Category Archives: Libertarian

I had the pleasure of hosting British financier James Arnold at our presidential Inauguration. Mr. Arnold, a keen observer of American politics, has been rightly concerned for the last several years about the chill in our two nation's Special Relationship.

After enjoying the inauguration and our nation's peaceful transfer of power, we attempted to make our way to a parade viewing party on Pennsylvania Avenue. What should have been a painless trip across town quickly became a prime example of how unhinged the far left has become. Along the way we witnessed smashed cars, broken windows, a fire, and were called names and threatened simply because of how we were dressed; so much for tolerance and acceptance.

After arriving at the parade, we had the pleasure of running into former Massachusetts Republican Governor William Weld. Governor Weld, much like current Governor Charlie Baker, was extremely effective and amazingly popular in deep blue Massachusetts. However, Governor Weld is best know today as the well-informed half of the Johnson-Weld presidential ticket. He was the one who actually knew what Aleppo was.

In our conversation, Governor Weld brought up a fascinating point, a point that has been largely overlooked in the reams of post election analysis. Governor Weld said that Johnson-Weld internal polling showed that 75 percent of their voters would have voted for Donald Trump had they not been in the race. The Libertarian ticket received nearly 4.5 million total votes in the election. It makes logical sense that three fourths of these voters, drawn to a ticket of former, successful two-term Republican Governors, would be more attracted to limited government advocates promising change from the last eight years. In addition, they saw absolutely no appetite amongst their limited government voters to support the Clinton-Kaine ticket.

In short, if the Johnson-Weld ticket had not run, Donald Trump would have won the popular vote. Given the Green Party's anemic showing and its great reluctance to support Hillary Clinton under any circumstance, it is very likely Donald Trump would have still won the popular vote even if the Green Party failed to field a candidate. In addition, Mr. Trump would have rolled up an even larger Electoral College margin, as the additional votes would have likely flipped New Hampshire, Maine, and Minnesota to his column.

No one can describe Governor Weld as an apologist for Mr. Trump. Just as no one can question Weld's political acumen and integrity. Mr. Arnold and I walked away impressed that the good governor had made an extremely strong case for his argument and that we had just been told an unreported gem from the 2016 election.

These will be difficult facts to grapple with for people whose solution to losing an election is to riot and to attempt to intimidate. Given the events of the last couple weeks, I suspect there will be more ridiculous hats, vulgar signs, and vandalism. Undoubtedly, swing voters and Blue Collar Democrats (Joe Biden Democrats) who gave President Trump their vote this election were disgusted by the far left's childish tantrum. If this continues, it is likely that an even larger cross-section of American voters will be willing to put the Democratic Party in another four-year "timeout" come 2020.

Tom Ross is a former chairman of the Delaware State Republican Party.

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I have had to undergo a great deal of rethinking on all of this this year [now] I want to shut down low-skill immigration for a while, Charles Murray told a D.C. event hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies.

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The thing that has gotten to me over this year has been the very simple idea that the citizens of a nation owe something to each other that is over and above our general obligation to other human beings outside the United States, Murray said Sept. 26.

A temporary end to low-skill immigration will allow a national test of various proposals to help the many Americans at the bottom end of the economic scale, Murray said. For example, amid high immigration, several million Americans prime age employable men are not even trying to work, at great long-term cost to themselves and society.

Once low-skilled immigration is ended, society may react in favorable directions to help lower-end Americans workers, he said. For example, the girlfriends of young men will be better able to prod their boyfriends into taking low-skill, low-paid jobs if their employers cant hire illegals, Murray said.

But Murray says he only wants a temporary moratorium on low-skill immigration in case the new policy proves counterproductive. I want to shut if down for a while because it may not work [currently] we will have no good way of knowing how employers will respond until the spigot is cut off, he said.

Murray is one of the most influential libertarian and conservative intellectuals in Washington D.C. His work helped create momentum for welfare reform in the 1990s, and hes now focusing attention on the widening gap between poor and wealthy Americans His 2012 book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, has publicized the declining situation of low-skilled white workers.

American has been exceptional because Americans dont want to see their society divided by social and economic classes, Murray said Monday. The term American Exceptionalism came from Europeans visiting in 1800s [who saw that Americans] all wanting to see themselves as part of the same class, he said.

