The purpose of this presentation is to present a detailed definition of liberaltarianism, and to serve as a potential liberaltarian manifesto or potential liberaltarian political platform for political movements to adopt, all or in part.
Because the United States has one of the largest libertarian and left-of-center collection of political movements, the politics of this lbog is oriented towards the United States political system. However, most of what is presented here can be applied to other nations as well.
Any perceived omissions are not intentional.
Because the United States has one of the largest libertarian and left-of-center collection of political movements, the politics of this lbog is oriented towards the United States political system. However, most of what is presented here can be applied to other nations as well.
Any perceived omissions are not intentional.
Introduction
The opposite of minarchist libertarianism is authoritarianism. Both are situated between the greater opposites of anarchy and totalitarianism. Minarchism, libertarianism, classical liberalism, and laissez-faire are basically all one in the same, but they are not synonymous with anarchy or anarchist capitalism, which is why this presentation does not refer to non-libertarians (and non-anarchists) as statists because it implies that minarchism and libertarianism are synonymous with anarchism. This presentation thus instead refers to non-secularist libertarianism and non-anarhcism as coercive authoritarianism or nanny police statism while recognizing that the extent and severity of coercive authoritarianism and nanny police statism can vary.
Liberaltarianism is basically a mixture of the political philosophies known as social liberalism and softcore minarchist libertarianism. The latter is also known as center-left libertarianism.
The political philosophy known as left libertarianism is basically secular anarchist capitalist in nature.
Liberaltarianism consists of both Eurocentrics and non-Eurocentrics that do not want to be identified with, confused with, and overlapped with anarchist capitalism, which is also known as anarcho-capitalism and agorism; paleoconservatism (also known as conservatarianism); Rothbardian-Rockwellian paleolibertarianism; Randian Objectivism, or the Tea Party movement. Much of the news media in particular is guilty out of ignorance of identifying paleoconservatives like Ron and Rand Paul as being "libertarian," and also the late Ayn Rand, the founder of Objectivism, who wanted nothing to do with the libertarian movement or the Libertarian Party, even though most of her philosophy has a lot in common with libertarianism.
Paleolibertarians are libertarians that place more emphasis on issues of taxation, economic freedom, and private property rights than they do on individual liberty and social freedoms not necessarily related to economics. They also regard social conservatives and the coercive authoritarian Right as being a lesser evil than the coercive authoritarian Left, and are unopposed to forming political alliances with the Right on common causes. The authors of the paleolibertarian approach are the late Murray Rothbard and still living Lew Rockwell. Paleolibertarians are also referred to as" right-wing libertarians" and include "libertarian Republicans".
Paleoconservatives or conservatarians are basically right-wing social conservatives that hold some libertarian views, particularly in relation to taxation, economics, private property rights, drug decriminalization, and a non-interventionist foreign policy, including the call for smaller government. But unlike libertarians, paleoconservatives favor states rights over individual rights, and do not oppose federal, state, and local laws that are not in conflict with their conservative moral values, including restrictive immigration laws.
Many paleoconservatives are associated with the conspiracy theory movement. The first and foremost of them all is radio talk show host Alex Jones, who labels himself as a "constitutional libertarian," but who rants and raves almost every broadcast against legal abortion as a means of birth control and the alleged persecution of Christians. Not all paleoconservatives hold the same libertarian views. Former U.S. Congressman Ron Paul and his son Senator Rand Paul are examples of this. Ron favors drug decriminalization and a non-interventionist foreign policy, whereas Rand does not.
Paleoliberals or progessitarians are the opposite of conservatarians. Many of them refer to themselves as social libertarians, and tend to agree with liberaltarians on many issues related to social freedoms and civil liberties, and favor a non-interventionist foreign policy as do liberaltarians and centrist libertarians. However, progressitarians tend to support a significant amount government intervention in the economy; heavy regulation of businesses and professions, and imposing laws of fairness, equality, and non-discrimination upon the private sector in lieu of proposing optional incentives as does liberaltarianism. A prime example of a well-known progressitarian in the USA who identifies himself as a "social libertarian" is entertainer, talk show host, and political and social commentator Bill Maher.
Anarchist capitalists, who are more commonly known as agorists, anarcho-capitalists or just ancaps for short, are free market capitalist anarchists that oppose the concept of statist government and believe as does Marxist philosophy that societies can eventually operate sufficiently on a voluntary cooperative basis without formal laws, enforcement, and intervention on the part of local, state, and federal governments. Minarchist libertarians and liberaltarians hold that to be true for indigenous tribal societies and small voluntary communitarian societies like, for example, those that the Amish people operate within, but not large, complex civilized societies where not everyone can be relied upon to respect the life, liberty and property rights of others in an honest and peaceful manner, nor in such a large, complex society in which everyone can be relied upon to participate in voluntary communitarianism.
