Letters to the editor Dec. 18
Libertarian platform
This is in response to Mark Agather’s recent letter regarding the Libertarian Party (Who are the Libertarians?, Dec. 11).
The Libertarian Party was in fact created by disaffected Republicans who believed that the GOP had left its roots, especially when Nixon ordered 90-day wage and price controls in 1971.
Libertarian candidate Ed Clark received the most popular votes of any Libertarian candidate, one million votes in 1980.
The Libertarian Party platform is fairly straight forward. They believe that individuals should be “sovereign over their own lives.” In its simplest terms, this means that if folks want to ingest drugs such as pot, cocaine, etc., government should not create a regulation against that.
Libertarians would not oppose polygamy or bigamy. They support legalizing prostitution.
They oppose the confiscation of private property, even via eminent domain, which is authorized in the Fifth Amendment.
Their view of gun ownership can be interpreted to favor possession of machine guns., perhaps even a bazooka. They would oppose background checks and concealed-carry permits as intrusive.
Libertarians are for free trade, stating that government should not “control or manage trade.”
Libertarians oppose any form of government subsidy, whether to the energy sector, transportation, farmers, sugar growers in Florida.
Libertarians would eliminate Social Security and Medicare, believing that individuals should plan for themselves.
In my discussions with David Bergland, Ron Paul and Harry Browne, Libertarians are divided on abortion: some are pro-life while others are pro-choice.
The United States has had multiple political parties running candidates for office for well over 200-years. It is up to the parties to campaign effectively to gain the support of voters.
As an aside, Mr. Agather, there was a similar letter to-the-editor written by former Montana Representative Pat Williams about 20-years ago. Williams complained that third parties in Montana stole votes from Democrats!
— Steve Armstrong, Bigfork
Trump in 2024
My America is vanishing and the current administration in Washington, D.C. is largely responsible.
Marxism is firmly ensconced in our colleges and public school systems (has been for decades) and even our Congress is infected with members who want this country brought to its knees in every way possible and reconstituted to fit the Communist Manifesto.
The wholesale invasion of this country on our southern border is designed to, (a) fatten Democrat voter roles and (b) weaken, degrade and ultimately crush this country and its resources.
Celebrated alternative lifestyles and all that encompasses, are hyper-sexualizing our children and subverting the nuclear family as some schools elbow themselves into the parental role.
Criminals are given the green light and victims are left devastated. Consequences for your actions needs to be restored! Wokism seeks to alter the way we think and speak while decimating careers and lives for non-conformists.
China spies, buying up our lands and politicians, and poisoning this nation through it’s exportation of fentynal.
We are living in creeping tyranny and cannot even look to our courts or governmental entities for redress. I trust neither major political party to enforce our current immigration laws to protect the territorial integrity of our borders or reverse the Marxist takeover in progress before our very eyes. Are there no statesmen/women out there?
This country needs to learn to say no! No to being invaded on our borders, no to squandering taxpayer dollars all over the world, no to politicians who do not do their jobs or support the Constitution they all swore to uphold.
Like him or not, Trump put America unabashedly first and the bad guys around the world knew it. The greatly diminished, occupant of the White House has taken a wrecking ball to this nation.
Will we have anything left by 2024?
— Jill Williams, Kalispell