Nathan Larson

Nathan Larson is a Libertarian/Indy Green fusion candidate for the 1st District of Virginia Congressional race in 2008. Prior to that, he was a student senator at GMU.

Ballot access

Larson filed his declaration of candidacy on May 7 with about 1,075 signatures and is preparing a supplementary filing of another 325 signatures, for a total signature count of 1,400. 1,000 valid signatures are required to get on the ballot. The deadline is June 10.

Nomination

Arrangements are hastily being made to have a 1st Congressional District Libertarian convention, which would probably be held in Fredericksburg. The party chair would need to certify Larson as an LP candidate by June 16, per http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/cms/documents/Cidates/Bulletins/08Nov_USH.pdf .

Platform

Nathan Larson is running for Congress for the 1st District of Virginia, seeking to solve traffic congestion, preserve environmental quality, open our country's borders, end the federal War on Drugs, bring our troops home from Iraq, and promote direct citizen involvement in government.

Specifically, Nathan supports auctioning off the interstate highway system, segment by segment, to private investors. He supports doing the same with Amtrak and other government-owned rail systems. The new owners could fund further expansion of these systems and compete with one another to provide the best service at the lowest price.

Environmental quality should be preserved through the establishment of property rights over land, water, air and other natural resources. The dead zone in the Chesapeake Bay, for instance, can be eliminated through the enforcement of nearby landowners' rights. Common law nuisance actions would compel area farmers to switch to no-till methods that would reduce nitrogen runoff into the Bay.

As a pro-business candidate, Nathan advocates removing all restrictions on immigration. This will increase the supply of labor, driving wages down and thus helping businesses cut costs. This will allow savings to be passed on to consumers and enhance the competitiveness of American businesses in the global economy. Studies by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and others have found that immigrants are more likely than natives to start new businesses. We should take full advantage of the opportunity immigration offers to create more American jobs.

Nathan advocates repealing drug prohibition, a non-value-added program that is essentially dead weight in the federal budget. According to Jon Gettman's report "Lost Taxes and Other Costs of Marijuana Laws," the cannabis market could generate $40 billion in taxes. Studies by the National Institute of Mental Health that demonstrated that cannabis acts by stimulating cannabinoid receptors rather than through a potentially toxic effect, as had been previously suspected, further demonstrate that the benefits of legalization would outweigh the disadvantages.

The war in Iraq should be immediately ended and the troops brought home. The impetus for the invasion was to eliminate the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction. There being no evidence of such Iraqi weapons posing a threat to her neighbors at this time, and the security situation in Iraq appearing to have reached a plateau, there is little justification for our continued presence there.

Nathan also proposes that Congress be abolished in favor of a delegable proxy system that would combine elements of direct democracy and representative democracy. Any citizen could propose legislation, which would then be posted online. Other citizens could indicate their support for said legislation either directly or through their standing proxies. Proxies would be delegable, meaning that one's vote could be further delegated to his proxy's proxy. A majority would be required to enact legislation.

External links

• http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43802230494