Roger Gary
Roger Gary is a Libertarian activist from the state of Texas. Formerly an elected official in San Antonio, he also is a lifetime member of the Texas Libertarian Party.
You might be asking yourself (as I was wondering), what is a Libertarian? What do they stand for? In a nutshell, freedom. The dictionary defines a Libertarian as:
noun
2.
a person who maintains the doctrine of free will.
Therefore, a Libertarian believes that people should be free to do as they see fit, without government interference. This is essentially the basis of the Republican Party's ideals - from which the party has recently strayed; less government, smaller government, freer citizens.
Personally, I love the idea of less government interference. However, there comes a time when the government does need to step in and push the people toward more rational decisions, such as getting the economy back on track. I think we all would agree that people often do not want to do what is best for them in the long-term (like exercising!), and sometimes the citizens with more experience need to step in and show everyone what the best choice is.
On his campaign website, Gary spares no harsh words when describing his fellow Texan, Rick Perry, saying that Perry is "all hat and no cattle". Gary also states that the Republican nominees are not courageous enough to give Americans the freedom they deserve; they are too soft to get the job done.
As for his position on various issues, I'll let Gary's own campaign website speak for itself.
Civil Liberties
Abortion- Government should not make your medical decisions for you — but neither should it force you to subsidize someone else’s abortion.
Gay Marriage-Marriage should be a contact between individuals, not a stamp of approval from the government. As with other issues, the solution is not more government, but less.
Gun Rights-There is a natural, inherent Right to keep and bear arms, protected not only by the 2nd Amendment, but also by the 9th and 10th (and arguably the 4th). This Right is also a practical necessity: Americans must be able to protect themselves against violence by criminals, including terrorists, as well as would-be tyrants (whether foreign or domestic).
Patriot Act-Under both the Bush and Obama administrations, the federal government has frequently trampled on the Rights of the American citizens under the guise of protecting Americans from terrorism. We must stop molesting people at the airport, listening in on your private phone conversations, and reading your library check-out records, and start protecting Americans from actual terrorism. Roger Gary will respect the 4th and 10th Amendments.
Economics
Bailouts- As with virtually every interference by government (at whatever level), the bailouts benefited Big Business at the expense of smaller companies, Labor, consumers, and the taxpayer. Roger Gary opposes corporate welfare.
Business- Government should not become “smotherment” by creating unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy. “Smotherment” benefits the huge corporations which can afford the additional expense created by such polices, forcing smaller businesses out of the marketplace. This drives prices up by reducing the competition for our business, and drives wages down by reducing the competition for our labor.
National Debt-The Federal debt is quickly spiraling out of control and the time we have remaining to do something about it is running short. Unlike the Obama and Bush administrations and the Democrats and Republicans in Congress we need to actually start cutting government, balance the budget, and start paying down the national debt and unfunded liabilities. If we keep adding to the debt, eventually the interest alone will overwhelm the Federal budget. That would require one or more of these options: (1) Raising taxes, which would further damage the private sector; (2) Sale of Federal goods or lands [and an attempt to sell a significant amount of land would drive the price lower, negating the effort]; (3) Further borrowing, which would raise interest rates and damage the private sector; or (4) Printing enough currency to cover the shortfall, thus producing absolutely ruinous inflation.
Retirement-Americans should be encouraged to take their hard earned money and place it in deferred tax accounts such as IRA’s and 401k plans instead of being forced to pay 6.2% of their money into the failed Social Security administration which is on the verge of collapse.
Taxes-The government must cut waste, fraud, and abuse; more importantly, it must end its activities not sanctioned by the U. S. Constitution. This would allow Congress to immediately begin to lower taxes for all Americans.
Education
The best way to educate children is to allow each state to use the food stamps model. Most state governments have decided that food stamps are a public benefit that the state should provide while you may agree or disagree with this notion, you should agree that the state governments allowing food stamp recipients to shop at private sector grocery stores is a much better solution than having the government actually take over the distribution of the food.
Education is similar. Parents should be allowed to open enroll their child into the school of their choice. The market effects of competition will drive down cost while increasing quality meaning everyone wins.
Health Care
It is truly amazing that diseases that would have killed a person just a few decades ago can be cured or prevented with little problem today. While our life expectancy and quality of health care has increased exponentially, the costs have also caused some to become concerned. The problem of rising health care costs is best solved by reducing cost transfers, opening up the market to competition, removing government red tape which drives up costs, and a focus on health savings accounts to help offset the costs.
National Security
Roger Gary believes in a strong national defense as defined in our United States Constitution, as opposed to an international offence.
Afghanistan-After a decade of American intervention, Roger supports a transition allowing the people of Afghanistan to take control over their own government and their own security.
Afghanistan-After a decade of American intervention, Roger supports a transition allowing the people of Afghanistan to take control over their own government and their own security.
Iraq-Roger believes in removing our forces from the country.
Libya-American government aid has brought us violent dictators such as Saddam Hussein and oppressive theocratic governments such as the Taliban. Roger Gary believes that by using American forces in Libya we run a much greater risk of terrorism. Additionally, he understands that the cost of American lives intervening in a fight that is not ours is too great of a risk to take.
When it comes to Roger Gary, the only question we can really ask ourselves as voters is: do we really want this much freedom? With ultimate freedom, especially for the issue of education, income determines who gets the best schools and who doesn't. Is that fair? Should we allow low income children to suffer poor education just because we, as adults, demand complete freedom of choice?
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