My Views
When asked about my politics, I most often describe myself as a "conservative libertarian," although I have also described myself as a "classical liberal." Since most people are unfamiliar with the traditional meaning of the word "liberal," I often opt for the former label, and since the words "conservative" and "libertarian" do not quite describe my political philosophy, I try to avoid those terms alone, although I find myself using them from time-to-time.
All human beings enjoy God-given individual rights, among them life, liberty, and property. Human beings establish a government in order to secure these individual rights. If the government fails to secure these rights, then human beings must overthrow the government and replace it with one that achieves its legitimate ends. That is why, after a sustained usurpation of these rights by the King of England, American colonists declared independence from the English Crown on July 4, 1776.
Concentrated power is the greatest threat to our God-given rights and has served as the catalyst for an enumerable amount of human suffering. This is why the Founders of this nation created a central federal government of separate and limited powers, leaving to the states the conventional police powers. Unfortunately, the federal government has all but obliterated the limitations on its powers defined by the United States Constitution, and today it actively encroaches upon the legitimate realm of the States and the People. Instead of a democratic republic we have a tyrannical bureaucratic state that regularly tramples individual rights. Accordingly, I strongly support a return to constitutional government as originally understood by the Founders of this nation.
We should completely dismantle the federal welfare state and the undemocratic federal bureaucracy. To the extent that any of these things should exist, they should exist at the state or local level where people can take appropriate democratic action by having a greater say and maintaining a closer check against government officials. Although I personally hold conservative social views, I believe that a thoughtful reading of the federal Constitution requires an impartial protection of the individual rights of others to the extent allowed by that document. However, this only holds true for the federal government; a state or locality may do many things that the federal government cannot do, and this is legitimate to the extent that state and local law remain consistent with the federal constitution.
