What the Heck Have I Been Up To?

TO MY MILLIONS OF UNDYING, OBSSESIVE, and WONDERFUL FANS:

Great question. I've been busy with school and work and... well many things. I wrote this between everything and submitted it to the BYU political review. So we'll see if they publish it. (When I submited the Car Czar article which is my favorite they said they liked it and would publish it and then just "forgot" I suppose. Oh well, the publishers of the BYU political review try to make it more of an intellectual read, so I wasn't sure my Car Czar article really fit in anyway.)

The Libertarian’s Manifesto

As I speak with people about libertarianism the first thing they say is something like, “You mean the people who want to legalize drugs and do away with taxes?” This and similar comments tend to define a general philosophy by a faction of its' supporters

Libertarianism, like any philosophy, has many different factions. Many people instinctively associate a libertarian with an anarcho-capitalist as is the case above. Although there is certainly an anarcho-capitalist wing of libertarianism, there are many other factions like the socialist wing of libertarianism as articulated by intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky.

But, most likely if someone says they’re a libertarian they aren’t an anarchist, anarcho-capitalist or communist. They probably fall in the school classic liberalism.

Classical liberalism, unlike most other forms of libertarianism, believes that government is necessary to preserve freedom of conscience and choice, as well as protect property and life.
That these rights precede and supersede the state.

Although the state is necessary, strict limitations must be placed on its powers so that the autonomy of individuals and their rights are respected.

Although I could imagine exceptions in which an emergency would require emergency powers to be given to the government, that scenario would be just that: a rare exception.

If you believe the following then you are probably a libertarian:

The right of privacy is essential in a free society. No person, group of people, or government has the right or the authority to enter your home without your permission. Whether that entrance be physical, or via wiretap, surveillance or hacking into your computer etc.

In extreme threats to security or to maintain law and order unauthorized searches, seizers and even wiretapping are ok…as long as you have a warrant. If we accept that bureaucracies can wiretap without any supervision… but only to catch bad people like criminals and terrorists, how do we verify if the government is really only ease dropping on “the bad guys?” Warrants protect us from the police state.

No one runs my life better than I do. I know my circumstances, challenges, weaknesses and strengths better than any government. My success is up to me and failure is my mentor and teacher to success.

Everyone has the right to free speech and no one is unpatriotic for questioning the government. Everyone gains from decent because it allows us to see weaknesses and imperfections in the status quo.

Taxes are necessary and to a degree good. How else do we pay for roads, education, military? However, the purpose of taxation should be to pay for necessary government functions and not redistribute wealth.

And ideally taxes should be as low, simple, and flat as possible. When the guy technically in charge of the IRS can’t properly file his taxes you know there is a problem. The US tax code unnecessarily horrifies many Americans and makes a criminal out of people who are otherwise law abiding citizens.

The treasury is not a goody chest and the President of the United States is not Santa Clause.
To maintain liberty a strong military is needed to keep the peace. However, the strategy should be peace through strength, not peace through conquest. Ronald Reagan summed it best when he said, “The defense policy of the United States is based on a simple premise: The United States does not start fights. We will never be an aggressor. We maintain our strength in order to deter and defend against aggression — to preserve freedom and peace.”

Religious freedom is precious. Everyone has the right to worship (or not worship) God according to their own conscience, so long as those practices don’t cause any direct harm. Religious organizations should not get any money from the government in order to maintain the separation of church and state.

America’s borders should be as open as possible for those who wish to work and study here. As we became a nation which turned away the tired the poor and the huddled masses yearning for freedom we also turned away the adventurer, the brilliant and the visionary who also yearned for that same freedom.

Americans are not defined by race, ethnicity, religion, or even place of birth. Throughout this nation’s history people of different nationalities, races, ideologies and religions have gathered to live and defend the ideals of liberty as established by the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and the teachings of our founding fathers.

We are all libertarians in one way or another. Everyone cherishes their own liberty as something sacred and precious and that’s because it is.

Liberty is God’s greatest gift to us next to life itself. And to maintain our liberty we will “bear any burden, meet any hardship…”

Jason Bentley is just a punk college kid who is attending Brigham Young University.