Document:Libertarian Party Radical Caucus Platform 2016: Difference between revisions

The violation of rights and liberty by other governments can never justify foreign intervention by the United States government. No government is innocent of violating human rights and liberty, and none can approach the issue with clean hands. Only private individuals and organizations have any place speaking out on this issue.

The present system of criminal law is based almost solely on punishment with little concern for the victim. We support restitution for the victim to the fullest degree possible at the expense of the criminal or wrongdoer. Aggressors should be required to compensate their victims and pay for costs of their trial and apprehension. Those unwilling to make payments towards a court-ordered judgment should be placed in a competitive private prison agreed up on by arbitrarial procedures.  

We oppose all "no-fault" insurance laws, which deprive the victim of the right to recover damages from those responsible in the case of injury. We also support the right of the victim to pardon the criminal or wrongdoer, barring threats to the victim for this purpose. We applaud the growth of private adjudication of disputes by mutually acceptable judges.

The individual's right to privacy, property, and right to speak or not to speak should not be infringed by  any government. Governments should not use electronic or other means of covert surveillance of an individual's actions or private property without the express consent of the owner or occupant. Correspondence, bank and other financial transactions and records, medical records, legal records, employment records, and the like should not be open to review without the express consent of all parties involved in those actions.

We further oppose the nearly universal requirement for use of Social Security number(s) as personal identification codes, whether by government agencies or by intimidation of private companies by governments.  

Until such time as a person is proved guilty of a crime, that person should be accorded all possible respect for his individual rights. We are thus opposed to reduction of present safeguards for the rights of the criminally accused. The rights of due process, a speedy trial, legal counsel, trial by jury, and the legal presumption of innocence until proven guilty, must not be denied.

We call for a reform of the judicial system allowing parties to a court action a reasonable number of challenges to proposed judges, similar to their right under the present system to challenge a proposed juror.

Libertarians believe that consenting individuals have the right to private choice in  sexual activity. We support the repeal of all laws and policies which are intended to condemn, affirm, encourage, or deny sexual lifestyles or any attitudes about such lifestyles. Further, we oppose any government attempts to dictate, prohibit, control, or encourage any private lifestyle, living arrangement, or contractual relationship.

The only legitimate use of force is in defense of individual rights—life, liberty, and justly acquired property—against aggression.  This right inheres in the individual, who may seek to be, or agree to be, aided by any other individual or group in the exercise of the right to self-defense. Private property owners shall be free to establish their own conditions regarding weapons. The right of defense extends to defense against aggressive acts of government.  

Finally, we support repeal of all gun and weapon control laws. We favor the implementation of "Constitutional Carry" (fully-legal carry of weapons, open or concealed, without any permit requirement). We support abolishing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE).

We hold that property rights are individual rights and, as such, are entitled to the same protections as all other individual rights. Individuals have the right to homestead unowned resources, both within the jurisdictions of governments and within any unclaimed territory. We further hold that the owners of property have the full right to control, use, dispose of, or in any manner enjoy their property without interference until and unless the exercise of their control infringes the valid rights of others.

We specifically condemn current government efforts to regulate or ban the use of property in the name of aesthetic values, riskiness, moral standards, cost-benefit estimates, or the promotion or restriction of economic growth. We demand an end to the taxation of privately owned real property, which makes the State the de facto owner of all lands and forces individuals to rent their homes and places of business from the State.

The so-called "War on Drugs" is in reality a war on people. We deplore the suffering that drug misuse has brought about; however, drug prohibition is more dangerous than drugs themselves and comes with a staggering cost in both money and human lives. The War on Drugs is a grave threat to individual liberty, to domestic order, and to peace in the world; furthermore, it has provided a rationale by which the power of the state has been expanded to restrict greatly our right to privacy and to be secure in our homes.

Current problems in such areas as energy, pollution, health care delivery, decaying cities, and poverty are not solved, but are primarily caused, by government. The welfare state, supposedly designed to aid the poor, is in reality a growing and parasitic burden on all productive people, and injures, rather than benefits, the poor themselves.