We need to reconstruct an American society in which people are part of one brotherhood, sisterhood, he said. In the recent past, the U.S. did have a sense of egalitarian equality, he said. It was never perfect, but but God, we did get a lot closer than any other society, he said, adding I want in to live in [that] America.

Murrays call for a halt to low-skill immigration comes as a prestigious think-tank in D.C. admitted that each low-skill migrant costs taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Immigrants alsoshift roughly $500 billion wages from white-collar and blue-collar Americans to employers and investors, according to the Sept. 22 report issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

Each year, four million Americans turn 18 and begin looking for jobs. But the federal government also imports roughly 2 million foreign workers, including legal and illegal immigrants, refugees, temporary guest-workers and asylum seekers. More than 50 percent of the annual inflow of workers are lower-skilled.

Restrictions on low-skill immigration is an idea whose time has come, and will be recognized by ambitious Democratic and Republican politicians, he said. There is a sea-change in the [nations] mood, he said.

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Libertarian Author Charles Murray Calls for Pause in Low ...

By Zach Foster

A libertarian brother from the Mises Cuba Institute notified me shortly after two Cuban libertarian activists were arrested by State Security officersthe political secret police. Mises Cuba, Mises USA, and the PanAm Post all confirmed that Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez and Manuel Velasquez Visea were both arrested in the last week. Other members of Mises Cuba were also threatened with arrest by the political police.

The two men were arrested together. Reportedly, they were approached by several plain-clothes undercover secret policemen. The secret policemen harassed the two men and arrested the activists when they refused to show ID to non-uniformed officers. Herrera and Velasques are still detained.

The American Mises Institute commented: At a time when interest in the works of Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian School is growing in developing nations, this arrest is a solemn reminder of the incredible courage of those spreading ideas in countries where governments routinely crack down on political opposition.

Responding to a request for comment,Libertarian Party of Nevada Chairman Jason Smith and Vice Chairman David Colborne both expressed shock at the arrest and they condemn the Cuban government for this abuse against civil liberties and basic human rights. This morning, LP Nevada released a press release in English and in Spanishofficially protesting the arrest and indefinite detention of Herrera and Velasquez and demanding their immediate safe release.

Since the War on Terror heated up, libertarians have been fighting and campaigning against indefinite detention. The liberty movement in 2012 vehemently opposed the National Defense Authorization Act specifically for the indefinite detention clause. This same fate is exactly what the Cuban libertarian activists are facing now.

Libertarians everywhere should join in denouncing the unjust actions of the Cuban regime and demand that the two political prisoners be released immediately. Cuban goods should be boycotted. People from around the world need to be putting pressure on their own governments to put political pressure on Cuba, while themselves putting economic pressure on Cuba.

This is a time when we libertarians need to stand in solidarity with Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez and Manuel Velasquez Visea. What happened to these men in Cuba can still happen in the United States, especially with a presidential cabinet stacked with authoritarians like Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions. Rounding out the authoritarian curve is President Trump and his love for executive orders.

We the People need to keep protesting and pressuring our own government to respect our civil liberties, but that doesnt mean we cant scream and shout when it happens in places like Cuba. After all, while Americans fear their government arbitrarily jailing political opponents, it actually happens in Cuba. Driving it closer to home, these men are libertarian activists. They were thrown in jail for exactly the type of nonviolent education and discussion that people reading this have done countless times without even a second thought.

The jailed Cuban libertarian activists are political prisoners and State Security is holding themwithout a trial. This is antithetical to freedom. It would be the same whether the Cuban regime jailed Cuban libertarian activists or whether a right-wing regime jailed socialist labor union organizers. There are some things a human being just doesnt have the right to do to another human being.

There can be no justice in Cuba until the two Cuban libertarian activists are released safe and sound. We can only hope State Security hasnt brutalized them the way theyve brutalized countless of the nameless Cuban peasants unlucky enough to be suspected of crimes against the state. Whats worse is how authoritarian governments like the Cuban regime usually accuse political dissidents not of crimes against the state, but against the people.

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Cuban Libertarian Activists Arrested By State Police - The Libertarian Republic

The only difference between the Democratic and Republican parties, according to a local political activist, is that each promotes a different brand of diet soda.

Some of us want to drink ice water, said Bryan Jack Holder of Council Bluffs.

