Sun Jan 25 2009 22:13:43 ET
Sadly, both the Democrat and Republican parties have supported the disastrous war in Iraq and Nancy Pelosi, 8th District incumbent candidate, has stood "shoulder to shoulder" with them. She:
When Tim Russert asked her
"Do you think that the situation with Iraq is a distraction from the war on terrorism?", her reply was "I don't think it's a disaster--I mean, any decision--I don't question a decision of the president of the United States on his timing or on the priority he gives a threat."
Her web site contains no position statements and she has refused to respond to Project Vote Smart's position survey or attend debates with the other candidates.
Can Nancy Pelosi be trusted to lead the nation out of Iraq?
The following pledge is required for membership in the Libertarian Party of America:
"I hereby certify that I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of achieving political or social goals"
History
The Libertarian Party is a United States political party created in
1971. It is one
of the largest consistent third parties in the United States, with
over 200,000 registered voters and over 600 people in office,
including mayors, county executives, county council members, and
school board members.
The Party was founded on December 11, 1971, principally by David
Nolan, John Hospers, Edward Crane, Manual Klausner, Murray Rothbard,
R.A. Childs, Theodora Nathan, and Jim Dean. The group felt that the
dominant Republican and Democratic parties had diverged from the
principles of the American founding fathers, and the American people
would benefit from a alternative party that more closely abided by
those principles.
By the 1972 presidential election, the party had grown to 80 members
and had attained ballot access in two states. The first Libertarian
presidential ticket of John Hospers and Theodora Nathan earned fewer
than 3,000 votes. Eight years later, in the 1980 presidential race,
the Libertarian Party had gained ballot access in every state, the
first time a third party accomplished this since the Socialist Party
in 1916. The 1980 presidential ticket of Ed Clark and David H. Koch
earned 921,299 popular votes. The Party has been represented in the
presidential race consistently since then, with ballot access in most
states, receiving from 0.21% to 0.50% of the popular votes (excepting
the 1980 ticket, when it received 1.1%).
Today, the Party has a national presence in the National Libertarian
Party, and strong grass roots movements in State Affiliates and County
Affiliates. It is the third largest political party in the United
States; although this claim is often disputed by the Greens, since
there is no single objective agreed-upon standard with which to
compare the size of third parties.
The tenets of the Libertarian Party platform include the following:
● Minimal government at all levels, limited to protection of
citizens' life, liberty, and property.
● A self-regulated free market economy. Elimination of taxation.
Privately provided services and infrastructures chosen and
paid for by local citizens. Environmental protection
through individual responsibility, community groups, and civil
liability for pollution. Elimination of corporate welfare. Maximum
opportunity for individuals to achieve their potential
through their own efforts.
● Strong civil liberties. Personal freedoms. Elimination of
government prohibitions on voluntary non-aggressive
behavior. The right to keep and
bear arms.
● A foreign policy of non-interventionism. Opposition to the
initiation of force. Opposition to military draft. Free trade.
The Democratic and Republican Parties typically capture more than 95%
of the vote in partisan elections. All third parties consistently
share the remaining 5%. Is this situation the result of most of the
voting public agreeing with the tenets of only these two major
parties? Not entirely, given the following barriers to third party
success:
Ballot Access: The two major parties have been influential in
instituting nearly
impossible hurdles that third parties must vault in order that their
candidates
even appear on the ballot in partisan races.
Winner Take All: Unlike European and other countries, the U.S. does
not have
proportional representation. The party that wins an election, even
if it wins by
1% of the votes, gets into power; and the runners up, including third
parties,
have no representation or influence in the subsequent administration.
Campaign Financing: The costs of running political campaigns are
astronomical.
The entrenched major parties have built a substantial infrastructure
of financial
support, with which third parties cannot compete.
The "Wasted Vote": The voting public often votes for the lesser of
two evils in an effort to prevent the greater evil from winning a
race. A vote for a candidate they truly agree with is often perceived
as a "wasted vote."
However, in spite of these challenges, the Libertarian Party is still
very much in the running, thanks to hard work in building coalitions
with local groups of like mind, ballot initiatives, and a fierce
constant legal fight for ballot access.
Libertarian Party of San Francisco
End the War in Iraq
The Libertarian Pledge
The Libertarian Party
The libertarian party platform
The U.S. Two Party System