Libertarian town hall 2016
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This video will look at a libertarian town hall discussion with the libertarian party candidates for president and vice president Gary Johnson and Bill Weld.
Liberty Man Van: Hello, I am Liberty Man Liberty Man Van. Today, we will critique a recent libertarian town hall meeting with the libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and vice presidential candidate Bill Weld. Here is the first question.
video clip 1 question: What is a libertarian, Johnson answers with “fiscally conservative socially tolerant” answer
Liberty Man Van: Sounds like taking from dems and repubs. We libertarians have our own ideology.
> The non-aggression principle- You can’t hit people and you can’t take their stuff.
> Property rights- You own your own body and the fruits of your labor and your property cannot be taken from you.
> Free markets and freedom of association – people should be able to trade with and associate with whomever they wish.
> Live and let live- You can do whatever you wish as long as you don’t violate the person or property of others.
Liberty Man Van: The next questioner asked how a free market would work with health care. What if someone chose not to buy health insurance and then got sick. Shouldn’t there be a safety net?
video clip 2: Johnson “There should be a safety net”
Liberty Man Van: Government providing safety net means money must be taken from some and given to others. This is a violation of their property rights. With freedom comes responsibility. The safety net should be provided by private charity, not coercion.
Liberty Man Van: Next Gary Johnson explains how a free market in health care would work.
video clip 3: Johnson- will sign on to any approach that brings brings a free market approach to health care, my health insurance premiums have quadrupled, insurance should be used to provide for catastrophic not minor needs, genuine competition would drastically reduce the cost of health care, you would have health care prices advertised with published outcomes, now we go to doctor and have no idea how much the care will cost and knowing we won’t pay the bill.
Liberty Man Van: Good answer by Johnson, give LASIK example and why it is affordable.
video clip 4 question: What is the federal gov’s role in ensuring a woman’s right to choose in every state?
video clip 5: Johnson “Republicans alienate a lot of people when they talk about defunding planned parenthood. Planned parenthood does a lot of good and that starts with women’s health.”
Liberty Man Van: Here is where Johnson ignores one of the fundamental tenets of libertarianism, the non-aggression principle. When you can’t hit people or take their stuff then you can’t take their stuff through taxation and give it to someone else; it is fundamentally immoral to do that. This is why a true libertarian will not support planned parenthood and any other coerced redistribution of wealth.
> But let’s say you were not a libertarian and just wanted to follow the constitution. The tenth amendment says the following:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
This amendment was supposed to limit the federal government to the powers specifically listed in the constitution. If you search the text of the constitution for “health” or “medicine” you will come up empty. Therefore, the federal government has no authority in these areas. The courts had to be creative to find a way to around these restrictions. They did so by applying an unconstitutionally broad meaning to phrases such as “general welfare” and “regulate commerce”. A broad interpretation of phrases such as these by the courts has allowed the federal government to pass just about any legislation they please, thus gutting the original meaning of the constitution.
Article 6, clause 3 United States Constitution
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution;
Members of the federal government are bound by oath to defend the constitution. Today they don’t defend it; they ignore it.
video clip 6: Weld talks about gay marriage and why it is protected under the constitution. “That’s not the Nanny State, that’s the constiitution.”
Liberty Man Van: I did a text search on the constitution for the word “marriage”. This should have been a states rights issue; the federal government had no business getting involved.
Liberty Man Van: Johnson next responds to a question about marijuana legalization.
video clip 7: Johnson defends legalization of marijuana. “People should be able to live their lives as they see fit.”
Liberty Man Van: Libertarians believe that people own their own bodies. That means any adult should be able to make decisions regarding their own bodies as long as they are not harming others. Freedom to act also includes freedom to make stupid decisions such as using drugs.
Liberty Man Van: The candidates are next asked whether Trump or Clinton would be a better choice for president. Johnson appropriately responds that he would not answer the question. But Weld can’t resist an answer.
video clip 8: Weld responds to question of whether Clinton or Trump be better president(Johnson would not endorse either) by saying Clinton is qualified but Trump is not.
Liberty Man Van: Wow! That ought to get the libertarian base out to vote for the Johnson/Weld ticket!
video clip 9: Moderator- Libertarians are seen as isolationist. Where do you see the US role in world theaters? Johnson: If we are attacked we will attack back and you can argue we were attacked by ISIS. We should involve congress, a role that has been abdicated to the President.
Liberty Man Van: This is a pretty good answer. The Congress has allowed way too much foreign entanglement by presidents without insisting on a voice in this important matter. They don’t want to get involved because they know that war is not popular and they will soon be up for re-election. Getting re-elected is all that matters to them.