Thats why he joined the Iowa Libertarian Party, which is expected to earn political party status in the state in a few weeks.

Ive been following politics most of my adult life, and there are many like myself that dont fit in with either of the major political parties, said Holder, who ran for the U.S. House last year as a Libertarian. Some of us dont like to be put in a box.

More and more people seem to be in agreement as membership in the party has skyrocketed in just five years, according to Council Bluffs resident Jake Porter, the partys newly named executive director.

Currently, the number of Libertarian registered voters in Iowa is approaching 10,000, compared to less than 2,000 in 2012, Porter said. According to the Iowa Secretary of States office, 9,035 active voters are registered as Libertarians.

These people are seeking maximum freedom, which is what the party stands for, Porter said.

Its the ability to live your life as you choose as long as you are not harming anyone else, he said. We support fewer taxes, fewer regulations on smaller businesses and more personal freedom. The nature of government is to take away freedom. The Libertarian Party is trying to get some of those freedoms back.

Holder, who said hes not surprised by the partys growth, had similar views.

I dont think government should be in our bedrooms, bank accounts, our gun safes or in our communications, he said.

Last year, more Libertarians ran for political office than ever before, according to Porter.

One of those who ran was Gary Johnson, the partys presidential candidate. Johnson received 3.8 percent of the total presidential vote in Iowa, slightly more than the 3.3 percent he received nationally.

Because of this performance, the Libertarian Party earned political party status, which occurs when a partys presidential candidate receives more than 2 percent of the vote in Iowa. The necessary paperwork to obtain this status has been filed with the Iowa Secretary of States office and should become official around March 1, Porter said.

I dont see any issues with it, he said of the paperwork.

Political party status is a legal definition established by Iowa Code that allows the party certain privileges, including the ability to participate in primary elections. With party status, Iowa Libertarians will be able to vote for Libertarian candidates in the 2018 primaries.

Holding primary elections has its advantages, said Keith Laube, chairman of the Iowa Libertarian Party.

Having our candidates be part of the primary election will allow voters to become familiar with our candidates earlier in the election season, Laube said through his office. Our candidates will know they are on the November ballot in early June rather than late August.

This will help organize stronger campaigns and provide voters more opportunity to understand Libertarian views. Having more candidates share their ideas by being involved in the entire election cycle is good for Iowa.

Holder said he plans to run again for Congress next year. Porter also didnt rule out party candidates running in this years Council Bluffs City Council election, which is a nonpartisan race.

Having political party status also adds more credibility when these candidates seek a place in political debates, Porter said, adding there should be no shortage of party candidates in the 2018 election.

We think we will have at least 50 candidates for county, the state Legislature, the governors race and for Congress, he said.

Group plans for expanded candidate slate in 2018 after seeing growth in registration numbers

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Libertarians set to become official political party in Iowa - The Daily Nonpareil

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Shikha Dalmia (left) with StephenHenderson(right)

Republicans in Washington D.C. see their first real opportunity to accomplish one of the GOPs top goals for the better part of a decade to get rid of the federal health care law.

But people who hoped this would accomplished swiftly after the inauguration of Republican President Donald Trump are likely to be disappointed, to say the least. The question of how to replace the law will be tricky, and maybe impossible to answer in the coming weeks or months. Republicans are already backing away from their public pledges to quickly repeal and replaceObamacare.

Since the beginning of the year, Detroit Today host Stephen Henderson has been speaking with guests on a weekly basis who see specific issues or politics in general differently than hedoes.

This week, he debates the past, present, and future of healthcare with Shikha Dalmia, senior analyst at the Reason Foundation and a writer for Reason Magazine.

Obamacare took an irrational system and made it even more irrational, says Dalmia, who identifies as a political Libertarian. But, she says, Republicans have all kinds of plans, none of which they can actually put in place, if it will mean throwing a whole bunch of people off of theseexchanges.

Click on the audio player above to hear the fullconversation.

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Stephen Henderson and Libertarian Shikha Dalmia Debate Future of Healthcare - WDET

The Peoples Bank of China has decided to wait two to three years before regulating bitcoin following their meeting with major bitcoin exchanges within the country.