Many minarchists and liberaltarians have no reservation about committing calculated acts of civil obedience against laws that should not be on the books in the first place, particularly victimless crime laws and actions that do not violate the rights of others. However, we are not Utopians.
Objectivists, also known as Randians, are those who are adherents to Objectivism--the philosophical movement created by the Russian-born American author Ayn Rand (1905 - 1982), who is most famous for her voluminous novel, Atlas Shrugged.
Objectivist philosophy has much in common with libertarianism. A primary difference is the orthodox Objectivist stance on foreign policy, which basically says that capitalist democracies have a moral obligation to try and overthrow tyrannical totalitarian regimes. Liberaltarians and most centrist libertarians on the other hand, hold the position that nations should exercise a politically neutral, non-interventionist Swiss and Jeffersonian-model foreign policy of "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations--entangling alliances with none," and not attempt to right the wrongs of the world by the initiation of force either covertly or militarily.
Ayn Rand was also opposed to her philosophy becoming a formal political movement in the way of a political party and thus had nothing to do with the Libertarian Party USA after it was formed. Orthodox Objectivists to this day have nothing to do with "libertarian" movements or political parties. However, many libertarians came to know much of libertarianism initially through the philosophy and works of Ayn Rand and thus also identify themselves with Objectivism.
Non-Eurocentric libertarianism.
Much of the ancient Taoist philosophy of Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu is minarchist libertarian in nature.
Russell Means (1939 - 2012) is from the Oglala Lakota Nation on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
He was one of original activists of the American Indian Movement (AIM); an American Indian lecturer, and also later became a screen actor and recording artist. In 1988 he was a candidate for U.S. President in the Libertarian Party primary. Much of his political philosophy was liberaltarian from an Indigenous American perspective.
Liberaltarianism critiques and treats equally the socialistic Left, the moderate authoritarian Center, and the socially conservative Right, all three of which desire to impose their social and economic values on all of society through the force of government.
A prime example of a prominent, primarily centrist minarchist libertarian in the USA is former ABC network and now Fox Business News political/social commentator and talk show host John Stossel. He is currently the only libertarian voice on the otherwise Republican and socially conservative-biased Fox News network owned by Rupert Murdoch. Paleoconservatives Judge Napolitano and Glenn Beck have since been booted off the network. Stossel, however, has become somewhat paleolibertarian since moving over to Fox.
The term "liberal" has evolved into being synonymous with those who are non-libertarian left-of-center "neo-liberals" or "progressives." Right wing conservatives in particular tend to accuse anyone to the left of them with whom they are not in political or social agreement as being "liberal." Liberaltarians and libertarians are also "liberal" in the context of social tolerance and diversity from a legal standpoint, such as but not limited to being in favor of legalized "pro-choice" abortion; equal rights under the law for homosexual and transgender people, and the legalization of "illicit" drugs.
Liberaltarianism recognizes that the only differences between the coercive authoritarian Left, Center, and Right are their priorities on what and how much to tax, spend, regulate, prohibit, and meddle in.
Liberaltarianism only advocates democracy, political diversity, and proportional representation in nations that are not dominated by principled, centrist, secular libertarians or liberaltarians.
TAXATION AND ECONOMICS
- Liberaltarianism advocates a competitive market economy, which is not the same as "unbridled capitalism". As the blogger of Classically Liberal has stated: "Free markets mean markets that can’t be manipulated by bureaucrats and politicians in order to bestow privileges or subsidies on specific corporate entities while using regulations and taxes to hamper their competition. (This is what is known as "crony capitalism"). A free market is one where political favoritism can’t play a role. America is not a free market society. What we have is a corporatist economy with many of the features of fascism."
In many parts of the world, industry is over-regulated with "fair trade" and consumer protectionism as the excuse. In reality, such over-regulation and the licensing of professions have far more to do with restricting competition than protecting consumers from fraud, misrepresentation, and harm.
- A low flat tax on the income of employees and for-profit businesses, with the continual allowance of tax write-offs for donations made to duly certified private, non-profit organizations.
- No taxation of income earned abroad on the part of citizens living abroad. (Click here for further information on this subject).
Liberaltarianism is not opposed to replacing federal and state income taxes with just a value added tax (sales tax) if the latter is able to afford all essential goods and services that has to be provided by government. For example, some wealthy communities, and also American Indian reservations with lucrative casino gaming operations, operate their own private police and fire departments. However, in communities that do not have the private financial means to pay for or afford individual user fees for police, firefighting, and paramedic services, taxation to support such services is in order.
