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I scored 100/80 on the World's Smallest Political Quiz, so my political philosophy is generally libertarian, and specifically geolibertarian. The core principles that lie at the heart of my position on every issue are crystallized in the following passage from Henry George's book, Protection or Free Trade:
"Here are two simple principles, both of which are self-evident: I.--That all men have equal rights to the use and enjoyment of the elements provided by Nature. II.--That each man has an exclusive right to the use and enjoyment of what is produced by his own labor" (p. 280). [Emphasis mine]
Accordingly, I regard land rent as the sole legitimate source of public revenue, and thus believe that all taxes on production (i.e., taxes on houses, wages, sales and capital goods) should be abolished. I also believe we should replace our debt-based money system with a debt-free money system, and that all victimless crime laws should be repealed.
In terms of party affiliation, I've been a member of the Libertarian Party (LP) since June of '95, and a Life Member since February of '97. For president, I voted for Harry Browne in both 1996 and 2000, and for Michael Badnarik in 2004. For Ohio governor, I voted for Bill Peirce in 2006.
That's not to say I agree with the LP on everything, however.
The LP Platform, for instance, is clearly at odds with my views on land value taxation. In addition, an alarming percentage of LPers are closet right-wing conservatives, and thus tend to be far more offended by such things as individual welfare than by corporate welfare. Even worse is how embarrassingly reluctant many of them are to criticize the Bush administration's reckless foreign policy. (Indeed, some have even endorsed it.)
Despite all this, I still consider the LP to be a force for positive change. What would make it even more so, in my view, is if it fielded less conservative (or right-wing) libertarians for office and more progressive ones.
What's a progressive libertarian, you ask? One who is "libertarian" in the sense that he or she supports reducing government to a fraction of its present size, yet who is "progressive" in the sense that he or she opposes reducing programs designed to aid the poor until the economic conditions which made these programs seem necessary in the first place are reduced. If I were a member of Congress, for instance, I would support abolishing corporate welfare, but would oppose reducing individual welfare until the tax and monetary policies that created the need for individual welfare were reformed.
"It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve." -- Henry George, Social Problems, Ch. 17, Par. 7
American Monetary Institute
