Elect Gary Nolan, Libertarian for President

"[L]as elecciones no son carreras de caballos. No se trata de apostarle al ganador, sino de apoyar a la persona con quien el votante está más de acuerdo." -Jorge Ibargüengoitia, Mexican essayist

Tired of Bush? Sick of the nine- make that eight- Democratic hopefuls? Suspicious of both the Democrats and Republicans? Well, despair not. The choice between the two mainstream parties is a false dilemma. There may just be a party for you: The Libertarians.

The Libertarian Party describes itself as the fastest-growing third party in the country, with over 300 Libertarians in various offices. It may be a slow start, but remember, there was once a time when neither Democrats nor Republicans existed.

The guiding philosophy of Libertarianism is freedom, that humanity is happiest and most successful when left to its own devices. The government only has the right to protect against foreign invasion and real crimes that cause people harm, such as murder, assault, abuse, rape, theft, vandalism, arson, kidnapping, fraud and the like. The litmus test for government intervention would be "Does it cause harm to others?" In the process, it would reduce government spending considerably, and thus bring taxation to a drastic minimum.

Libertarians say your property, the fruit of your labor, is yours to keep. No one has the right to take it from you. Nobody has the right to steal your effort, just as you do not have the right to steal the effort of others. A Libertarian government would abolish federal health care and welfare, while turning Social Security into one choice of many, getting out what you put in.

Yes, health care may be a natural right. So is eating, yet food distribution remains privatized. It doesn't matter that the government cares for your health, only that it is cared for. Without government interference, doctors are free to work toward excellence and prices will go down. Think St. Jude's. It is the foremost cancer research hospital in the world, run on a combination of patients' bills and charity, yet it does it all without any help from the government.

In Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore shows a woman on a Welfare to Work program wherein she must commute several hours to a minimum wage job. She would have been better off left alone. Then she might still have a minimum wage job, but at least she could find one closer, where she could spend more quality time with her child. She might even manage to rise above that situation. My own father worked his way out of poverty, his only help from the government his Navy paycheck.

Furthermore, social programs simply don't work. For all the decades they have existed, they have not ended poverty. If something doesn't work, that doesn't mean we should do more of it. It means we should look for another solution.

Meanwhile, people are still free to give charity or help a friend in need, if they choose freely to do so. People are social creatures; they like to do good for others. Americans, too, are a particularly charitable society. Left alone, they can be trusted to do so as they are able.

Likewise, Libertarians believe in free trade. And by free trade, I mean true free trade. What most conservatives understand for "free trade" is actually heavily biased toward large corporations. If the rich do not want their money taken and given to the poor and middle class, then they cannot take the middle class's hard-earned money themselves. Under Libertarian free trade, there would be no trade barriers and no corporate welfare. Let people do business with each other as they see fit, and it harm none. Surely people know their own careers better than any official.

In the realm of the environment, I actually disagree with many libertarians. I believe government has every right to punish polluters, as pollution is a clear case of harm to others. At the same time, as with health care, I realize government doesn't have to tow the line alone. It was a private individual, without any orders from the government, who invented the gasoline-electric hybrid. In many cases, people can be trusted to care for the earth on their own recognizance. There is no law mandating recycling, yet millions do it because they believe it's right. We could also sell natural preserves to non-profit environmental groups, which would help pay the national debt, help shrink the government and leave pockets of pristine nature in the stewardship of those who definitely care.

Libertarians even believe people have the right to make mistakes. You see, we realize that whether something is a good idea and whether it should be illegal are two separate debates. Case in point, a Libertarian government would end the War on Drugs. Prohibition simply doesn't work. It hasn't ended addiction. Nor will its legalization. Better then to take the cheaper alternative. Let the natural consequences of their choices be the punishment for using drugs. Better still, when an addict goes to the hospital, I don't have to pay for his stupidity.

I fully believe in the right to life. At the same time, I know that no law will stop abortion. Only changed minds will. Like the War on Drugs, prohibition doesn't work. A pro-life libertarian such as myself is left to try to convince women that abortion is the wrong choice, to support them as I can in an unwanted pregnancy, and call to make the adoption process easier. Neither should government issue gag orders - a slap in the face to free speech -nor fund abortion.

In fact, the government should not touch upon our sexuality at all. Whether homosexuality is a choice or a genetic trait, a lifestyle or an action, should our courts have any say in the matter when it harms no one? Even if it does turn out to be a sin, isn't your god capable of handling it without your help? And though I may find prostitution repugnant, I don't see why our police should waste their time with it when real crimes are happening. Adults have the right to enter into any mutual agreement they like. They have the right to have sex or not to have sex, for any reason, in any way they please. It's they who must live with their choices, be they wise or foolish.

In every thing, Libertarians stand for freedom: property rights, free trade, freedom of choice, sexuality in all its forms, freedom of religion or lack thereof, open borders (which is not to say citizenship, necessarily) for peaceable people, more choice in education, the right to self-defense and freedom of speech, even if it isn't politically correct or it questions the President.

I know what you're thinking. They don't stand a chance. It's a wasted vote. I say they do stand a chance if people come together and vote for them, and they'll stand more of a chance later if their election numbers start to climb and give them national attention. To paraphrase Ibargüengoitia, an election is not a horse race. It's not a matter of betting on the winner. It's a matter of voting for the candidate who best represents your views. So, voting your conscience cannot be a wasted vote. The only wasted vote is for someone you do not want as your representative.

The Libertarian Party currently offers six possible candidates for President. They are Michael Badnarik, Clyde Cleveland, Jeffrey Diket, Dave Hollist, Carla Howell, Gary Nolan and Aaron Russo.

Two candidates simply cannot be taken as serious contenders. Hollist has a rather laughable plan to abolish taxation by turning government into some kind of insurance policy. If you've paid, they'll protect you. If not, they won't. Diket has no web site.

All of the rest of these candidates believe the basics of libertarianism to varying degrees, with slightly different emphases. However, only Gary Nolan specifically supports the War on Terror in Afghanistan as an act of self-defense while rejecting our war of aggression in Iraq. Howell and Badnarik skirt the issue by condemning the Iraq war and neglecting Afghanistan. Russo outright says he'll remove our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and everywhere else. In times like these, that is unacceptable in a President of the United States. We need someone who can defend this country against foreign attack without abusing his powers. That someone is Gary Nolan.But don't take my word for it. Go to the Libertarian Party's website and the nominees' websites listed in my sources and see for yourself.

As November nears, and you find you can't stand either Bush or the Democrats' choice, look to the Libertarian Party and their offering. May it be Gary Nolan.