the refusal of millions of Americans to curtail their sense of personal liberty and submit to relatively brief inconvenience to protect their neighbors and their communities.
It is heartbreaking to think of how many more lives will be lost to COVID by the time this magazine goes to print. His wall is down. Now he feels compelled to reciprocate. Sometimes it takes months for the Klansman to get tired. But sooner or later, the racist cult member will ask the world-traveling Black man what he thinks.
And when this person finds a perspective that resonates with them, they change their own reality. They have to come to it themselves. It requires patience and thought. It also takes a lot of luck. After 37 years of work, Davis has convinced about people to leave the Klan.
Some experts question whether slow, empathetic conversations can change the minds of so many people. The second step, Hassan and Power said, is to help people with influence on the right, including responsible evangelical and Republican leaders, address Trump and QAnon believers about hot-button topics like COVID and the election. Christopher Maag is a columnist for NorthJersey. Email: maag northjersey. Facebook Twitter Email. The 'Cult of Trump' can be healed. It will take years of work and empathy, not shouting Maag.
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