America is in crisis. We're facing great danger from our own government. I've identified twelve points every American should be alarmed about. I'll say more on them later.
I'm Aaron Russo
by Aaron Russo
America is in crisis. We're facing great danger from our own government. I've identified twelve points every American should be alarmed about. I'll say more on them later.
I'm asking you to give me the Libertarian Presidential nomination. Why me? Why should you support my campaign?
You should support me because every political campaign has two vital segments: issues and viability.
Issues? Let me be honest. I've debated my opponents. They're fine Libertarians, and both intelligent and eloquent. But our debates were a bit dull. We all agreed with each other on almost every question.
Viability? The viability part is what matters. Knowing the issues is not enough. We need a Presidential candidate who can produce a powerful campaign. We need a Presidential candidate who can make the American people sit up and listen when a Libertarian talks.
First, I'm the only candidate who is seasoned at running a major political campaign. In 1998, I ran for Governor of Nevada, where I received slightly less than 30 percent of the vote in a four-way primary. My campaign spent more than one and a half million dollars against my opposition's six million. I polled as high as 47%, and received more votes than the sitting Lieutenant Governor in that race. Soon thereafter, I became a Libertarian. When you ask: "Can you and your team handle something as big as a Libertarian Presidential campaign?" I simply answer "I've done it before."
When I ran for Governor, Jack Nicholson endorsed my campaign and made radio ads for me. Can my opponents offer the same opportunity to the Libertarian Party?
Second, I'm here to move the Party to a new level of success and recognition. In my quest to elevate the party into prominence, I realized that we had to be on the ballot in all fifty states. To do that, the party told me we needed $250,000 to guarantee success in this endeavor, so I offered to give 25 percent of the first million I raise to assure ballot access. I challenge my opponents to do the very same thing, so that no matter who wins the nomination, we will be on ballot nationwide. I've recruited the Party's leading ballot access and Campaign Finance Law experts to help. We'll report exactly how your money was spent. And there may be more surprises in the ballot access arena announced soon.
Third, my professional background: I'm a producer. My best-known films are Trading Places and The Rose -- starring people like Bette Midler, Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy. I'm a fiscally responsible businessman, with a history of successfully managing multi-million dollar budgets. In an industry infamous for budget overruns. My films, television, Broadway, and music productions have always been completed on budget and on time. My peers have given me an Emmy, a Tony, Golden Globe nominations, many gold and platinum records, and six Academy Award nominations. For a presidential candidate to be taken seriously by the public at large, he has to have a proven history of successes.
Fourth, I have a serious campaign organization, supported as volunteers by some of the best people in the party. My Campaign Manager is Stephen Gordon, the Alabama State Vice Chair, who has a long string of real world political wins under his belt. George Phillies is on board as a Senior Campaign Advisor, providing institutional knowledge and financial integrity to the campaign. My Campaign Treasurer is Nick Dunbar. My Volunteer Coordinator is Johnny Crawford of North Carolina. William Mangieri is Communications Director. Elected Libertarian public official Bill Woolsey is a Campaign Strategist. Lance Brown of California and John Slevin of Colorado are Campaign Advisors. We already have 26 active state coordinators, who have been recruited in less than three weeks.
A list of policy experts in a variety of fields will be announced soon. As an example, Libertarian Loretta Nall, the founder of the USMJ Party and Pot-TV reporter, accepted the title of Drug Policy Coordinator just today.
Because we are Libertarians, members of the Party that actually cares about ideas and issues, I close with twelve points that should alarm every American. See what our government is doing:
1. Both political parties lie to us, and neither can be trusted. 2. Our economy is a disaster. 3. We're losing our right to free speech. 4. Both parties passed the Patriot Act, a crime against all Americans. 5. Both wage war against medical marijuana and alternative medicine. 6. Both attack our right to bear arms. 7. Both parties overtax, overspend, and over-regulate. 8. Where is the gold owned by the American people? 9. Both parties station our troops around the world rather than protecting our borders from terrorism and illegal immigration. 10. Both parties are guilty of starting the war in Iraq. 11. Both parties want to keep our troops there indefinitely. 12. Both parties are equally guilty for America's youth dying there for no reason.
If you keep voting for one of the major parties, nothing will change. You're wasting your vote. It is time for the American people to rise up and put an end to our corrupt government. Give me our nomination, and I'll be proud to lead the way.