After a widely-reported meeting of which the contents remained mostly a mystery the Peoples Bank of China met with BTCC (Bitcoin China), OkCoin, and Huobi. The main takeaway from this meeting was that the PBOC urged the three bitcoin exchanges to undergoand maintain self-examination in terms of monitoring bitcoin price changes.

Money laundering was the only topic mentioned publicly before the meeting took place. Bloomberg reports that regulators were concerned about money laundering and how widelybitcoin is being used as a safeguardagainst the depreciating Yuan.

The potential of bitcoin regulation in two to three years by the PBOC could have a devastating impact on the values of bitcoin, as a large portion of bitcoin is mined in China. Bitcoin has miraculously evaded government regulation by any country around the globe thus far.

According to Bloomberg, BTTC has also halted the withdrawal of bitcoin for 72 hours by way of a necessary review period, while OkCoin and Huobi suspended them both completely for 72 hours.

In reaction to the news of regulatory talks and withdrawal suspensions, bitcoin price fell 7%.

Smaller bitcoin trading outlets in China have all imposed trading fees as a result of the meeting, according to CoinDesk.BTC Trade, BTC100,CHBTC, Dahonghuo,Yuanbao and BitBaysall took part in this implementation. Yuanbao and BitBays both cited regulatory concerns when justifying the trading fees, while BTC Trade stated that it did so in order to curb speculation [and] to prevent price speculation.

Not only does government announcement of likely future regulation hurt business in general, but closed-door meetings and public discussion of the possibility of regulations taking place has been particularly devastating for the price of bitcoin.

Photo Credit: ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images

This post was written by Nicholas Amato.

The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.

Nicholas Amato is the News Editor at Being Libertarian. Hes an undergraduate student at San Jose State University, majoring in political science and minoring in journalism.

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BTCC Chief: 2-3 Years Before China Regulates Bitcoin - Being Libertarian

A third day of Medicaid hearings that drew crowds to the Legislature this week saw opponents of expanding the program warn of potential harm to state finances and citizens health care choices.

A senior fellow from the Washington, D.C.-based Cato Institute, the vice president of the Kansas Policy Institute and the head of Kansas health department were among those who cautioned against seeing Medicaid expansion as a panacea for health care problems or said growing the program in other states had led to negative, often unanticipated effects.

Weve heard testimony that Medicaid expansion would be budget neutral, said health secretary Susan Mosier. Theres no cost-benefit to the state. In fact, theres additional cost.

KDHE health secretary Susan Mosier speaks Thursday.

She and five others who addressed the panel faced questions from lawmakers who sounded skeptical, seeking details about or openly challenging the sources and methodology of the studies and figures they cited.

Kansas is one of 19 states that havent expanded Medicaid coverage. Expansion was one of the tools included in the Affordable Care Act. The bill before the House health committee would offer Medicaid to more low-income Kansans.

Opponents and proponents are unable to agree on fundamental implications of the program, from what it would cost to whether it would benefit the economy, improve health care and shore up financially struggling hospitals.

Gov. Sam Brownback says the plan would be bad for Kansas with a price tag of more than $100 million over the next two years alone, among other disadvantages.

Proponents, meanwhile, tout a variety of savings and question the states calculations. At least one lawmaker, Susan Concannon, R-Beloit, sought further clarification of the states cost estimates and whether it had accurately factored in anticipated savings to the state. Health department officials said they would send lawmakers detailed figures.

The Kansas Hospital Association is raising similar concerns, saying assumptions the state published for the bill appear to lead to a conclusion of about $78.5 million for two years instead of about $111 million. Additionally, the association believes increased revenue from HMOs in conjunction with expansion would lead to an overall state savings.

Proponents testified Wednesday, with a few hundred turning out for a rally and hearing and the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas advocacy group providing lawmakers binders full of supportive statements from physicians, residents, cities and chambers of commerce across the state.

Thursdays opposition testimony included warnings that Kansas could end up with far more people on Medicaid than expected including people who are already eligible for Medicaid but arent enrolled.

It tends to be that as you expand the program, said Michael Tanner, of the free-market think tank Cato, because of the outreach thats going on with the expansion, as well as the associated publicity of it, that these people who are eligible but not enrolled today, enroll.

Michael Tanner, of think tank Cato, speaks Thursday.

Gregg Pfister, of the Florida-based Foundation for Government Accountability, said the expansion would extend coverage to able-bodied adults for whom there is an easy solution jobs.

