Liberty Maven

A new poll was released today for the Kentucky primary election in Kentucky next May. The results show Rand Paul now leading Grayson by 3%. He made up 9 points and his opponent Grayson dropped 5 points since the last poll.

This is wonderful news and hopefully will fuel the fire so that Rand can end up with an easy victory in May. Keep on fighting!

The details are here.

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Quote of the Day: “It is the competition of profit-seeking entrepreneurs that does not tolerate the preservation of false prices . . .” — Ludwig von Mises, “Human Action” 3rd edition, pages 337-338

* A majority oppose the bill — 53% to 42%
* That’s down 5 points from two weeks ago and 8 points from six weeks ago

The intensity numbers are even better — 44% strongly oppose the proposal while only 26% strongly favor it.

This intensity is being demonstrated in the rebellion members of Congress are facing at town hall meetings. While we dislike the rude tactics some citizens are using, we completely understand and agree with the anger.

One thing driving this is the spreading realization that the so-called “public option” is really a Trojan Horse that will lead to a “single payer” system . . .

* The “public option” is tax-subsidized government insurance that would charge lower premiums than private companies could afford to match — that’s the whole point of the tax subsidy
* This would eventually drive private health insurance out of business, leaving us with a “single payer” government system
* The so-called “single payer” would really be ALL taxpayers, because taxes would fund all health care
* In other words, public-option equals single-payer equals socialism

But here again, the news is encouraging . . .

Rassmusen reports that a whopping 57% oppose a single-payer system, while only 32% favor it.

And here’s the best news of all . . .

51% percent fear government health care more than they do the insurance companies.

We’ve long felt that public hatred of insurance companies is the main source of support for increased government involvement in health care. But now people seem to be realizing that the real reason to hate the insurance companies is because of . . .

The United States of Corporate Welfare

Big health care interests have used the coercive power of government to erect thickets of Corporate Welfare Regulation, to reward themselves, punish their competitors, and harm consumers.

Cato Institute scholar Michael Tanner provides startling examples of how these regulations have strangled competition between health insurance companies, allowing 30% of the market to be controlled by just 1 company in 299 out of 313 of the largest metro areas.

So the problem isn’t that insurance companies charge too much and pay out too little under free market conditions. Indeed, the profit margins of the health insurance industry rank only 86th among American industries!

Instead, the problem is that government regulations retard competition and consumer choice, leading to inefficient service and false prices.

We don’t need a 2,000-page bill that re-engineers our entire health care system. Instead, the first thing we need is a 1-page bill that restores competition between insurance companies by allowing you to sidestep the corporate welfare regulations erected by state-governments.

This is something the federal government can do using its Constitutional authority under the Commerce Clause.

A rebellion is underway, and we DC Downsizers need to give that rebellion a direction, not only by opposing the Trojan Horse health care bill, but also by promoting positive reforms that will restore consumer choice.

Please use DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System (sm) to send your Congressional employees a letter on our campaign to “Make Health Insurance More Affordable.”

Tell Congress to give you a 1-page bill that allows you to buy health insurance regulated by the state of your choice.

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Who gets your vote now that Ron Paul is no longer on the ballot in most states? Liberty Maven’s newest contributing author, Mark Keller charts the candidates on the Nolan Chart to help you decide.

Some people seem to always vote for the candidate from their chosen party.  Others vote for whomever they believe to be the “lesser of two evils”.  I, personally, am a great advocate of voting on principle ― voting for the person who most aligns with your views, no matter their party or chance of winning.  Determining who that candidate is takes a good deal of research.  Detailed analysis of a candidate’s positions on a wide variety of issues is highly important.  But when you’re slogging through so much information, it can be hard to compare the different people running for office.  How much are these two guys alike?  Exactly how authoritarian is this person’s viewpoint?

And that’s where fun stuff like graphs and quizzes come into play.  A great way of displaying how a certain political philosophy fits into the spectrum of thought is by means of the Nolan Chart.  This is a square (or diamond-shaped) diagram, with a coordinate system charting varying amounts of economic and personal freedom.  With the four corners mapped to the extremes of libertarian (absolute freedom), conservative (economic freedom, but government regulation of personal lives), statist or authoritarian (absolute government control), and liberal (personal freedom, economic regulation) viewpoints, any person or candidate’s beliefs can be pretty well reduced to a point on the graph.