If elected, I will bring our troops home from every corner of the globe. I'll stop foreign aid. I'll end our deficit and bring fiscal discipline to Washington. I'll revoke the Patriot Act. I'll cut taxes, cut spending, and cut the size of government. I'll end corporate welfare. I'll engage all nations in trade and commerce. I'll protect our air and water, I'll protect our borders, and most important I will protect our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
You own your life. The FDA has no right to limit your options for curing yourself. I will stop the Federal Government from denying people the use of medical marijuana.
George Bush talks about the "Axis of Evil." I am much more afraid of the four pillars of Fascism ... Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft.
Do you want to live in an America where government is your master, or your servant?
I believe that every American owns their own life and government's primary function is to protect the individual's freedom, so that every person is free to do with their life as they choose, as long as they do not commit violence, theft or fraud. Unfortunately, Government today believes it is the master and you are the servant. I intend to put an end to that perversion.
The choice is yours.
Aaron Russo
To volunteer or donate to the Russo Campaign:
http://www.russoforpresident.com/
Most people around here don't vote for libs. Be they liberteens or liberals, all the same to me.
Since you can't spell "libertine" correctly, maybe it's also true that you are wrong about libertarians.
Bush has increased the size of government faster than Clinton could ever dream of. Bush has supported the biggest spending increase in Medicare history. Even if you count the war on terrorism, then Bush still outspends Clinton by considerable margin.
So what would Al Gore have done differently had he been elected?
Bush supports trigger locks on handguns, funding for AIDS treatment in Africa, intervention in Liberia, expanding Medicare, deficit spending, expanding the Dept. of Education(which Republicans were supposed to get rid of), expanding funding for the arts(which Republicans were also supposed to get rid of), and the list goes on.
Now all of these things are supposed to be the foundation of modern liberalism. So to say the least, Bush is very liberal. This means that you support a liberal, therefore support liberal policies. Maybe you are the liberal
"The ultimate consequence of protecting men from the results of their own folly is to fill the world with fools."
Herbert Spencer
I respect the Libertarian Party - I even agree with some of their agenda. There needs to be a serious debate on these issues and we will not get that from the Republicans or the Democrats. There is a choice tho. I do not know if Mr. Russo is the destined to be the nominee for the LP in 2004 but I would like to present the speech of the Constitution Party presumptive nominee. Let's see how the two honest, constitutional respecting parties of America stack up:
Mr. Chairman, Madam Secretary, Members of the National Executive Committee, Members of the Constitution Party, Instructors and Hosts and Graduates and Students of Institute on the Constitution, Members of the General Assembly of Maryland, Members of the Peroutka Family, Friends, Dear Brothers and Sisters…
My name is Michael Anthony Peroutka and today I formally declare my candidacy for the Constitution Party nomination for the Office of President of the United States.
Psalm 11, Verse 3 asks, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” In the context of this verse, King David is being pursued by enemies on every side. His advisors have counseled him to “flee as a bird to the mountains” since they see no hope of victory. So David asks, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
David did not choose to flee to the mountains but to stand and fight. He realized that his mission – his calling from God – his vocation -- was to rebuild the foundations. My fellow Americans, this is our mission and our calling as well.
David says that the Lord tests the righteous and David puts his trust in the Lord. The Lord is now testing us and we must do the same. Therefore, we must not “flee to the mountains”. This is not a time for despair or discouragement. This is a time for discernment and decisive action.
Are the foundations being destroyed? You know that they are. The evidence of this is everywhere. Abortion; “Gay Marriage”; Loss of American Sovereignty; Judicial Tyranny; Unconstitutional spending; Exporting American jobs; Illegal Immigration; Fiscal Irresponsibility; But what is really going on? What’s really happening to the foundations?
What are the foundations? Let’s talk about it.
The very first presupposition of American law and government is set forth in our Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson in the second sentence of that historic and foundational document declared to the world that all men are CREATED equal. Of course, this presupposes the existence of a Creator God.
Secondly, the Declaration goes on to say that the rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- including freedom of conscience and the right to own property – come from God. Furthermore, these rights are unalienable precisely because of their Divine origin.
Thirdly, the Declaration speaks to the purpose of Government. Sadly, this is greatly misunderstood today – not only by most Americans but also by most American leaders.
At IOTC, we suggest that citizens ask their elected representatives or those that seek elected office this question: “What is the purpose of Government?”
The answers you will get are quite revealing.
Most politicians in America today will say something like:
-The purpose of Government is to provide a level playing field
-The purpose of Government is to make everybody safe
-The purpose of Government is to maintain the infrastructure
-The purpose of Government is to take care of people who can’t take care of themselves
-The purpose of government is to take care of the children of the State
-The purpose of Government is to protect the environment
I think you will agree that these common answers to this question involve some degree or other of a socialist sentiment.
Let’s compare this to what Thomas Jefferson said the purpose of government is. He said, “To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed.”
So, the purpose of government, in an American understanding, is to protect God-given rights.
The sad truth is that most elected and most appointed officials today think that the purpose of government is to redistribute wealth -- your wealth.
You see, it has to be your wealth because, in the case of the federal government, the U.S. doesn’t have any wealth. In fact, our federal government is broke. Actually it’s worse than broke. It’s about seven trillion dollars in debt. And it’s getting worse and our leaders don’t care. At least if you judge how much they care by their commitment to do something about it.
So how are the foundations destroyed? They are destroyed because our leaders have forsaken the true purpose of government and the true source of law and liberty. Both major parties have adopted the presuppositions of socialism and they have abandoned the presuppositions of America.
Let me be clear about what I’m saying. The major parties do not represent the ideas and principles upon which our country was founded. I am saying that they are not American in their approach to law and government.
They have thus broken covenant with the American people.
This is why our federal bureaucracies have parasitically devoured the resources and the liberty of a people to whom they are pledged to be accountable. This is why the federal courts have forsaken the rule of law and rule illegally and unconstitutionally by the fiat of judicial oligarchs who have been methodically eliminating all acknowledgment and memory of our Christian history and heritage.
Even now, the foundations are being destroyed by blatant attacks on the right of the people to acknowledge the God upon whom our nation was founded.
If we see that the foundations are being destroyed, shall we “flee as a bird to the mountains?” No, ladies and gentlemen of America, we must not.
What we must do, however is learn our history and learn from it.
Professor Chris Shlect, of New St. Andrews College says that HISTORY IS LIKE A MALL MAP that gives contextual meaning to the little arrow that says, “YOU ARE HERE”.
We know that we are someplace, but unless we know our history we don’t know where that someplace is.
With a knowledge of our history and with faith in Divine Providence, we see that God has placed each of us is a particular place, at a particular time, with particular resources and particular passions. We must discern what is His particular purpose for us.
Like David, we must recognize our place in History, we must remember that God is still on His throne and that the mission before us is to rebuild the foundations of America.
This is why I became involved in the Institute on the Constitution. This is why I have tried my best to teach my children about American history and their American heritage of liberty.
This is why I am seeking the Presidential nomination of the Constitution Party. I want, with your help, to call this country back to its original, Godly Constitutional greatness! I’m running for President because I want to help bring about a real restoration in America. I want to help to REBUILD THE FOUNDATIONS.
How can we do this?
The themes of our Campaign are GOD – FAMILY – REPUBLIC
In short, we are called to honor the Sovereignty of God – defend the American Family – and Restore the American Republic.
The God of the Bible must be first because – well – because He says so.
You know, we live in such a secular age today that it seems strange to talk about God and government at the same time. We’ve been indoctrinated so that we ask, “What does God have to do with government?”
Well, this question would have been easily answered by our founders. They understood the connection between the two.
For example, in his October 3, 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation, George Washington, the father of our country, said “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.”
You see, our country was founded by men and women who believed that “righteousness exalts a nation,” and that “unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.”
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts today is a scene of chaos and confusion resulting from the efforts of sodomites, abetted by cowardly politicians, to gain legitimacy for perversion through a corrupt court system. But in 1630, John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, delivered a speech entitled “A Model of Christian Charity”. Its purpose was to prepare those with him for the establishment of a new society in this country. Governor Winthrop said, among other things, that if they dealt falsely with God, and turned away to worship other gods, they would surely perish out of this good land.
It saddens me to say it, but in many ways, we have dealt falsely with God. And, increasingly, our out-of-control, tyrannical courts have attacked the Christian religion upon which our country was founded by forbidding civil governments from acknowledging God.
I never thought I’d see the day in America when any judge would tell any state official that He could not acknowledge the sovereignty of the God of the Bible and attribute to Him our religious freedom. But this is exactly what U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson told Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore he could not do!