This is not assistance for someones elderly grandmother whos struggling to live. This money doesnt go toward the developmentally or physically disabled, he said. These adults dont have disabilities. Most of them are without children and dont work a full-time, year-round job.

Greg Pfister, of Foundation for Government Accountability, speaks Thursday.

Opponents of expanding Medicaid also questioned the stability of federal aid for Medicaid expansion and noted the uncertain future of the ACA, which President Donald Trump has indicated he will do away with.

Theres no reason to expect that the federal government will continue to keep its funding promise in perpetuity, said Melissa Fausz, a Virginia-based policy analyst for Americans for Prosperity. Theres plenty of precedent for the federal government failing to live up to the funding promises made to the state.

Melissa Fausz, of Americans for Prosperity, speaks Thursday.

Fausz admonished against seeing money from D.C. as simply tax dollars that rightfully belong to Kansas, calling it instead federal deficit spending.

Opponents have also expressed concern that Medicaid expansion would lead to worse health care access for people with disabilities, who would find themselves vying for services amid an influx of new enrollees.

Brownback warned this week that expansion moves able-bodied adults to the front of the line, ahead of truly vulnerable Kansans.

Mike Oxford, executive director of policy at Topeka Independent Living, rejected that assessment and cautioned against labeling people with disabilities as vulnerable.

I just dont see the issue affecting access to services or the amount of services, he said, arguing that those problems already exist and stem from other factors.

The Disability Rights Center of Kansas also supports Medicaid expansion. It argues that many Kansans with disabilities are uninsured and currently ineligible for Medicaid. It also says personal care attendants could gain coverage, making it easier to recruit employees to a workforce with a shortage.

Originally posted here:

Libertarian think tanks, Kansas health secretary testify against expanding Medicaid - Topeka Capital Journal

Its a big day for libertarian history in New Hampshire and nationwide. For the first time in two decades, the Libertarian Party of NH (LPNH) has a sitting state representative in the legislature who is just beginning his first term in office. Caleb Dyer, state representative for Hudson and Pelham, announced today at a press conference in Concords Legislative Office Building that he has switched his voter registration from republican to libertarian and has also joined the state party as a dues-paying member. Dyer is a New Hampshire native who knocked on 2,000 doors in his district, Hillsborough 37, to win his election in November of 2016. Heres the press conference video from this morning:

The LPNH was basically dormant for years until late 2016 when superactivists Darryl W Perry and Rodger Paxton won election to chair and vice-chair of the party, respectively. Shortly thereafter the libertarian candidate for governor was able to get enough votes to propel the party into major party status in New Hampshire. Its the first time the LPNH has had that status in approximately twenty years, surely much to the chagrin of the republicans and democrats, who raised the vote requirement in the nineties specifically to disqualify the LP from major party status.

Libertarian State Representative Caleb Q Dyer

Explaining why he left the republicans, Dyer explained, I truly believe the best course of action is to organize outside of the party, and force coalition. He intends to rally hundreds of people across the state to submit themselves to their peers as libertarian candidates. He ended his speech by reading from Article Ten of the New Hampshire Constitution:

whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.

Who will be the next state rep to follow Dyers lead? Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest from the state house.

Dyer will be a featured speaker at the LPNHs convention on March 18th in Concord. Tickets are available now.

Continue reading here:

BREAKING: NH State Representative Joins Libertarian Party ... - Free Keene

Ancapistan is a Facebook group with a membership count which towers way past the landmark 20,000 number and into a haven for shitposting and memes. The group centres on the anarcho-capitalist ideology and gives the politically minded of us a chance to laugh at a number of jokes that have spawned from the ideology.

Anarcho-capitalism is essentially a belief which is founded on the theories of economists Hans-Herman Hoppe and Murray Rothbard which advocate the elimination of the state in favour of market-based solutions. Due to their support for the elimination of the state, and the somewhat clumsy way in which anarchists detail their solutions to crime, those from other sets of ideals pile in to this Facebook group to mock and ridicule anarcho-capitalists. This is primarily done through the use of a 90s clip-art smiley which is edited to display the ancap colours and is juxtaposed to a hyperbole scenario in which massive corporations such as McDonalds descend into hilarious warlord scenarios. The contrast of a meme featuring an innocent slice of the Internet wearing sunglasses becomes significantly darker when it is featured with text which elaborates on how child slaves would be bought and sold and trained to be soldiers.

