DuPage Libertarians

Cap and trade? Cap and tax? Is your knowledge of this latest energy policy scheme limited to little more than witty slogans or partisan sound bites? The reality is that the cap and trade legislation is nothing more than yet another government-granted license for private organizations to violate the rights of others. Before getting into the libertarian solution to pollution, let’s take a look at how cap and trade actually works.

While the bill that recently passed the House of Representatives weighs in at over 1200 pages (plus amendments), the simplified explanation consists of two parts: “cap” and “trade”. The cap is the part the liberals love. Government experts would determine the amount of greenhouse gasses our environment is capable of handling, and would then cap emissions at that level. But how would the government enforce this cap? By requiring companies to pay for the privilege of polluting, of course. “Emissions credits” would be auctioned off (or freely given to politically-favored corporations) to grant pollution rights to the highest bidder. Already, the plan is beginning to show its true colors.

The second part of this plan is “trade”. Once the companies have received their pollution permits, any company that falls short of its limit can sell its credits to another company. This gives the impression of free-markets to draw in conservatives, but the reality is that the money paid by companies to obtain these credits in the first place functions as a tax that gets passed on to consumers in the form of higher energy prices.

If the liberal plan reeks of pay-to-play corruption, and the conservative plan stinks of corporatism, what is the libertarian solution? The answer lies in individual rights. To illustrate this point, imagine that the government tells your neighbor that they can dump four bags of garbage into your yard, but not five, because five would be too much. To make matters worse, imagine that if this neighbor can’t find four whole bags of garbage, your other neighbor would get to dump the remaining amount of his own garbage into your yard as well. This is cap and trade in a nutshell. It should be perfectly clear here that the real issue is not pollution per se, but property rights. If property rights were properly enforced, and those harmed by pollution were free to sue companies that had harmed them, very few companies would find it in their interest to continue polluting. Likewise, while there would be no legal restriction keeping these companies from polluting their own property, it is no great intellectual feat to realize that it is not in their best interest to destroy their own property by continuing to do so.

Libertarians believe that government should never grant to private organizations (or to themselves) the right to commit what would otherwise be criminal or fraudulent acts. The way to improve the world is not through utilitarian arguments that “what’s good for business is good for America” or through centralized policy directives emanating from Washington, DC, but rather through respect for the individual, the smallest minority on earth.

As this is a relatively basic treatment of the problem, those wishing to look deeper should see ”Environmentalism and Economic Freedom: The Case For Private Property Rights” by Walter Block or ”Law, Property Rights, and Air Pollution” by Murray N. Rothbard for a deeper analysis.

Josh Hanson
Chair, DuPage Libertarians
630-200-9527

It’s easy for Libertarians to get used to being ignored. Sometimes it feels like everywhere we go, people are more concerned with which American Idol contestant was eliminated the night before than they are with the loss of their liberties. As much as this should encourage us to work harder, it’s not at all uncommon for hopelessness to set in or to see philosophical libertarians return to one of the two major parties where they can get some attention. Thankfully, if our experience last weekend at the Downers Grove Heritage Festival is any indication, that’s finally beginning to change.

From June 26-28, a handful of volunteers staffed a booth next to the Downers Grove Township Democrats to help spread the message of liberty. Thankfully, we didn’t have any real problems with the neighbors, but the real highlight of the weekend was the steady flow of visitors to our booth. People seem to be coming out of the woodwork to express an interest in the Libertarian Party (or just a frustration with the two-party system). In previous years, it has been difficult to obtain even a handful of names, but in three days, the DuPage Libertarians received 30 new names, increasing our contacts by fifty percent. This brings us to an increase of over 1000% since the beginning of the year. While we still have a long way to go, this should give all of us great motivation to redouble our efforts to get the message out.

As encouraging as it is to see people coming to the Libertarian Party, the unfortunate reality is that many of these same people expressed that they were not even aware that there was a DuPage County affiliate of the Libertarian Party. While we may often feel that we’re already working hard enough, we should never stop looking for better and more effective ways to reach our fellow citizens. If you have an idea, don’t keep it to yourself. Reach out to the leadership and ask how you can bring it about. Post Libertarian-themed updates to your social networking sites. Run for office as a Libertarian candidate. The opportunities for involvement are limited only by your imagination.