What Judge Thompson implicitly advocates is HUMANISM. The denial of God’s Sovereignty is the root cause of every major dictatorship of the 20th century, the bloodiest century in all recorded history. It was Godless government that resulted in the mass murders committed by the Chinese and Soviet Communists, the Nazis, the Cambodian Communists and countless other petty, God hating tyrants.
If I am elected President, I will, like our forefathers, acknowledge and honor God as the source of law, liberty and government. And I will do everything in my Constitutional power to see that no person who fails to acknowledge God will be appointed to the Federal judiciary!
I will support and pledge to sign the Constitutional Restoration Act introduced in the Senate by Senators Shelby, Brownback and Miller and Graham and in the House by Representative Aderholt of Alabama and others. I support this effort to limit the jurisdiction of the Federal Courts under Article III of the Constitution and will do all in my power to ensure that our right to acknowledge God in public places is in no way infringed.
Furthermore, I will seek to remove from office any federal judge who advocates reliance on foreign law or the decisions of foreign courts -- as some Supreme Court Justices have recently done.
Let me speak for a moment about our second theme --Defending the family.
No institution in America is under greater attack than the God-created, God-ordained family. Increasingly we are told by tyrannical, out of control courts, and others, that marriage is in the eye of the beholder – that marriage is whatever people want it to be.
But this is a lie.
Marriage is defined by God alone. And He HAS defined it. He says it is to be only between a man and a woman. PERIOD! And Godly marriage does not need the approval of any civil government.
Let me here declare that I oppose homosexual marriage and civil unions, even as I oppose the hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies which President Bush and the Democrats in Congress have supported to promote “safe sodomy” and underwrite the infrastructure of the homosexual movement.
Abortion is also a part of the attack on the family. Our current President has failed to lead on this premier moral issue of our time – which is the systematic slaughter of innocent, defenseless, unborn children in the womb.
For example, he has approved legislation to send additional scores of millions of tax dollars to Planned Parenthood and other groups which promote additional infanticide.
He has failed to stop the Food and Drug Administration from authorizing the distribution of RU 486, the abortion pill which has already been used to snuff out the lives of thousands of unborn children, even as it has placed at risk the lives and health of mothers who have decided to kill their own children.
I was present just weeks ago at the 31st annual March for Life in Washington DC when the President, by telephone, told the marchers that theirs was a noble cause. He said we must remind our fellow citizens that all human life is sacred and worthy of protection.
But in his State of the Union Speech – just two days before – a speech watched by millions of our fellow citizens – Mr. Bush reminded us of no such thing. The word “abortion” did not pass his lips. He said nothing about the sacredness of human life – though he did take time to demand that athletes stop taking steroids.
As President, I would do everything in my power to end the national disgrace of abortion. Starting with a formal acknowledgment of the personhood of every child from the moment of conception – and the appointment of U.S. Attorneys, by recess appointment if necessary, who will enforce the Fifth Amendment requirement that no person be deprived of life without due process of law.
As President, I would advocate a total ban on all abortions and a total ban on any federal funding of abortions, here or abroad.
Finally, let me address our third theme – Restoring the Republic.
Sad to say, millions of Americans have no idea that the form of government our founders bequeathed us was not a democracy but a Constitutional – Representative -- Republic. Even sadder – and a lot more dangerous – is the obvious fact that most of those running the three branches of our national government – both Democrats and Republicans – do not care that our founders gave us a Constitutional – Representative – Republic.
If you have ever read the Constitution, and you’ve listened to what they call the Democratic debates, you know that none of the Democratic Presidential Candidates intend to be faithful to the plain text of the Constitution of the United States. Moreover, you also know that President Bush has recklessly committed hundreds of billions of dollars to programs that are beyond the delegated, enumerated functions of the federal government.
It is startling to realize that as you listen to them campaign – as you listen to them propose unconstitutional spending on unconstitutional programs --they are revealing to you the reasons why you cannot, in good conscience, as an honest American citizen, give them your precious vote.
They are telling you that they will violate their oath of office even before they take it.
An American President is responsible for protecting and securing the interests of Americans. Although the President of the United States is a recognized world leader, he is not elected by the World. He does not represent the World. His constituency is the American people.
Therefore, as President, I will support trade policies which favor American manufacturers, American workers, and American consumers. I will withdraw the United States from the World Trade Organization and NAFTA.