The group itself has developed a cult status and amassed a few popular names such as The Rebel journalist and infamous provocateur Lauren Southern and the equally notorious Martin Shkreli.

So, with the dastardly devils of the online underbelly clinging on to a Facebook group, what can one expect? All of the usual suspects can be found lurking and posting in Ancapistan; communists, fascists, antifascists, socialists, other anarchists, the occasional feminist, a handful of minarchists, a sprinkling of the libertarian community and of course the anarcho-capitalists.

So, given that Pandoras black and yellow box has been subtly opened by Lauren Southern on her Facebook page, and has been unleashed through Stefan Molyneux, one can deduct that those in the mainstream libertarian and political culture are being inundated by ancap communities. The invitation to join anarcho-capitalism is further accentuated through their open mockery of themselves.

No one likes fun police.

So, it would only make sense that those that wish to abolish the police should learn to kick off their loafers* after a hard day at work* and practice the fine art of self-deprecation. *Editors note: communists should feel free to replace loafers with potato sacks tied around ankles and work with state sanctioned forced labour camps.

In an interview with the man behind the machinations, he disclosed to me the impact that humour has made in the growing spread of far-right libertarians and anarcho-capitalism.

The main admin (Madmin) refused to have his name disclosed, although he offered an insight into the concerns he has with anarcho-capitalism, and the ways in which it has prevented itself from being embraced by traditional libertarians.

You can see those who call themselves libertarian, such as Austin Petersen, mocked for even suggesting any involvement of the state in the lives of its citizens as well, with Petersen being booed at the LP conference for suggesting that heroin should not be sold to underage children. he explained. I wouldnt say that theres really an ancap cause so to speak, but we certainly have exposed some of the basic flaws in its ideology.

The other admins and myself find sympathy in libertarian ideals, but a complete removal of the state is, in my eyes, an idiotic move. It would result in the warlords and the hyperbolic situations that we joke about, albeit to a lesser extent, he added.

Madmins admirable administration to such a massive group is assisted by a number of other administrators that have all found the ability to gather in unity and have a laugh at the expense of those in favour of abolishing the state and letting the free market do its work.

Should you wish to join a cavalcade of jokes about unregulated nuclear weaponry, selling heroin to children, the legalisation of child slaves for prostitution or war, the following link will take you to the Facebook group: Ancapistan

I say without any hint of sarcasm that the anarchist movement has been greatly perpetuated by the humour of those involved and the determination to allow free speech to flow and critique their own ideals. By demonstrating that one can take a joke, a precedent is set for a libertarian future.

This post was written by David McManus.

The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.

David McManus has an extensive background in youth politics and of advocacy with regards to the libertarian and anarcho-capitalist movements. David draws his values from the works of Stirner, Hoppe and Rothbard. He is currently a student in Australia with a passion for writing, which carries into a healthy zest for liberty-based activism. Despite an aspiring career in politics, he considers himself a writer at heart with a steady niche for freelance work.

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Ancapistan - Being Libertarian

A local Libertarian Party leader supports a bill that would make it easier for third-party candidates to get on ballots.

The legislation would put independent and minor party candidates on a level playing field with Republicans and Democrats.

According to a Libertarian news release, the proposal seeks to bring fairness by making signature requirements more equal and setting the rules for becoming a political party on the same level as other Midwestern states.

The average percentage of votes required to become legally recognized in the United States is 2 percent, lower than Illinois' 5 percent. The bill would move the state's percentage to 2 percent.

In November's election, Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson received 1.3 percent of La Salle County's vote, while Green Party candidate Jill Stein got 1.1 percent.

Jenae Wise, chairwoman of the Illinois Valley Libertarian Party, said third parties are important in American politics.

"They are there to keep the two parties accountable," she said. "They come together as one to increase government more and more."

She said she spoke with state Rep. David Welter, R-Morris, who represents portions of eastern La Salle County. He became the second representative to sponsor it.

In a phone interview, Welter said he wants to improve ballot access.

"I run as a Republican and supports the party's ideals, but I hope that in the future we'll see more than the two major political parties," he said.

More here:

Local Libertarians back ballot access bill | Local | mywebtimes.com - MyWebTimes.com