An excellent way of figuring out where you (or the candidate you’re considering) fits on the spectrum, is by means of the World’s Smallest Political Quiz.  In it, you indicate whether you agree with ten statements about economic and personal freedom, and then are shown where your views fit on the Nolan Chart.  It’s quick, it’s simple, and it’s pretty accurate.

I got the idea, a few days ago, to try to figure out what answers the six major presidential candidates would give, if they took the quiz.  So, after a lot of research and discussion, I took the quiz for each one of them, and put all their scores together on a single graph, for easy comparison, as you can see in the image above.

The findings were kind of surprising.  I would have expected Chuck Baldwin to be closer to the conservative part of the chart, and I didn’t think Bob Barr would be quite so libertarian.  Nor did I realize how nearly identical McKinney and Nader were on everything!  But McCain and Obama both are, predictably, found in the statist quadrant.  Now this isn’t a completely comprehensive score (there are, after all, only ten questions), so there’s a little room for error.  And there’s no indication of their views on foreign policy, for example.  But you can check the data for each candidate, yourself, at the bottom of this post, where I’ve got an explanation on why I gave them the answer I did on each question.

I doubt anyone will be changing their mind on who to vote for, this late in the season (today, is, after all, election day), but this info should, at least, give you something to think about.  And if, in fact, you haven’t voted yet and are still undecided, taking the quiz and comparing your score to the candidates might be helpful.

I’ll leave you with this quote from John Quincy Adams:

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone; and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.

And now, get out and hit the polls!

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A reminder that your vote for any candidate really goes to an unnamed Elector, and a few offbeat ideas on how to change the presidential election.

by Jake, the Champion of the Constitution
Originally published November 3, 2008 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article5381.html

The vote for President and Vice President is quite different from any other vote you will cast on Tuesday.  When you view your ballot, it has written on it your choices (say you pick John McCain and Sarah Palin) but unlike other votes, this vote does not actually go to Senator McCain nor Governor Palin.  Your vote is actually in favor of a pool of specially selected representatives from the Republican Party, equal to your state’s number of electoral votes.  These Electors pledge to support their party’s candidates, are NOT constitutionally bound to vote for either McCain or Palin.  Electors are chosen by the States and the Electors elect the President and Vice-President.   So, in effect, you are voting for a group of Jane or Joe Schmoe’s.  [Except in Maine and Nebraska, where things get a little more complicated.]

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Reason Magazine asked several writers, associates, comedians, and people associated with the magazine in various ways five questions about the upcoming election. Drew Carey dodged the first question a bit which was,  “Who Are You Voting For In November?”.

The other questions are semi-serious, including the gem, “Leaving George W. Bush out of consideration, what former U.S. president would you most like to have waterboarded?”

I was pleased to see that Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt received their share of votes for the waterboarding question. I was quite disappointed in the many people choosing to vote for Obama. Well, it seems most are voting more against McCain than for Obama. Bob Barr received a few votes and even McCain got a few.

Here is Drew Carey’s response:

1. Who are you voting for in November? Anybody but McCain/Palin. Seriously. I’m begging you.

2. Who did you vote for in 2004 and 2000? I voted for the Libertarian candidate both times just to be puckish.

3. Is this the most important election in your lifetime? No. I believe the answers to all the problems we face as a society won’t come from Washington, it will come from us. So the way we decide to live our lives and our decisions about what we buy or don’t buy are much more important than who we vote for.

4. What will you miss about the Bush administration?

5. Leaving George W. Bush out of consideration, what former U.S. president would you most like to have waterboarded? None of them. The sooner we stop coming up with lists of people to waterboard, the better.

One of my favorite responses comes from Charles Oliver:

1. Who are you voting for in November? I won’t be voting for president. If I did, it would be for Bob Barr because, as imperfect as his candidacy is, he’s the only one who is at least talking about a noninterventionist foreign policy, rethinking the war on drugs, and shrinking the size of the federal government.

2. Who did you vote for in 2004 and 2000? To the best of my memory, the last presidential candidate I voted for was Ron Paul in 1988. I’d like to say I have some grand philosophical reason for not voting, but the reality is that no candidate since then has excited me enough to get out and vote.

3. Is this the most important election in your lifetime? No, because, while John McCain and Barack Obama may differ on some particulars, they share the same fundamental view of government. Whichever one wins, there will be an expansion in the size and scope of the federal government, especially if, as is likely, the Democrats increase their majorities in Congress.