Because I agree with George Washington that ours should be an independent Republic, I will withdraw our government from the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the whole panoply of New World Order institutions which suck up our taxes and expend them in a manner which, in violation of our Constitution, is not accountable to our Senate, our House of Representatives, or our people.
Since I understand the clear meaning of “shall not be infringed”, I will support the right to keep and bear arms throughout the United States, including the District of Columbia and I will oppose efforts by the United Nations to restrict our God-given right of self-defense.
I will stop subsidizing the 9,000 bureaucrats at the United Nations with the tax dollars of the American people, and will reject the notion that the socialist majority in the United Nations can assess “dues” (a euphemism for taxes) on the American people.
I unequivocally oppose amnesty for illegal aliens. I will police our borders, and I will enforce the principles of California’s Proposition 187, which made clear that U.S. Taxpayers ought not provide welfare and other bureaucratic services to illegal aliens.
As John Adams said, “We are friends of liberty everywhere but guardians only of our OWN liberty. Our second president warned us specifically about the dangers of going abroad in search of monsters to destroy.
Heeding this sound advice, I will withdraw our troops from Iraq, and will not place the lives of American soldiers at risk except to defend America and her vital interests.
I will eliminate the taxes on Social Security benefits first imposed during the Reagan Administration and increased under Bill Clinton.
I will block efforts to give Social Security benefits to persons who are not citizens of the United States, including illegal aliens who have returned to Mexico.
I will work to replace the Federal income tax with a tariff-based revenue system, as I seek to repeal the Sixteenth Amendment and abolish the IRS.
LET ME CONCLUDE MY REMARKS BY REMINDING YOU that
Ideas and principles which we fail to advocate in the political arena are lost to history. The principle of liberty under law must not suffer that fate. It must be preserved, protected and defended.
Oh, but people have said to me, “Michael, you can’t win.”
Well, Saul said that to David just before Goliath had a rock sunk into his forehead. Saul had forgotten that “With God, all things are possible”.
Besides, haven’t you had enough evidence that the lesser of two evils is still evil?
If you keep doing the same thing over and over again, why would you be surprised when you get the same result?
I’ve heard it said that repeating the same action and hoping for a different result is actually the definition of insanity.
Let’s end the national insanity. Stop wasting your vote on politicians who have no intention of obeying the U.S. Constitution.
My friend, Howard Phillips says, “If you don’t vote for what you believe, you’ll never get what you want. You don’t have to waste your vote on the lesser of two evils. You have a Constitutional choice.
Exercising a righteous choice is what our founders did when they laid the foundations. Now, you can help to REBUILD THE FOUNDATIONS
George Washington said that it is up to us to “raise a standard to which the wise and honest may repair, recognizing that the event is in the hands of God.”
And John Quincy Adams wrote, “Duty is ours, consequences are God’s.”
I pledge to you I will do my duty.
I urge you to do yours.
I ask for your support and your vote for President
I ask for you to help me honor and acknowledge God in our civil governments.
I ask you to help me defend the God-ordained family.
I ask you to help me restore our Constitutional, Representative Republic.
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
I ask you to help me, with God’s help and Grace, do what the righteous must do --REBUILD THE FOUNDATIONS.
In 1961, I was eight years old when I heard President John F. Kennedy, in his inaugural address, say “here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”
I will say the same thing in my inaugural address.
I will mean it.
God Bless you and God Bless our American Constitutional Republic.
Let the debate begin :)
http://www.peroutka2004.com/index.html
You have summoned me to a cold and lonely place...for a third-party debate?
I found myself in a dark and forboding place, strictly by accident, and kicked over a rock whilst there. If'n I had it to do over again, I'd probably just flee :)
also there are many elected positions where a candidate, especially at the local level where one's view on abortion is practically moot depending on the duties of the position
That is true but in any position character matters and I cannot in good faith vote for someone who holds a morally untenable position. I could vote for a pro-life LP candidate however in a position that had nothing to do with abortion law, or if he/she demonstrated a willingness to ignore the LP's platform position.
That's the longest reply I've see so far... wow... I think you have a good point
I personally rest my case on this discussion (no formal opinion yet)... 'cuz if I'll say something either for it or even against it, someone in the room (and you people know who you are ;) ) would definetely bite my head off and believe it or not I still need it on my shoulders :)
I guess, whichever decision someone else would make (as crazy as it might sound) I might accept it.