3.5 Rights and Discrimination

3.5 Rights and Discrimination

We condemn bigotry as irrational and repugnant. Government should not deny or abridge any individual's rights based on sex, wealth, race, color, creed, age, national origin, personal habits, political preference or sexual orientation. Parents, or other guardians, have the right to raise their children according to their own standards and beliefs.

This might sound like feel good liberal drivel, but it's actually a very clear statement of the greater role of government. When we say "We condemn bigotry as irrational and repugnant." we are, of course, talking about the government. People have the right to be irrational and repugnant, in their personal actions, but not in the sphere of government.

What I find as a glaring missing element here is the element of faith. On the whole I find the Libertarian party holds a sort of low key hostility to matters of faith. I think this stems from the heavy Ayn Rand influence, and it is time to put the hate down. People have the right to believe in God, and to express it however they wish, again, provided it does not curtail the rights of others. Our party will never be more than an insignificant sideshow if it does not actively make the changes needed to embrace people of faith.

What this doesn't say, nor should it, is that the government should enforce some utopian everyone likes each other view of the world by abriding the right to free association, expression and trade with such morally repugnant programs such as affirmative action. This needs to be understood by the reader. The government is not a schoolyard monitor striving to help everyone get along and play nice. The government exists to remove force and fraud from human interaction, nothing more.