Liberaltarianism further calls for:
- A low sales tax on the purchase of goods, and no sales tax at all on medicine or perishable, consumable food items, including most categories of beverages.
- The abolition of all other categories of taxation, except for those in the form of modest user fees.
- An optional anti-discrimination policy incentive in the form of a tax break pact between governmental tax collection agencies and private businesses, employers, and landlords in lieu of imposing anti-discrimination laws upon the private sector. (The enforcement procedures can be worked out).
OCCUPATIONAL LICENSURE
As already mentioned above, the licensing of professions have far more to do these days with restricting competition than protecting consumers from fraud, misrepresentation, and harm. Take for example the psychotherapeutic professions of Clinical Psychology, Marriage and Family Therapy, and Clinical Social Work. Most U.S. states, for instance, require those professions to be licensed by the state in order to exercise them in exchange for renumeration, especially for profit in the private sector. Most forms of psychotherapy consist of techniques involving conversational counseling and talk therapy, whether it be cognitive or hypnotic. The fields of clinical psychology, relationship counseling and therapy, clinical social work, and even psychiatry are for the most part theoretical, experimental, non-exact sciences that are often prejudiced with cultural biases, particularly on the part of elitist Eurocentrics who dominate and regulate those professions in the West.
Psychotherapy is more of a natural art than an acquired skill. Many people with a talent for visual and plastic arts take classes in art just to sharpen the skills they already have--not to learn to become artists. Likewise, the formal study of psychological therories and psychotherapuetic techniques is just to sharpen those skills one already has. Yet most states or governments require rigorous requirements for licensure in the psychotherapeutic arts, which again, mainly consist of some sort of conversational counseling and therapy. Why should such freedom of speech between two or more individuals be restricted or violated just because renumeration is involved?
Another example is the profession of private investigations. The purpose of private detectives or private investigators (PIs) is to obtain information for their clients by way of undercover surveillance, conducting interviews, and searching for or researching records and documents. Investigative journalists basically do the same thing. However, the latter are not subjected to state licensure as are PIs, who in most states are required to complete thousands of hours of experience as an investigative agency employee, then pass a state PI or insurance adjuster's exam. In addition to having to obtain and renew licensure, they also have to purchase a liability insurance bond in order to practice their profession in exchange for remuneration. These requirements were lobbied in principle by retired police officers who went into private detective work afterwards, and who want to stifle competition by means of said regulations.
In the United States, graduates of state and federally-recognized law schools can practice law in federal courts without having to obtain a state bar license first. However, in order to have the right to practice law in a state court, they must first pass a state bar exam. Bar exams in many states are difficult to pass the first time around, particularly in California and New York. They are purposefully designed that way to stifle competition.
In most nations, law school graduates after passing a bar exam can practice law in any state or province of their nation. However, in the U.S., one must first pass the bar exam of each state one desires to practice law in. That restriction needs to be abolished in addition to rigorous state bar exams.
The professions just outlined as examples are only but a few of the hundreds that are either over-regulated or that should not require state licensure at all, or at least not require any prerequisites for obtaining a license, such as by way of a written exam, oral exam, internship, or requiring a a certain amount of hours of experience in a trade or profession before being issued a license. Professional licenses should also be issued for a modest fee and not have to be renewable. Thus a re-examination and overhaul of all current occupational licensure requirements is in order, especially those that are really designed to stifle competition than to protect the public from fraud, misrepresentation and "mal practice," for which there are already laws and penalties in place whether one has permission from the state to practice a profession or not.
HEALTH CARE
- An exemption on the taxation of income for private health care providers and pharmacies that accept government-funded health vouchers issued to low and fixed income patients who do not have and cannot afford private health insurance, and for private health insurers that charge reasonable rates for policies to be determined by a government insurance commission, and who accept policy applicants with pre-existing medical conditions. Private health providers and private insurance companies can of course collectively negotiate and re-negotiate their rates with the government insurance commission.
Pharmaceutical developers and wholesale manufacturers of medications should also have the option of being tax-exempt in exchange for charging limited rates for their products.
Privately-paid-for health insurance plans through private insurers should always be available to individuals, businesses and organizations that want to purchase them and can afford them, including consumer-owned nonprofit cooperatives that sell insurance in competition with private for-profit industry, not unlike the way private not-for-profit electric and agriculture co-ops operate.
Liberaltarianism further advocates free market health insurance, which allows private insurance companies to provide health insurance policies to anyone in the world regardless of where policy-holders reside, and regardless of where each insurance company is based.
EDUCATION
Liberaltarians and libertarians of all stripes favor greater educational choice through government-funded vouchers, particularly for grades K-12, and support the right of parents and guardians to school their children at home in lieu of attending a public or private school. Liberaltarianism thus calls for a low flat tax or an exemption on the taxation of income of private schools that accept government-funded educational vouchers .
