Speech for KTVU

Hello. My name is Jeff Landauer, I'm the Libertarian candidate for congressional district 15, and I'm here today to talk to you about freedom.

Freedom, in the political context, is freedom from force, or specifically, freedom from the initiation of force. It is the freedom to not be robbed, murdered, told what to do, or how to do it.

This freedom is codified in rights, such as the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And, as set forth in the Declaration of Independence, the purpose of government is to secure these rights.

All around the world, prosperity is directly correlated with freedom.

There are many examples where two countries are side-by-side, sharing the same culture, resources, and traditions, yet one will be horribly poor because of its restrictive government and the other will be rich because of its free capitalist government. Compare West versus East Germany; North versus South Korea; China versus Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Prosperity is a direct result of freedom. It is the result of individuals free to act upon their own judgment and enrich their own lives in the best way that they see fit.

Every government law, regulation, or tax that is unrelated to the protection of individual rights is an assault upon freedom because every such regulation, law, or tax forces people to act against their own judgment. If it weren't an act of force, then those regulations, laws, and taxes would be unnecessary.

Reason and force are opposites. Reason is used to create or convince; force is used to destroy or expropriate. It is the individual using his mind that is the source of all wealth and values. Wealth cannot be legislated into existence or created by the whim of a bureaucrat.

Man's mind is his means of survival. The more individuals are allowed to act according to their own judgment the more they will flourish. Freedom is a requirement of human life because one cannot live by one's mind when one is not free to make and act upon decisions.

With the human requirement of freedom comes the requirement of government to protect that freedom. This requirement includes police, military, and a court system. Nothing else. Government must not be allowed to destroy the very freedom that it's supposed to protect. Government has no business regulating our lives or prohibiting peaceful activities.

Your neighbor has no right to butt into your affairs and tell you how to live your life. Likewise, a group of your neighbors has no right to tell you how to live your life; and no institution, including government, commanded by the majority of your neighbors has the right to tell you how to live your life. Any such commands are violations of your inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they are detrimental to your life, and must not be tolerated.

Now, Democrats and Republicans argue with each other a lot. They don't agree on much.

The Democrats want to use government force to take wealth from those of ability (via progressive taxation) and redistribute it to those in need (via huge entitlement programs.) They also like to use government force prohibit peaceful business interactions, such as prohibiting someone with few job skills from working for someone willing to pay him less than the politician-mandated minimum.

On the other hand, the Republicans want to use government to force us all to adhere to their morality and to protect us from ourselves by creating prohibitions against certain plant extracts, sex acts, or gambling. They also seem to be in favor of forcing American consumers to buy over-priced products such as American steel and forcing us consumers to pay bloated prices for food, thanks to $190 billion in recent farm subsidies and supports.

The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is how they want to use government to force the individual to act against his own judgment. Neither support individual rights except as lip service. Every year, no matter who is in power, the federal budget grows, the national debt increases, regulation gets added on top of regulation, and whatever party is in charge adds more government intrusion without rescinding the intrusions created by the other party.

A vote for either a Republican or a Democrat is a vote for tyranny. It's a vote for the further enslavement of the individual to the state. It doesn't matter if you think the Republicans are better than the Democrats or vice versa. A vote for either is a vote for the continuation along this downward spiral.

Candidates from the other political parties will try to buy your vote by listing all the wonderful things they're going to do for you if elected. But these bribes are forcefully expropriated from others. They are stolen goods.

If you realize that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are important -- that freedom is the purpose and measurement of a good government -- that the individual is sovereign and that theft is still theft whether or not the majority of your neighbors vote for it -- then please vote for liberty and vote Libertarian.

Thank you.