4. What will you miss about the Bush administration? I’ll miss most all of those posts on National Review’s The Corner that gushed over Bush (and Dick Cheney) like the diary entries of a school girl confessing her love for the Jonas Brothers.

5. Leaving George W. Bush out of consideration, what former U.S. president would you most like to have waterboarded? I guess I’d waterboard Woodrow Wilson because, among many other reasons, he led the United States into World War I and presided over the creation of the Federal Reserve. I’d say the world has been suffering from those decisions almost a century now.

Read the other numerous and mostly interesting responses here.

With Ron Paul on the ballot in Montana he is apparently receiving precisely the number of votes John McCain needs to tie Barack Obama in the state. That is if you believe the recent poll done by Montana State University-Billings.

Reason magazine’s Dave Weigel posted these extremely interesting numbers on the “Hit and Run” blog today.

If this year’s presidential election were being held today, for whom do you think you would vote?

Barack Obama  44.4%

John McCain  40.2%

Ron Paul  4.2%

Ralph Nader  .7%

Bob Barr  1%

Undecided  9.5%

Of course, the undecideds are in third place, which means McCain could still come out on top if they pick McCain.  It is telling that Ron Paul requested he be removed from the ballot in Montana too late for it to be done and he’s now running in third place amongst named candidates in the state.

In May 2007 during the first primary Republican Presidential debate many were introduced to Ron Paul for the first time. One of the first answers he gave during that debate explained in a mere few sentences his philosophy regarding the role of government. It doesn’t really matter what the question was (it was a question about phasing out the IRS). It was his answer that was the springboard for understanding the more finer points of the quintessential Ron Paul.

“You can only do that [phase out the IRS] if you change our ideas about what the role of government ought to be. If you think that government has to take care of us from cradle to grave and if you think our government should police the world and spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a foreign policy that we cannot manage you can’t get rid of the IRS”. (see the video starting at the 1:45 mark)

There it is. It’s quite fundamental. If you truly want limited government the government can’t act as if there are no limits. This is an actual recipe for change in contrast to all of the new programs that Barack Obama and John McCain keep promoting from the campaign trail. Unfortunately, it seems the majority of Americans have answered the “role of government” question with “gimme more please!”

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Forget the VP Debate, it was for the birds! Besides the upcoming Break the Matrix Third Party Debate, you can have this debate right now! Let me show you with my Sarah Palin and Ralph Nader example. Plus an idea to change American politics for millions of young Americans with viral media.

by Jake, the Champion of the Constitution

Originally published October 3, 2008 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article5096.html

<< For those unaware, please read George Dance’s critical article “Third-party debate in early October” on the upcoming Third Party Debate in early October. Date is not yet announced. >>

Fellow columnist Jonathan Cymberknopf reported in his late September article “Ralph Nader and Bob Barr banned from the media” that the media has stopped covering the Third Party tickets who have a mathematical chance to win, and this does indeed seem to be the case. These candidates in alphabetical order are:

• Chuck Baldwin/Darrell Castle (Constitution Party listed on the ballot in 32 states)
• Bob Barr/Wayne Root (Libertarian Party, 45 states)
• Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente (Green Party, 32 states)
• and Ralph Nader/Matt Gonzalez (independents, 45 states).

He is mostly correct; the mainstream media is completely ignoring these candidates.  However, viral media has the potential to take the third party’s message to millions, spreading far TRUER democracy, and revealing the current election of McBama as the staged sham that it truly is.  The cool facet about it is that if it starts, its spreads like wildfire because everyone shares with everyone else.  On the flip side, there is only one month left, but with the financial world reeling, McBama-supported idiotic bailouts and bank failures galore, there is a real chance this could have a lasting effect on American politics for a long time to come, if it is done correctly.  Here is the idea.

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How well do you know the U.S. Constitution? Are you ready to test your knowledge? Thanks to Chip Wood’s Straight Talk, here are 25 questions to test your Constitutional savvy. Care to give it a try? (Attempt to answer each question before reading the answer).

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Although Ron flounders a little at the end there, he pretty much sums it up in a way that I think a lot of us have never fully considered:  16% of the country votes for one candidate, and the rest of us, the true majority, are all left feeling like “the minority”.  Footage below, including what we can and need to do about it: