I say Principle over Party.  I am what I would refer to as a Libertarian Conservative.  Here is a wikipedia article about Libertarian Conservatism.

Many do not understand what that means.  In the simplest sense, I am a fiscal and social conservative but I do not believe that the government should push anything down the throats of citizens.

We should very simply follow the founding document… the Constitution.  It is an excellent guide.

I will add to this in the future to explain more.  Here’s the Outline:

Government size

This is my biggest issue with government.  Most of my other beliefs stem from this one.  It is of ridiculous size.  Most of the founding fathers believed that the federal government should be of limited size so that it would also have limited power.  This would limit it’s ability to be tyrannical.  Small, limited government is obviously not where we are today!

State/Federal (Federalist argument)

I tend to believe that the government is best kept as local as possible (which in the 1700′s would have made me somewhat anti-Federalist).  That is also what many of the founding fathers believed.  The federal government would be limited and the power would be based in the individual states.  There were two huge things that began to undo this vision.

First, the Civil War, Lincoln asserted that the Confederate States did not have the right to cede from the nation.  In doing so the union was no longer the choice of the state but the power was vested federally.  To read more about this see the THE LINCOLN LEGACY—REVISITED… at the Patriot Post.

Second, the Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  This amendment changed the selection of Senators from the States to the people via popular election.  The original intent was that the People’s interest was served by one house (House of Representatives) and the State’s interest was served by the other (Senate).  In doing this, the federal government took away the power from the states and placed it at the federal level.

Foreign policy

Coming Soon…

Taxes/Spending

Our current code is a complete joke.  It is designed around giving bureaucrats the ability to squeeze out money without anyone knowing about it.  It is so confusing that no one really knows whether they are getting a tax cut or tax increase.

The time has come for a change like the FairTax (http://www.fairtax.org).  I am a true believer in the concept of a consumption tax.  I think that Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Paper #21 explained why the best: “It is a signal advantage of taxes on articles of consumption that they contain in their own nature a security against excess.”  The consumption tax has limitations built into it.  If you raise it too high people slow their spending, if you lower it people increase spending.  You can not control income taxes in the same way.  Too High?  Stop working??

Education

While I believe that education would be best left to the private sector, I will say that is probably not a realistic option in our current society.  Public education is ingrained.  So in this realm I am Pro-Choice.  I believe in the concept of Educational Choice for kids and their parents.  By introducing competition into the education “market” you will achieve better results and accountability.

Parents should be allowed to enroll their children in any school in the public system or should be allowed the option of vouchers or opting out of public school funding to fund private education.  By doing this, you provide a scenario where market forces can increase the accountability.

Benefits:

  • Increased accountability through market forces for schools
  • Competition for good teachers.  Teachers are rewarded for excellence instead of seniority.
  • Kids get best education available instead of just the only education available
  • etc.

See The Friedman Foundation for more information about this concept.

Military issues

There are two quotes from famous Presidents that define my military beliefs.

“Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.” - George Washington

“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” – Theodore Roosevelt

So basically I believe that we create and maintain the most powerful defensive military in the world.  It should act as a deterrent.  Then we should be very wary of alliances that will require our intervention.  Alliances such as the U.N. have caused many issues in the past.   We can keep friends but alliance pacts always require mutual defense (look at Kaiser Wilhelm in WWI).  All of our alliances and meddling since WWII have caused many issues that we now are cleaning up.

The United States should never act as the world’s police force.

War should always be a last resort BUT should never be taken off of the table.  When we fight, fight to win.  Leave battle to soldiers and military commanders not politicians.

Firearms/Guns

Again, I believe that the Constitution is pretty clear.

…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

I believe that law abiding citizens should not be restricted in the rights to buy, own, or carry firearms.  Common sense education makes total sense.  Should people be educated to utilize firearms?  Yes.

The Constitution outlined it and I believe that common sense backs it up.  Many times we hear about stopping criminals.  If the criminals are willing to break laws against rape, assault, burglary, drugs, and murder do you think that a gun control law is going to concern them?  The only people that are affected by gun control laws are law abiding citizens.

Besides this argument is moot because that was not the reason for the Second Amendment.  Listen to the wisdom of the Founding Fathers:

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government” -Thomas Jefferson

“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” (Jefferson Papers, p. 334, C.J. Boyd, 1950)

The Second Amendment was intended as a protection from GOVERNMENT not from intruders.  That is why politicians want to see it removed.  It is a very powerful limitation of power hungry politicians.  That is why the Founding Fathers created the Amendment and we should fight to maintain it.

Social Issues

Most social issues should be dealt with at the state level.  Each state should be able to dictate how their states are run.  If California wants to socialize medicine they should be allowed to but that doesn’t mean that Nevada is required to.  If Massachusetts wants to allow same sex marriage, fine but Kansas doesn’t have to recognize it.  Instead of forcing everything at the federal level the states should be allowed discretion.  The only time that the discretion should be questioned at the federal level is if it is against the U.S. Constitution.

Religion

The Constitution best defines my position: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”.  To me this means, the government does not have the right to push a specific religion and it does not have the right to hinder religious practice.  In other words, stay out of it.  The reason is that you need to imagine the roles being flipped because at some point they may be.

So, religious zealots should not be able to push bills that force their religious beliefs and non-believers shouldn’t be able to demand that religious groups can’t use public facilities.

This simple act would simplify a lot of debate in the country today.

I will qualify that I am a Christian but I do not believe that the government has the right to push my beliefs on anyone either.  Yes, that does mean no ten commandments in court rooms!

Business

Coming Soon…