Parochial schools that accept such vouchers must contractually agree not to compel voucher students to participate in or be subjected to religious prayers, rites, instruction, or discrimination.
SOCIAL WELFARE
Libertarians in principle are opposed to government welfare programs and ideally would like private, charitable organizations to only provide social welfare services. However, minarchists and particularly liberaltarians realize that not all individuals and families are able to meet the special needs of friends and loved ones unable to care for themselves, and that private, charitable non-profit organizations (NGOs) cannot handle all of the load in most jurisdictions by themselves. Liberaltarianism thus does not oppose government grants or subsides to charitable welfare NGOs, or the operation of public welfare agencies in regions where NGOs are lacking, in order to fill in the gap for people without any resources to meet their basic needs for survival, such as food, clothing, shelter, medicine and health care, especially for those who are genuinely unable to live independently and care for themselves, such as children and the physically and mentally disabled. Government contracts with NGOs must include a clause for them to agree not to discriminate on the basis or race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
FIREARMS
- The right of private adult citizens of sound mind to purchase and bare handguns and their ammunition, and to carry them loaded on their person concealed without first having to obtain permission from a law enforcement agency or other government bureaucracy.
- The right to purchase and bare semi-automatic rifles and shotguns and their ammunition, and to transport them concealed.
-The right of private individuals and businesses to deal in and sell such firearms and their ammunition.
For what they're worth, liberaltarianism does not oppose (nor advocate) expedient background checks as a prerequisite to purchasing a firearm from a firearms shop or dealer; prohibiting persons convicted of a violent crime involving a firearm from possessing firearms while on parole, or requiring trigger safety locks on firearms kept in homes with very young children. Liberaltarianism does oppose a waiting period or state-issued permit for purchasing ammunition.
Gun prohibition does not not work. Those in jurisdictions where the private sale, ownership, and possession of firearms is prohibited can purchase one on the black market. Where there is a demand for a good or service, there is always a supplier. Most drug cartels and organized crime syndicates have the resources to purchase firearms and ammunition from abroad and import them clandestinely, or manufacture them themselves.
Switzerland has the world's lowest crime rate of any nation because many of its citizens and most of its households, businesses, and public institutions are armed. A criminal with a gun is not likely to commit a crime using a gun knowing that most otherwise potential victims are armed.
FREEDOM FOR AND FROM RELIGION
- No government-imposed definitions of what constitutes a church or religion, and no government interference with private religious organizations that do not violate the life, liberty, or property rights of others, including those of their own members.
- Churches and religious organizations that receive income but that do not pay taxes should be prohibited from publicly endorsing, campaigning for, or campaigning against political candidates, ballot initiatives, and ballot propositions in any manner or attempting to influence legislators, legislation, or modification of laws and legal codes. This includes members of the clergy and other representatives speaking out on or acting on behalf of their churches or religious organizations, including religious professional organizations such as a Christian Attorneys Association, etc. Those churches and religious organizations that violate those prohibitions, or those that charge set fees or a set "minimum donation" for goods and services, should have their tax-exempt status permanently revoked by the government.
- No government funding or subsidies for military or civilian chaplains. Their support must come from their religious denomination or some other outside private source. Chaplains serving military personnel must remain civilians as opposed to becoming commissioned officers, warrant officers, or enlistees in the military when serving in the capacity of chaplain.
- Liberaltarianism advocates secular government, secular public institutions and property, secular coin and currency, and secular laws void of religious and theocratic influences and references.
PRISON SENTENCES AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
The only crimes warranting life imprisonment without the possibility of parole are premeditated homicide (a.k.a. first degree murder); non-premeditated but intentional homicide (a.k.a. second degree murder), and kidnapping for ransom or coercion. Multi-decade sentences for repeat offenders for other major violent crimes are not inappropriate.
No mandatory death sentences. Persons sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole should have the option of being executed swiftly and painlessly, and without a viewing audience, in lieu of spending the rest of their natural lives incarcerated.
Defendants accused of a crime in which the penalty is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole must be determined guilty beyond an absolute doubt as opposed to just a reasonable doubt.
No arrests or prosecutions based solely on the allegations of single or multiple criminal informants.
JUDICIAL SYSTEM
The following systems of justice are more costly to taxpayers but nevertheless more just:
- A public judicial system consisting of three judge panels to hear criminal trials and major civil trials as opposed to trials by jury or single judge bench trials.
- Three judge panels for juvenile court and family court hearings.
The same three judges do not sit on the bench together for each trial that they hear.
The presiding judge for the trial is chosen by a lottery system.
