Libertarian Party Congratulates President Barack Obama
Tuesday, January 20, 2009

“Congratulations to President Barack Obama on his inauguration as the 44th President of the United States," says Libertarian Party National Chairman William Redpath. "I think all Americans ultimately want what libertarians want—peace, prosperity and freedom. If President Obama and the 111th and 112th Congresses succeed in bringing us all that, they will truly be heroes to this nation."

“However, because so many people, including libertarians, are skeptical that they will do so with the current and proposed public policies," says Redpath, "the Libertarian Party will continue to exist and grow, and propose and diligently work for the policies that we think will bring this nation peace, prosperity and freedom.”

“I hope President Obama is extremely serious about terminating government programs that are found to be ineffective, as he stated in his inaugural address," Redpath continues. "He’ll have to be to succeed in doing that. If fair judgments are made about all federal government programs, we should see a reduction in the size of the federal government that the Republican Party was never able to achieve.”

“I also was heartened to see President Obama speak of respect for market economies and responsibility to oneself before responsibility to the nation and the world," says Redpath. "But, to induce the American people to be more responsible, they will need to be given more freedom from government coercion. Responsibility and freedom are the two sides of the same coin.”

“President Obama has distinguished himself as a great orator, and in that regard, I respectfully ask him to do one thing: not to cheapen the word ‘freedom,’ as so many of his predecessors have done. While I am not suggesting that the United States become something other than a democratic republic, past presidents have suggested that because we have a democracy that we are 'free.' Freedom means living one’s life as one chooses, as long as one does not harm other people or their property, and the simple existence of democracy does not guarantee that. Only proper public policies will," Redpath explains.

“If President Obama pursues policies of economic freedom, which is the historical fundamental reason of this world’s prosperity, and personal freedom, we will have a prosperous, harmonious and just society—and he would go down as a great President,” says Redpath.

There are many things Libertarians can hope to see from the Obama Administration: The elimination of programs; an end to the Patriot Act; an end to the wasteful War on Drugs; a swift draw-down from Iraq, among others.

Our national trend has been towards ever larger government, and it is easy to suspect that the Obama Administration will give us just that. And, as with the outgoing Bush Administration, we learned that our hopes for delivering on areas of agreement Libertarians share with Republicans went without being delivered upon, it could as well happen here.

But let us work to promote the areas where we have common ground with Democrats. Who knows? We might just get government moving in our direction this time around.

If the new Administration fails to deliver, let us remind our friends who voted for Barack Obama that elected Libertarians do deliver- especially on liberty and freedom. It's in our name.

Labels: Barack Obama, inaugural address