Education is best provided by the free market. We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended. There has never been any justification for using tax dollars for education, in the information age, people can study and learn a variety of subjects more easily than ever before, largely for free. We call for the repeal of the guarantees of tax-funded, government-provided education, which are found in most state constitutions. We also oppose any attempts to regulate privately funded education, including but not limited to any attempts to fund or regulate homeschooling.

We condemn compulsory education laws, which spawn prison-like schools with many of the problems associated with prisons, and we call for an immediate repeal of such laws. We further support immediate reduction of tax support for schools, and removal of the burden of school taxes from those not responsible for the education of children.

We oppose the involuntary treatment or commitment of any person for mental health concerns as well as government pressure requiring parents to obtain counseling or psychiatric drugs for their children. We advocate an end to the spending of tax money for any program of psychiatric, psychological, behavioral research, or treatment.

We assert the common-law right of juries to judge not only the facts but also the justice of the law. Without the ability judge the law, juries can do nothing to protect the people against government oppression. Since the jury trial is a crucial element to the judicial system of checks and balances against some of the more ludicrous legislative creations, juries need to be informed of their right to nullify all laws that are unjust or oppressive, and find against the government and the law by voting “not guilty.”

We oppose the current practice of forced jury duty and favor all-volunteer juries.

Recognizing that the American people are not a collective national resource. we oppose all subsidies and coercive measures aimed at increasing or decreasing birthrates.

We oppose all attempts to criminalize the victims of coercion, such as the homeless. We therefore call for the immediate repeal of all laws against sleeping, camping, eating, feeding, or solicitation.

While we are being oppressed by the current tax system, we propose shortening the time when governmental programs are replaced by effective private institutions we advocate dollar-for-dollar tax credits for all charitable contributions.

Retirement planning is the responsibility of the individual not the government. Therefore, we call for the elimination of the coercive government sponsored Social Security system.

America's once-free market in agriculture has been largely plowed under by a century of government-facilitated manipulation. Subsidies, price controls, price supports, quotas, farm-confiscating inheritance taxes, misleading yet mandated labels, approved pollution and contamination levels, suppression of politically undesired products, and more have stifled free market choices and innovations.

Make private individuals or corporations bear full responsibility for damages they inflict on their neighbors with unwanted externalities including pesticides, herbicides, and genetic modifications.

Government involvement causes most of the problems we face in the health care system today. Therefore, we advocate a complete separation of medicine from the state, support a free market health care system, and oppose government mandates, such as insurance and healthcare. We recognize the freedom of individuals to determine the services they want (if any) and all other aspects of their medical care. We advocate replacing compulsory or tax supported plans to supply health services or insurance with voluntarily supported efforts. We oppose any government restriction or funding of private medical or scientific research.

The transportation industry should not be treated differently from any other industry, and should be governed by free markets and held to strict liability.

We advocate an immediate end to government regulation of private transit organizations and to government favors to the transportation industry. In particular, we support the immediate repeal of all laws restricting and regulating transit competition, such as the granting of taxicab and bus monopolies and the regulation or prohibition of ride-share services.We call for the repeal of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 which restrict the carriage of goods or passengers between United States ports to US-built and flagged vessels, and urge immediate deregulation of the trucking industry.

Pollution of air, water, and land violates the rights of individuals to their lives and property . We support the development of an objective legal system defining property rights to air and water and a modification of the laws governing such torts as trespass and nuisance to cover damages done by pollution. Strict liability, not government agencies and arbitrary government standards, should regulate pollution. Current government measures concerned with pollution often bypass court proceedings, without concern for restitution to the victims of pollution or the rights of the accused. Governments have been among the worst polluters due to the fact that they are seldom held liable. This will change, and governments will be held liable like any private person or corporation.

We call for the repeal of environmental regulations and call for the abolition of the federal and state Environmental Protection Agencies and the return of all questions of violations of the rights to life and property to the jurisdiction of the courts.

Resource management is properly the responsibility and right of the legitimate owners of land, water, and other natural resources. We oppose government control of resource use via taxes, incentives, or regulations.

We strongly support all private sector units of trade and their use in international markets.

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