Statement of Purpose
Our purpose is to promote economic literacy within the Libertarian Party as taught by the Austrian school of economics, to stress the importance of sound economics as critical to the Libertarian Party message, and to advocate applying the science of human action—praxeology—in the Libertarian Party efforts to counter the statism of both the Democrats and Republicans. We promote opposition to war, advocacy of decentralization, and privatization both politically and monetarily as the highest priority issues for all libertarians. As a community and work culture, our emphasis is on coalition building and working together on things which we agree, in order to achieve political objectives in the real world and expose non-libertarians to the superiority of governance by the market instead of the State.
We recognize that freedom of association manifests itself politically in the form of absolute right of self-determination. We support decentralization, secession, nullification, and localism of political units all the way down to the individual as a means of expanding choice and competition in governance for all individuals. We also recognize and affirm that the State is not the same thing as governance.
- "Under decentralization, jurisdictions must compete for residents and capital, which provides some incentive for greater degrees of freedom, if only because local despotism is neither popular nor productive. If despots insist on ruling anyway, people and capital will find a way to leave. If there is only one will and one actor, you cannot escape.
- Localism internalizes corruption so that it can be more easily spotted and uprooted. Along the same lines, local government corruption can be rather benign by comparison; it is easier, on a middle-class budget, to pay off the zoning board than to bribe the State Department.
- Tyranny on the local level minimizes damage to the same extent that macro-tyranny maximizes it. If Hitler had ruled only Berlin, Stalin only Moscow, and FDR only Washington, the effects of their demented policies might have been contained. This is not only a utilitarian consideration. It means that evil people are prevented from violating the rights of people outside their jurisdiction.
- No government can be trusted to use the power to intervene wisely. With such power, central governments will always invoke good motives even when they are a mere mask for power grabs (as when the US invaded Iraq, for example). The typical path goes this way. An intervention takes place that might be celebrated by good liberals, such as the Lochner decision (1905) by the Supreme Court that invalidated New York's labor regulations. But once that power is gained, it is used to put a legal imprimatur on central planning and prevent local governments from finding an escape (the central planning of World War I was Lochner's daughter).
- A plurality of governmental forms... prevents the central government from accumulating power. Lower governments are rightly jealous of their jurisdiction, and resist. This is to the good. In fact, the whole history of liberty is bound up with the glorious results of competing institutional structures, no one of which can be trusted with complete control."
We recognize the right to property as natural and self-evident, and advocate private property rights from both an ontological and utilitarian perspective. We affirm that private property rights extend from self-ownership and the scarcity inherent to our material existence. We condemn all fraud and initiatory violence towards a person’s life, liberty, and property. We also contend that private property is the best way to reduce and reconcile conflict between individuals. We advocate non-corporatist privatization wherever possible. We categorically reject socialism, defined as the non-private collective ownership of resources.
We advocate for the abolition of the empire including ending the terror war, bringing all the troops home, and closing all foreign bases. We advocate a policy of armed neutrality in all conflicts where we are not directly attacked, and the transition of defense and security services from the State to the free market whenever and however feasible, including the abolition of gun control laws. We advocate peace and trade with all, alliances with none. We support the precipitous reduction of nuclear arms. We reject non-defensive war against state actors, and reject war as a means of pursuing justice against non-state aggressors. We reject first-use of sanctions, being a form of siege and therefore an act of war. We reject the subsidy of business through taxpayer funded security and intelligence services. We reject the State’s use of proxy entities to perform any of these activities.
- Defend the Guard legislation would prohibit a state's National Guard units from being deployed into active combat without a formal declaration of war by Congress, as provided by the U.S. Constitution.
- Dan McKnight Testifies for "Defend the Guard" in Texas, 2021
Scott Horton Testifies for "Defend the Guard" in Texas, 2021
No drug should be illegal. Substance abuse is a health issue not a criminal justice issue. We advocate for the nullification of all Federal Laws and the abolition of all State Laws.
Economics is the study of human action in the context of scarcity. We recognize the Austrian School of Economics as the preeminent body of economic science, whose analysis acts as a polestar, informing and under-girding libertarian political prescriptions.
We reject all forms of State intervention into monies and currencies, with the understanding that competing monies are the cornerstone of a functional economy. We define State intervention to include, but not be limited to, private or public central banking, State issue of currency, banking regulations, the State making purchases of monies, currencies, stocks, bonds, treasuries, or specie, and legal tender laws. We support the aggression-free competition and proliferation of free market monies and currencies in all their forms.
We take no stance on the personal, cultural, or social preferences of individuals or groups. One’s lifestyle is merely an extension of their property rights. Thus, no individual or group can rightfully claim jurisdiction over the lifestyle of another. We assert only that any and all lifestyle choices must not violate the property rights of others.
We categorically reject all forms of identity politics as nothing more than weaponized tribal collectivism that is antithetical to individualism.
Our silence about any other particular government law, regulation, ordinance, directive, edict, control, regulatory agency, activity, or machination should not be construed to imply approval. We seek to enunciate our top priorities, not the entirety of our positions.