The common goal: a society of freedom, peace, prosperity, pursuit
of happiness, equal treatment under the law, accountability for harm
done, and respect for privacy.
Goodness is voluntary, morality is personal, and laws cannot change human
nature.
Only actions causing physical, property or financial harm,
or that endanger other people, or involving fraud should be illegal.
Government's mission: (1) preserve personal and economic liberty,
(2) protect citizens against foreign enemies and from criminals,
(3) hold people who cause harm accountable, (4) make judgment
calls when peoples' liberties conflict, and (5) preserve general
order.
Unlike those other parties, libertarians have a simple-but-elegant core principle
that serves as the basis for policy positions: government and people should limit
use of force to situations requiring defense against others who are or who are about to use force to cause harm. In fact, to become
a member of the Libertarian Party a person must agree to the following pledge: "I hereby
certify that I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of
achieving political or social goals."
