Speaking freely

Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik stopped in Vegas over the Labor Day weekend. Here's what he had to say to CityLife.

BY MIKE ZIGLER

CityLife: Clearly the two major parties dominate. How do you compete as a third-party candidate?

Michael Badnarik: First of all, the Democrats and Republicans have established rules and regulations that are biased against third parties. Each state has different rules. Almost every state requires signatures for our candidates to be allowed on the ballot and that costs us several hundreds of thousands of dollars just to make us eligible. Those are unnecessary and immoral impediments to third parties and it violates freedom of speech. I am a legitimate candidate for a legitimate party and I have a First Amendment right to have my message heard. More than that, the American voter has a right to hear our message.

CL: I have heard time and time again that "I am a Libertarian at heart, but I'm not registered with or a voter of the party." What is the psychology behind that?

MB: Libertarians are in favor of individual rights, and anybody who wants individual rights is also interested in personal responsibility. Because of that fierce independence, they have a resistance to joining the party and joining clubs. We only have 25,000 registered Libertarians, however those are dues-paying members.

CL: Do you see much difference between Bush and Kerry?

MB: I don't. They both want to raise taxes; both want to pass more gun control laws, which is unconstitutional; are both in favor of the PATRIOT Act, which is blatantly unconstitutional; they both want to send our sons and daughters into Iraq and other foreign invasions. What's the difference other than the photograph on the poster? ...

CL: What happens if you participate in the presidential debates?

MB: I win the debate. Period. Hands down. No question.

CL: You know you are not going to be in the White House.

MB: You don't know that.

CL: Your highest polling has been 8 percent.

MB: Right now. It's climbing.

CL: So are you trying to build the party? Why are you running?

MB: I am running this campaign to win. There is no reason for me to run if I don't think I can win. If you think you can't, you are absolutely right. And your question presupposes that it is impossible to win. That's not true. I'm already on the ballot in 45 states, and I plan to be on the ballot in all 50. I already have a mathematical possibility of winning the White House. If all of the young people who want to avoid the draft vote for me, if all the 80 million gun owners vote for me, if all the gays vote for me, if everybody in the United States who hates the IRS votes for me, not only would I win, but I'd win by a landslide. Selling the libertarian message in this political environment is like selling ice water in hell. The voters hate the current status quo. They don't like the democratic Republicans.

CL: You say that immigration and borders are two separate issues, and when mixed they are deadly. Elaborate.

MB: First of all, Libertarians don't promote open borders, but we promote checks. We don't anticipate people walking back and forth. We can work together to keep the criminals and people with communicable diseases out. However, they build a 20-foot wall and man it with the military every 50 feet. That is not only expensive, it doesn't work. People will go over the wall, through the wall and under the wall. There are terrorists already here in the United States and building a wall here isn't going to keep them out. We understand that our economy is dependent upon workers from Mexico. They come here and do work that Americans would never do, and the economy is dependent on that. We should lower our immigration rules to make it easier for people to come here. It's hypocritical for us to call them illegals when we are so dependent on them. ... We are not in favor of keeping every Mexican out, but we are not in favor of letting every Mexican in.

CL: You say free trade promotes peace. Explain.

MB: That's correct. ... Most of America has lost touch with the Constitution and the difference between individual rights and privileges. Libertarians want to follow George Washington's advice that he gave in his farewell address in Washington. That advice was to maintain economic ties with all countries. ... That opens free markets to all countries, improves our economy and raises the standard of living in other countries. ...

CL: America didn't see the dangers of war in Iraq when we were invading. Why?

MB: Many of us did see it at the time, but nobody was listening to us. Going into Iraq was a mistake. Staying in Iraq exacerbates that mistake. Over 50 percent of the American people know that Iraq is something we should never have done. There is no possible way to win in Iraq. The longer we stay, the worse the problems we create. The only rational solution is to recognize our mistake and minimize our losses. More than 90 percent of the people in Iraq view us as occupiers rather than liberators. They do not want us there. Bombing their buildings and killing their people is not going to make them love us any more than they already do. Our only choice is to bring our soldiers home immediately.

CL: So what is your exit strategy?

MB: Give my military advisers the instructions to bring our sons and daughters home as quickly as possible. I'm not a military strategist or expert, but there are laws of physics. We cannot bring our troops home in 24 hours. It's physically impossible. We have too many people and too much equipment there. As we begin to retreat, we make our soldiers more vulnerable. My priority is the safety of our military. If we have to stay there two or three weeks longer to make sure everyone comes home alive, I'm happy to do that. But I don't anticipate us being there any longer than three to six months after I get into office.

CL: You favor repealing the PATRIOT Act completely.

MB: Yes. The Bill of Rights is not negotiable. You cannot give up your rights in order to protect your safety. If I show you the Bill of Rights, which freedom would you be willing to give up? Freedom of Speech? We already have free speech zones in the United States. There was a free speech zone in front of the Democratic National Convention in Boston, which consisted of a fence surrounded by razor wire. Is that your idea of freedom of speech in the United States? Anywhere I happen to be standing is a free speech zone. ...

CL: How do we slash pharmaceutical costs?

MB: You get the government out of it. The reason that pharmaceuticals cost so much is because we have a Food and Drug Administration that requires a 10-year testing process that costs $1 billion per drug. Guess who gets to pay that $1 billion. We do at inflated prices. ...

CL: Talk to me about the draft.

MB: The draft is involuntary servitude. You own your own body and no one can force you to do what you do not wish to do. The government already has a stop-loss measure in the military, which means if you are scheduled to be released from the service on a given date, the government ignores that and forces you to continue your services. It's slavery and we are adamantly opposed to it. ... The fact that the Democrats and Republicans are already thinking of the draft indicates the public doesn't support the military actions we are taking. This election in November is literally a matter of life and death for our young people.

CL: The war on terror is a war on a concept, and is used to keep America in a fear-based state. How would you end it?

MB: I can't promise to eliminate terror, but I can promise to reduce it. If you have a hornet's nest on your property, there's always a finite chance you'll be stung by a hornet. Do your chances of getting stung go up or down when you take a baseball bat and starting trying to kill hornets? They go up dramatically. There may be people in the Middle East who hate us, and there is always a chance some wacko is going to come to the United States and blow up a building. I can't prevent that. It's impossible. But if we go into Iraq and bomb a building with five terrorists, we motivate 50 other people to become terrorists. The longer we stay, the higher our risk of terrorism. ...

CL: How would you end the War on Drugs?

MB: I'm the president of the United States. I would end the War on Drugs. ... The War on Drugs is a bigger danger to our lives and liberties than the drugs themselves. ...

CL: What are the three most important issues Americans must give attention to this election?

MB: The war in Iraq, government spending and the lack of participation in the debates. The blatant fact that the Democrats and Republicans are working actively to keep me and other third-party candidates out of debate is a violation of free speech.

CL: What would you call Bush and Kerry out on in a debate?

MB: The PATRIOT Act. Why would they support the most egregiously unconstitutional piece of paper to come out of Congress since the Alien and Sedition Acts? I would ask them both what gives them the authority to spend $700 billion a year more than they budget. Why do they go through the process of creating a budget?

CL: What else would you like to add?

MB: Our Website is lp.org. My Website is badnarik.org. And our phone number at campaign headquarters in Austin, Texas is 800-807-7552. If Americans genuinely believe John Kerry and George Bush represent the lesser of two evils and the Libertarian Party better reflects their idea of what government should be, I encourage them to vote their conscience. The only wasted vote is when you vote for someone you do not respect.