Political Roadmap

by Richard F. Hall

World-wide events in the last half of the 20th century proved communism and socialism to be abject failures. Yet during this same period, the U.S., strange as it seems, has moved steadily away from the free-market (capitalistic) end of the economic-political spectrum toward the government regulated (socialistic) end. As Milton Friedman has wryly observed, "We seem to be saying that we know socialism is a failure and that capitalism is a success; therefore, we need more socialism."

Regardless of the reasons for this contradiction, the results have been:

	we have taken from the industrious while we give to the lazy
	we have penalized the competent while we reward the unqualified
	we have taxed the honest while we subsidize the devious
	we have discouraged the self-reliant while we sustain the irresponsible
	we have punished principled businessmen while we bribe their short-sighted competitors with "corporate welfare"
	we have belittled the victim while we befriend the criminal
	we have failed to properly educate our children while we indulge the educators
	we have provided foreign aid while the recipients oppose our foreign policies

In short, we have sacrificed much of our wealth and freedom for the bogus security of big government.

We must stop this mindless and ever-increasing support of government programs that don't work. And they don't work for the same reasons socialism didn't work:

because there is a lack of individual incentives
because no regulators or bureaucrats can possibly predict, let alone stay abreast of, the arcane movements of the marketplace
because of the ever-present existence or threat of corruption

These three negatives are inherent in a socialistic system, but not so in a capitalistic system. We must sharply reverse our liberal (aka socialistic) trends and substitute the free-market (aka capitalistic) policies advocated by our country's founders and as enumerated in the Constitution.

Whereas there is no such thing as an economic-political system that will produce an everlasting paradise for one and all, our realistic choices are limited to two directions: socialism or capitalism. The overwhelming evidence clearly points to capitalism.

So what specific choices does this give to the individual voter? As a practical matter, there are three: The Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and "Something Else". The Democratic choice is a solid vote to continue on the socialist path of the past fifty years…no change. The Republican choice is supposed to be a significant move toward capitalism and after the 1994 elections there was hope. But with the passing of three years we still have the wimpy "Republicrats". This leaves 'Something Else' and that's the Libertarian Party, the party with principles that don't change with every local breeze. Every citizen should find out just what the Libertarian Party stands for and then make their decision--then support the party of choice and vote for the individual of choice. "I'm pro-choice on everything!"

This page was last updated 07/02/00 01:50 PM