As a way to increase the coordination and organization of the DuPage Libertarians, we have created the position of Township Chair for those who would like to help build up the Libertarian Party in their respective areas. The duties of this office can be as involved as you make it, but at a minimum, we are looking for people who can keep track of local events (festivals, parades, etc) and function as a primary point of contact for other Libertarians in their township. Interested parties can join us at our monthly meetings or contact any of the leadership to express an interest.

Josh Hanson
Chair, DuPage Libertarians
630-200-9527

For those who missed the news, the Illinois House recently refused to give up their scheduled salary increase, even as Illinois is facing an unemployment rate of 9.1 percent and has lost nearly 200,000 jobs since last year.  House Bill 4438, introduced by Rep. Bill Black and cosponsored by 46 other House legislators, would have prohibited the automatic 2.8 percent salary increase for legislators in 2009.  Rather than leading from the front in hard times, the House voted 64-50 to increase their own pay, while Illinois voters struggle to feed their families.  As noted by Rep. Black, this proposal would have saved the state approximately two million dollars, a drop in the bucket given that the state is roughly eleven billion dollars in debt, but a clear opportunity for Illinois’ lawmakers to do what Governor Quinn has asked Illinois families to do themselves…sacrifice.  The DuPage Libertarians call on the Illinois House to reconsider Rep. Black’s bill and take responsibility in these hard times.  To quote Rep. Darlene Senger (R-Naperville), “To ask for a raise during this tough economic time is pathetic.”‘

Vote Results for HB 4438

Josh Hanson
President, DuPage Libertarians
630-200-9527

1798
- President John Adams signs the Alien and Sedition Acts, making it a crime punishable by time in prison to “oppose any measure or measures of the government of the United States” or to oppose or resist”any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States”. Several U.S. citizens of the opposition political party were arrested.

1861
- Maryland state legislators, mayor of Baltimore, and Congressman Henry May are arrested to prevent these men from voting to secede. Federal troops are then placed at polling places to intimidate voters and arrest those who were “polluting the ballot box” with the wrong ballots.

- President Abraham Lincoln suspends habeas corpus. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Roger B. Taney issues his opinion that only Congress has this power, not the President. A warrant is then issued for Taney’s arrest.

1863
- Democratic Congressman Clement Vallandigham gives a speech in Congress denouncing

“the usurpations and the infractions, one and all, of law and Constitution, by the President and those under him; their repeated and persistent arbitrary arrests, the suspension of habeas corpus, the violation of freedom of the mails, of the private house, of the press and of speech, and all the other multiplied wrongs and outrages upon public liberty and private right, which have made this country one of the worst despotisms on earth for the past twenty months…“.

In another speech, Congressman Vallandigham warns against President Lincoln’s support for “national banks, bankrupt laws, a vast and permanent public debt, high tariffs, heavy direct taxation, enormous expenditure…”. Congressman Vallandigham is subsequently arrested and deported for opposition to the ruling Party.

1864
- President Lincoln orders General John Dix to “take possession by military force, of the printing establishments of the New York World and Journal of Commerce…and prohibit any further publication thereof…you are therefore commanded forthwith to arrest and imprison…the editors, proprietors and publishers of the aforesaid newspapers.”

1942
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9066, authorizing the Secretary of War to “designate, whenever he or any designated Commander deems such action necessary or desirable, to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion.” Over 110,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were American citizens, were incarcerated for the duration of the war for no reason other than that they looked like the enemy.

2009
- Missouri Information Analysis Center releases a report profiling as potential domestic terrorists any citizen who opposes the Federal Reserve System, supports a third-party political candidate, or associates with the Campaign for Liberty.

- Congressman Alcee Hastings introduces H.R. 645, the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act, which would direct the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of Defense to designate at least six military installations to be”capable of meeting for an extended period of time the housing, health, transportation, education, public works, humanitarian and other transition needs of a large number of individuals” supposedly for the assistance of those affected by national emergencies.

While I have every hope that current and future governments of the United States will act honorably and will not abuse their powers, history is not on our side. President Barack Obama has made no secret of his admiration of Presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt, some of the worst offenders of individual liberty in American history. When government power is expanded, the political apathy of the general public allows this power to be used in immoral and unconstitutional ways. The argument that “it can’t happen here” simply doesn’t hold true. I call on every American to oppose any further expansion of government authority—your freedom may depend on it.

Josh Hanson
President, DuPage Libertarians
630-200-9527