Liberty Man Van: The next question is about free trade.
video clip 10: Weld discusses free trade: Free trade will always benefit the US over other countries because we have a more advanced economy. Free trade will produce high wage jobs in the US. It is imperative to get wages up in the country. You may lose some jobs on the lower end of the wage scale. Trump’s idea of tariffs, we tried that with the Smoot-Hawley tariff in the 1920’s; it destroyed western economies.
Liberty Man Van: Americans should be able to trade with whomever they want without interference; this includes foreigners.
video clip 11: Moderator: How do you generate good jobs in the US? Johnson: count on me as President to sign legislation to simplify taxes, I would eliminate the income tax, corporate taxes, I would abolish the IRS and replace it with a consumption tax. A zero corporate tax would create tens of millions of jobs in the US.
Liberty Man Van: Speaking of taxation, is it legitimate? Libertarians differ on this subject. Some believe in anarchy or no government. Others believe in minarchy or minimal government. Many libertarians are anarchists because they believe that taxation is a form of coercion and violates the non-aggression principle. In addition, they believe even a minimalist government will always grab for more power over time. Personally, I don’t have a problem with a minimalist state as long as it is voluntarily funded. I believe that taxation if theft. I believe that a state that had to rely on voluntary funding would be less likely to engage is activities that many find offensive such as foreign wars and funding of abortion.
video clip 12: Moderator: The problem with your plan is that it would reduce tax revenue. Johnson: No, it is revenue neutral.
Liberty Man Van: OMG! The government would collect less revenue. The questioner thinks that would be horrible. I do not. I would like to see the revenue reduced to zero.
video clip 13: Johnson: With a consumption tax 80 percent of lobbying would go away because they are primarily there to garner special tax favor.
Liberty Man Van: Johnson is correct here. Lobbying is all about trying to gain some special favor from Congress and much of it involves the tax code. Simplifying the tax code would give Congress less opportunity to hand out gifts to lobbyists. This, it turn, would make it more difficult to raise funds for their re-election campaigns. Therefore, replacing the current tax system with a flat tax or consumption tax will not happen.
In addition, Johnson is naive to think that a consumption tax would eliminate lobbying. Before long you would start to see exceptions to the consumption tax, such as no tax on food items. Before long the exceptions to the consumption tax would be as numerous as the items that get special treatment under the current tax code.
video clip 14: question: Tell us what you have done while in office that is consistent with libertarian ideals.
video clip 15: Johnson: I supported school choice, I would like to bring competition to education, eliminate federal involvement in education allowing those dollars to remain in the state, fewer dollars come back to the states that are sent to Washington and the money comes back with strings attached. Our drug policy- we have tens of millions(this number is way too large) of people who are convicted felons that would be contributing citizens if not for our drug laws.
video clip 15a: Hey, occasionally he sounds like a real libertarian. Go figure.
video clip 16 question: It has been reported in the media that libertarians respect but don’t endorse the black lives matter movement. Where do you stand on upholding the rights of black people?
video clip 17: Weld answers that early in his administration he established an african caribbean American commission, met with them personally monthly, same with asians, hispanics, muslims. His wife even read to them in Arabic from the Koran.
Liberty Man Van: The question is about the rights of black people. The concept of collective rights is fallacious. There is no such thing as group rights; there are only individual rights. Ayn Rand addressed this fallacy in an essay entitled “Collectivized ‘Rights'”. Let’s read from it now:
Every legitimate group undertaking is based on the participants’ right of free association and free trade…A group, as such, has no rights. A man can neither acquire new rights by joining a group nor lose the rights which he does possess. The principle of individual rights is the only moral base of all groups or associations. Any group that does not recognize this principle is not an association, but a gang or a mob. Any doctrine of group activities that does not recognize individual rights is a doctrine of mob rule or legalized lynching. The notion of “collective rights” (the notion that rights belong to groups, not to individuals) means that “rights” belong to some men, but not to others— that some men have the “right” to dispose of others in any manner they please— and that the criterion of such privileged position consists of numerical superiority.
Liberty Man Van: In other words, if a group has a “right” that others don’t possess, then other groups must be deprived of this “right.” In this case, you must necessarily infringe on the individual rights of some to give group “rights” to others. Group rights and individual rights cannot coexist.
That’s it for our libertarian town hall comments. I hoped you enjoyed the presentation. Until next time this is Liberty Man Liberty Man Van signing off.