The State of the Union: A Libertarian Response

http://kubby2008.com/

My fellow Americans,

Earlier this evening, America listened as President George W. Bush
addressed a joint session of Congress, fulfilling his Constitutional
duty to report annually to Congress on “the state of the union.”
Shortly thereafter, Virginia Senator Jim Webb delivered the
Democratic Party’s response to his report.

I am not privileged to address you tonight over broadcast televison
or radio; my party’s opinions are considered unworthy of coverage by
the “mainstream media.” A response, however, is required, and I
accept the responsibility for making it as an American, a
presidential candidate, and hopefully a worthy, although not
official, representative of my party.

The union, President Bush tells us, is strong. And he may be right.
What he does not admit is that the union is weaker now than when he
took office.

As evidence for his claim of national strength, he cites an economy
which thrives in spite of, not because of, the ministrations of his
government … and proposes additional “help” of the type that
weakens rather than strengthens it.

As proof of the bright future before us and the care which we take to
leave our children a better world, he points to his “No Child Left
Behind Act” — an act which props up a disintegrating public
education system with more of the federal interference that, until
only a few short years ago, his party had pledged to eliminate at the
first opportunity.

Addressing himself to the question of national defense, he defends to
the very last his failed experiments in foreign military adventurism
which have stretched America’s armed forces to the breaking point,
alienated our friends, empowered our enemies, and left us less, not
more, secure against attack or invasion.

Turning to issues of energy independence and environmental sanity, he
recommends more subsidies and more regulation, rather than smaller
government and more innovation.

Like President Bush, I believe that the union is strong. Unlike
President Bush, I and my fellow Libertarians understand what makes
America strong.

We understand that every dollar in taxes taken out of your paycheck
makes America weaker, and that every dollar left in your pocket makes
America stronger.

We understand that Washington’s one-size-fits-all programs for public
education make America weaker, and that parental control and
individual choice in education make America stronger.

We understand that “bring’em on” and “mission accomplished” and
“surge” make America weaker, and that a foreign policy based on
“friendship and commerce with all nations, entangling alliances with
none” makes America stronger.

We understand that government subsidies to Big Oil and Big
Agriculture make America weaker, that unsubsidized competition makes
America stronger — and that only the innovation fostered by a truly
free market will allow us to meet the challenges of pollution,
climate change and future fossil fuel scarcity.

The union is strong — not because of the efforts George W. Bush and
his fellow politicians, but in spite of them. And in their clutches,
America can only continue to become weaker … because the strength
of our union, my fellow Americans, is freedom.

The notion that government exists only for the purpose of securing
our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, bequeathed
us by our nation’s founders, is the foundation upon which every
worthwhile American accomplishment rests. The Bush adminstration, the
Congress, and their predecessors in the White House and on Capitol
Hill, have gone at that foundation with a sledgehammer.

The cracks they’ve produced in that foundation are visible all around
us. The Patriot Act. The Military Commissions Act. Warrantless
searches and wiretaps. No-knock raids. Detention without charge,
counsel or trial. As a nation, we now imprison more of our own than
any other. One in thirty of us are trapped in a “justice” system that
has long since ceased to represent justice. The rest of us are
subject to reams of arbitrary and capricious edicts concerning what
we may say, how we may worship, which political candidates we may
support (and how much we do so financially), what arms we may carry
in our own defense, what medicines we may use, even whether or not we
can play cards on the Internet.

America as we know it — everything in it worthy of our devotion and
allegiance — stands at the edge of cliff, below which the darkness
of totalitarianism awaits. Whether or not our union is strong enough
to step backward from the precipice is a question only time will answer.

Over the next two years, I’ll watch with you as the new Democratic
Congress wrestles with the problem of restoring freedoms that a
corrupt and lawless administration has robbed us of. If history is
any guide, the Democrats will choose instead to go to work with their
own sledgehammers.

In the meantime, I urge you to join with me in support of America’s
last, best hope for a better tomorrow: The Libertarian Party. Even as
we speak, hundreds of Libertarians toil in elected and appointed
office or as volunteer party activists, working to protect your
freedom. With your help, we can elect thousands of new local
officials, hundreds of state legislators, dozens of US
Representatives and Senators and, yes, a President, who understand
what makes America strong and are prepared to act on that understanding.

Let freedom grow!
Steve Kubby
Libertarian for President

About these ads