Verdicts can be made by majority rather than unanimous decision.
Verdicts can be appealed to a higher court with a larger odd number panel of judges hearing the case.
Libertarians and liberaltarians also support and encourage the use of private courts of binding arbitration in matters of civil litigation as an alternative to the public judicial system.
The public and the media should have access to most judicial hearings and trials, and non-disruptive photography, video recording, and the broadcasting of hearings and trials should be permitted. (U.S. federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court currently prohibit photography, video recording, and broadcast of their proceedings, which is a form of elitism and lack of transparency at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. However, in Mexico, for example, that nation's Supreme Court proceedings are broadcast on TV.
INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY AND CIVIL RIGHTS
- Equal rights and equal treatment under the law for all citizens, including homosexual, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals in relation to marriage, adoption, government employment, serving in the military, and immigration.
- The prohibition of government-imposed involuntary servitude in the form of military conscription; mandatory national civilian service, registration for such servitude, and jury duty.
- The abolition of all "vice" and victimless crime laws, including those that prohibit gambling, adult prostitution, adult pornography, and the production, distribution, sale, purchase, and consumption of "illicit" and recreational drugs on the part of adults.
(The only government "war on drugs" campaigns that are effective are those in nations that execute drug dealers and drug addicts, or sentence illicit drug consumers to an excessive number of years in prison).
- The right of an adult to purchase any medication without a prescription, although we are unopposed to a prescription requirement for antibiotics, being that not taking the correct antibiotic for a particular type of infection can eventually result collectively in antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. Qualified pharmacists in addition to physicians, dentists, and podiatrists should be legally permitted to prescribe antibiotics for human consumption.
Persons convicted in a court of law for violating such prohibitions are due a government pardon when such acts become legal.
SUICIDE
- The legal right of an individual to take his or her own life without harming others or tresspass, which includes the right of a patient suffering from a terminal, non-curable medical condition to elect medical suicide that is legally assisted by a qualified medical professional.
- The right of an individual of sound mind to pre-elect by way of a legal document, medical assisted suicide in the event that he or she becomes permanently, mentally vegetative or comatose.
- The right of the most legal next of kin of sound mind to have the option of having the proper medical personnel discontinue the assisted or artificial life support of a relative in a permanent mental vegetative or comatose state; i.e., unless the relative pre-stated in a legal document that assisted or artificial life support is not to be discontinued under such medical circumstances.
Medical professionals convicted in a court of law for said form of assisted suicide are due a government pardon when such an act becomes legal.
ABORTION
- No state or government restrictions on or prohibitions against abortion.
From a biological and scientific standpoint, a fetus in the womb of a woman is a pre-human. Prior to the third trimester, a pre-human fetus cannot survive outside the womb without artificial life support, and fetal brain activity does not fully develop until about the seventh month. The assertion by most anti-abortion people that the destruction of an embryo or the abortion of a fetus constitutes the murder of a human being is based on a non-scientific theological belief that has no place in secular law. Most physicians, including OB/GYNs that perform abortions, elect not to perform them after the second trimester unless a pregnancy during that stage presents a serious health risk to the woman.
Liberaltarianism further opposes zoning ordinances on the part of state and local governments designed to zone away abortion clinics.
AGE OF CONSENT LAWS
- A universal age of suffrage no higher than 18 and no lower than 16.
- A universal age for the legal purchase and consumption of alcohol and tobacco no higher than 18 and no lower than 16, although it should be legal for persons under the age of 16 to consume in moderation beverages low in alcohol volume such as wine for religious or dining purposes in non-commercial establishments with parental or guardian consent.
- A universal legal age of sexual consent no higher than 15 and no lower than 13.
Persons convicted in a court of law for "contributing to the delinquency" or "corruption of a minor", or "lewd conduct with a minor", or "statutory rape" (consensual sex with an adolescent) are due a government pardon in cases where the age of majority for such acts is lowered and the then consenting but under age "victim" would have no longer been under age and thus not a victim in the first place.
The only sexual activities that should legally qualify as a "sex crime" and warrant registration as a "sex offender" are forcible rape, and sexual solicitation, sexual fondling, and vaginal, oral, and anal intercourse on the part of an adult or adolescent with a person under the age of 13, even if it is consensual on the part of the child.
Liberaltarianism is unopposed to local, state, and federal governments legalizing nudity in public such as the city of San Francisco, California had. Urinating in public for the purpose of bladder relief should not be considered a sexual offense, nor consensual "sexting," which is the non-commercial electronic uploading, downloading, and transmission of nude or pornographic images by way of internet cell phone service.
