As the Libertarian presidential candidate, I’m often asked how I’d feel if I took enough votes from George W. Bush to throw the
election to Al Gore.
Although I believe I’m getting as much support from former Democrats as former Republicans (and mostly from people who haven’t
been voting at all), what if my votes did cause George Bush to lose a key state — tipping the election to Al Gore? Would I
feel remorse?
Of course not.
Why I’m running
I’m not running for president to stop any particular candidate from winning. I’m running because I want you to be free to live
your life as you think best — not as Al Gore or George Bush, who want to run it for you.
I want to stop government from taking your earnings and leaving you the crumbs, snooping through your bank account and your
e-mail, destroying our schools and our health-care system.
I want America to be a free country again. And electing George Bush won’t get us one step closer to that goal. In fact, electing
George Bush is bound to make things worse.
What George Bush wants for you
Medicare has made life unbearable for many senior citizens — by making them pay more for health care and letting politicians
run the medical industry. George Bush wants to extend that oppression to prescription drugs.
Should I support that?
Should you?
Through its subsidies and mandates, the federal government has pushed local schools downhill for 35 years. George Bush wants to
extend that failure to private schools with a voucher system — leaving us no good schools at all.
Should I support that?
Should you?
Every day you go to work — putting in eight, 10, 12 hours. But the politicians decide what they want of your earnings,
and leave you what’s left. George Bush says “the government should never take more than a third of what you earn.” Since he plays no
part in earning that money, I consider it gross arrogance for him to decide how much you’re entitled to keep.
Should I support that arrogance?
Should you?
Social Security is the greatest financial swindle ever perpetrated on the American people. You pay 15 percent of everything you
earn — and what you pay is squandered by the politicians. When you retire, you have nothing but their promise to tax your children
and grandchildren to pay back what was taken from you. This is tyranny, pure and simple. George Bush says he’ll allow you to control
2 percent of the 15 percent in some vague way at some vague future time if you conform to his rules.
Should I support that?
Should you?
Whatever the area — foreign policy, the drug war, gun laws, whatever — George Bush believes he and other politicians know best
and you should do their bidding. He isn’t a compassionate conservative, he’s a big-government conservative — and big government isn
‘t compassionate.
The future
Do you really believe George Bush will make your children’s schools safer, less expensive, or more effective? Do you think
George Bush will make health care more affordable or accessible? Do you believe he’ll make government smaller, less expensive, less
intrusive, less oppressive?
If you do, I advise you to seek professional help.
What do you want?
Do I want Al Gore to be president? Of course not.
But Bill Clinton – with all his smarminess and corruption — hasn’t destroyed the country, and neither will Al Gore. We will
survive a Gore administration — or a Bush administration. But is that all you want — to survive?
Can’t you set your sights higher? Don’t you want to change America for the better? Don’t you want to start moving toward making
America a free country again?
I’m running for president because I believe government should be so small that you pay no income tax at all; that you
should be freed immediately and completely from the fraudulent Social Security system; that we should end the nightmare of drug
prohibition that has brought such violence to our cities; that you should have the unconditional right to defend yourself from
violent criminals with whatever weapon necessary.
That is what a free country is about — not which presidential candidate is best qualified to rule your life, enhance the
Fatherland, and run the world.
Maybe I can’t win. But every vote I get is a vote for freedom. Every vote I get tells the Republicans and Democrats you won’t
vote for them again until they abandon big government. Every vote will help show non-voters there’s a small-government alternative
that warrants their help. Every vote will move us closer toward electing a Libertarian president and a Libertarian Congress by the
end of this decade.
Meanwhile, if you vote for George Bush or Al Gore — or even for Pat Buchanan or Ralph Nader — you’re giving up. You’re saying
you’ll never be free, so you’ll just vote against the person you dislike most.
You’re better than that. Please don’t give up. Raise your sights and vote for what you truly want. Vote for freedom.
And maybe before the end of this decade, you’ll have it.