Liberaltarianism is not opposed to the prohibition of the production of photographs and videos depicting children under the age of 13 for the purpose of sexual arousal and gratification, and in particular such images of children engaged in sexual activity or being subjected to physical and sexual abuse.
However, we are opposed to the legal prohibition of just viewing such material online or the presence of it on the computer hard drive of a non-producer of such erotica, being that there have been documented cases of computer hackers downloading such material onto the hard drives of innocent persons without their knowledge or consent who have in turn been arrested and charged with the downloading and possession of child pornography after it being discovered by a computer repair technician, etc. There have also been cases of people utilizing the WiFi signals of neighbors for such a purpose without the neighbor's knowledge or consent.
INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE AND TRAVEL
- Low government tariffs, international free trade agreements, and the right of private individuals, organizations, and businesses to travel, conduct business, and trade anywhere abroad without permission from their government first. For U.S. citizens, that includes travel to Cuba and North Korea, and an end to U.S. trade embargos against nations it is not at war with. The national government(s) of which an individual is a citizen should have no control or jurisdiction over the citizen's travel and activities abroad. To do otherwise is a violation of the sovereignty of the individual and a lack of regard for the sovereignty of other nations.
FOREIGN POLICY AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
The proper role of a nation's government and military is to secure the rights of it's citizens--not to police or right the wrongs of the world. Therefore, liberaltarianism advocates:
- A peaceful, neutral, non-interventionist foreign policy like the model foreign policy Switzerland has, with no governmental initiation of force or aggression abroad politically, militarily, or by way of covert operations. Or as the third president of the United States Thomas Jefferson stated in his First Inaugural Address over two hundred years ago: "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations--entangling alliances with none."
- A national defense apparatus confined to domestic territory and neutral waters during peacetime, and just large enough to defend the nation in proportion to its geographical size and population.
- A military policy of bravery as a prerequisite for serving in the armed forces, which includes the absence of institutionalized discrimination or cowardice such as racially segregated troops, homophobia and transphobia. Those that are too emotionally uncomfortable to serve along side military personnel of a different race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation are unfit for military duty.
IMMIGRATION
- Liberal immigration policies in any "nation of immigrants" where the majority population is not indigenous to the nation state that the nation occupies territorially. In America, unrestricted migration for Amerindian-blooded individuals from neighboring nations that do not pose a health or other harmful threat to the well-being of the citizens of the nation they desire to migrate to.
Using the United States as a further example, an American employer does not owe any American citizen a living. That employer should have the legal right to import foreign labor for any reason in lieu of hiring a citizen of his or her own country. For example, if an employer wants to hire ten Mexican citizens on an immigration waiting list to fill ten positions in his or her company, he or she should have that right. Such a market economy immigration policy would greatly reduce the "illegal immigration problem". Liberaltarians in America also favor the right of U.S., Mexican, and Canadian citizens to live and work in one another's countries with the same ease as citizens of European Union member nations can within the E.U.
INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGNTY
Liberaltarianism advocates the option of autonomy-to-independent statehood (actual maximum sovereignty) for indigenous/aboriginal communities and reservations with tribal governments, including the optional right of individual citizens and future generations of such indigenous states to retain (dual) citizenship with the greater "immigrant settler nation" or non-tribal nation state that dominates their continent, island, or original indigenous territorial region.
Immigrant settler and non-tribal nation states should otherwise not be obligated to provide subsidies or restitution to such former autonomous satellite colonies or formed confederations of indigenous tribal states unless such financial arrangements are included in a new treaty between the two.
ANIMAL RIGHTS
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Most libertarians and liberaltarians do not accept the belief that industrial and internal combustion engine-produced carbon emissions are primarily responsible for the major climate changes that have taken place in various parts of the globe in recent decades. Planet Earth has gone through many cycles of ice ages and warm tropical climate ages over millions of years long before artificial carbon emissions existed. Based on scientific evidence so far, global warming and global cooling appear to be primarily the result of changes in solar activity. The mechanical rovers sent to the planet Mars have detected an increase in temperature on that planet, and artificial satellites sent up into outer space have detected an increase in solar activity and temperature within our solar system.
Liberaltarianism is not opposed to domestic and international environmental laws designed to deter, prevent, and punish excessive exploitation or damage of natural resources and wildlife, particularly those that we depend on for survival, such as but not limited to air and water. Offshore oil drilling should be conducted with the utmost technological safeguards and be routinely inspected by governmental experts in oil rig safety and technology.
Liberaltarianism is not opposed to the sale of government-owned parks to private conservation organizations or ceding them over to indigenous tribal governments, providing that they contractually agree to maintain them as parks open to the public with reasonable fees should they elect to charge for entry, camping, etc., and that they have the financial means to maintain them indefinitely.
INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY AND CIVIL RIGHTS
- Equal rights and equal treatment under the law for all citizens, including homosexual, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals in relation to marriage, adoption, government employment, serving in the military, and immigration.
- The prohibition of government-imposed involuntary servitude in the form of military conscription; mandatory national civilian service, registration for such servitude, and jury duty.
- The abolition of all "vice" and victimless crime laws, including those that prohibit gambling, adult prostitution, adult pornography, and the production, distribution, sale, purchase, and consumption of "illicit" and recreational drugs on the part of adults.
(The only government "war on drugs" campaigns that are effective are those in nations that execute drug dealers and drug addicts, or sentence illicit drug consumers to an excessive number of years in prison).
- The right of an adult to purchase any medication without a prescription, although we are unopposed to a prescription requirement for antibiotics, being that not taking the correct antibiotic for a particular type of infection can eventually result collectively in antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. Qualified pharmacists in addition to physicians, dentists, and podiatrists should be legally permitted to prescribe antibiotics for human consumption.
Persons convicted in a court of law for violating such prohibitions are due a government pardon when such acts become legal.
SUICIDE
- The legal right of an individual to take his or her own life without harming others or tresspass, which includes the right of a patient suffering from a terminal, non-curable medical condition to elect medical suicide that is legally assisted by a qualified medical professional.
- The right of an individual of sound mind to pre-elect by way of a legal document, medical assisted suicide in the event that he or she becomes permanently, mentally vegetative or comatose.
- The right of the most legal next of kin of sound mind to have the option of having the proper medical personnel discontinue the assisted or artificial life support of a relative in a permanent mental vegetative or comatose state; i.e., unless the relative pre-stated in a legal document that assisted or artificial life support is not to be discontinued under such medical circumstances.
Medical professionals convicted in a court of law for said form of assisted suicide are due a government pardon when such an act becomes legal.
ABORTION
- No state or government restrictions on or prohibitions against abortion.
From a biological and scientific standpoint, a fetus in the womb of a woman is a pre-human. Prior to the third trimester, a pre-human fetus cannot survive outside the womb without artificial life support, and fetal brain activity does not fully develop until about the seventh month. The assertion by most anti-abortion people that the destruction of an embryo or the abortion of a fetus constitutes the murder of a human being is based on a non-scientific theological belief that has no place in secular law. Most physicians, including OB/GYNs that perform abortions, elect not to perform them after the second trimester unless a pregnancy during that stage presents a serious health risk to the woman.
Liberaltarianism further opposes zoning ordinances on the part of state and local governments designed to zone away abortion clinics.
AGE OF CONSENT LAWS
- A universal age of suffrage no higher than 18 and no lower than 16.
- A universal age for the legal purchase and consumption of alcohol and tobacco no higher than 18 and no lower than 16, although it should be legal for persons under the age of 16 to consume in moderation beverages low in alcohol volume such as wine for religious or dining purposes in non-commercial establishments with parental or guardian consent.
- A universal legal age of sexual consent no higher than 15 and no lower than 13.
Persons convicted in a court of law for "contributing to the delinquency" or "corruption of a minor", or "lewd conduct with a minor", or "statutory rape" (consensual sex with an adolescent) are due a government pardon in cases where the age of majority for such acts is lowered and the then consenting but under age "victim" would have no longer been under age and thus not a victim in the first place.
The only sexual activities that should legally qualify as a "sex crime" and warrant registration as a "sex offender" are forcible rape, and sexual solicitation, sexual fondling, and vaginal, oral, and anal intercourse on the part of an adult or adolescent with a person under the age of 13, even if it is consensual on the part of the child.
Liberaltarianism is unopposed to local, state, and federal governments legalizing nudity in public such as the city of San Francisco, California had. Urinating in public for the purpose of bladder relief should not be considered a sexual offense, nor consensual "sexting," which is the non-commercial electronic uploading, downloading, and transmission of nude or pornographic images by way of internet cell phone service.
Liberaltarianism is not opposed to the prohibition of the production of photographs and videos depicting children under the age of 13 for the purpose of sexual arousal and gratification, and in particular such images of children engaged in sexual activity or being subjected to physical and sexual abuse.
However, we are opposed to the legal prohibition of just viewing such material online or the presence of it on the computer hard drive of a non-producer of such erotica, being that there have been documented cases of computer hackers downloading such material onto the hard drives of innocent persons without their knowledge or consent who have in turn been arrested and charged with the downloading and possession of child pornography after it being discovered by a computer repair technician, etc. There have also been cases of people utilizing the WiFi signals of neighbors for such a purpose without the neighbor's knowledge or consent.
INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE AND TRAVEL
- Low government tariffs, international free trade agreements, and the right of private individuals, organizations, and businesses to travel, conduct business, and trade anywhere abroad without permission from their government first. For U.S. citizens, that includes travel to Cuba and North Korea, and an end to U.S. trade embargos against nations it is not at war with. The national government(s) of which an individual is a citizen should have no control or jurisdiction over the citizen's travel and activities abroad. To do otherwise is a violation of the sovereignty of the individual and a lack of regard for the sovereignty of other nations.
FOREIGN POLICY AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
The proper role of a nation's government and military is to secure the rights of it's citizens--not to police or right the wrongs of the world. Therefore, liberaltarianism advocates:
- A peaceful, neutral, non-interventionist foreign policy like the model foreign policy Switzerland has, with no governmental initiation of force or aggression abroad politically, militarily, or by way of covert operations. Or as the third president of the United States Thomas Jefferson stated in his First Inaugural Address over two hundred years ago: "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations--entangling alliances with none."
- A national defense apparatus confined to domestic territory and neutral waters during peacetime, and just large enough to defend the nation in proportion to its geographical size and population.
- A military policy of bravery as a prerequisite for serving in the armed forces, which includes the absence of institutionalized discrimination or cowardice such as racially segregated troops, homophobia and transphobia. Those that are too emotionally uncomfortable to serve along side military personnel of a different race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation are unfit for military duty.
IMMIGRATION
- Liberal immigration policies in any "nation of immigrants" where the majority population is not indigenous to the nation state that the nation occupies territorially. In America, unrestricted migration for Amerindian-blooded individuals from neighboring nations that do not pose a health or other harmful threat to the well-being of the citizens of the nation they desire to migrate to.
Using the United States as a further example, an American employer does not owe any American citizen a living. That employer should have the legal right to import foreign labor for any reason in lieu of hiring a citizen of his or her own country. For example, if an employer wants to hire ten Mexican citizens on an immigration waiting list to fill ten positions in his or her company, he or she should have that right. Such a market economy immigration policy would greatly reduce the "illegal immigration problem". Liberaltarians in America also favor the right of U.S., Mexican, and Canadian citizens to live and work in one another's countries with the same ease as citizens of European Union member nations can within the E.U.
INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGNTY
Liberaltarianism advocates the option of autonomy-to-independent statehood (actual maximum sovereignty) for indigenous/aboriginal communities and reservations with tribal governments, including the optional right of individual citizens and future generations of such indigenous states to retain (dual) citizenship with the greater "immigrant settler nation" or non-tribal nation state that dominates their continent, island, or original indigenous territorial region.
Immigrant settler and non-tribal nation states should otherwise not be obligated to provide subsidies or restitution to such former autonomous satellite colonies or formed confederations of indigenous tribal states unless such financial arrangements are included in a new treaty between the two.
ANIMAL RIGHTS
Liberaltarianism supports the prohibition against cruelty to animals in the form of domestic and commercial neglect and torture, including prolonged substandard confinement, painful laboratory experimentation, and betting and entertainment blood sports such as Spanish-style bullfighting and bull runs, cockfighting, and dogfighting. Liberaltarianism also does not condone the use of animals for human entertainment in circuses, aquatic parks, etc.
Liberaltarianism believes that humans should only kill animals, birds, and aquatic creatures for practical purposes, and as swiftly and painlessly as possible.
Liberaltarianism believes that humans should only kill animals, birds, and aquatic creatures for practical purposes, and as swiftly and painlessly as possible.
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Most libertarians and liberaltarians do not accept the belief that industrial and internal combustion engine-produced carbon emissions are primarily responsible for the major climate changes that have taken place in various parts of the globe in recent decades. Planet Earth has gone through many cycles of ice ages and warm tropical climate ages over millions of years long before artificial carbon emissions existed. Based on scientific evidence so far, global warming and global cooling appear to be primarily the result of changes in solar activity. The mechanical rovers sent to the planet Mars have detected an increase in temperature on that planet, and artificial satellites sent up into outer space have detected an increase in solar activity and temperature within our solar system.
Liberaltarianism is not opposed to domestic and international environmental laws designed to deter, prevent, and punish excessive exploitation or damage of natural resources and wildlife, particularly those that we depend on for survival, such as but not limited to air and water. Offshore oil drilling should be conducted with the utmost technological safeguards and be routinely inspected by governmental experts in oil rig safety and technology.
Liberaltarianism is not opposed to the sale of government-owned parks to private conservation organizations or ceding them over to indigenous tribal governments, providing that they contractually agree to maintain them as parks open to the public with reasonable fees should they elect to charge for entry, camping, etc., and that they have the financial means to maintain them indefinitely.
