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In 2004 I ran as a protest candidate in the 2004 Republican President Primary. If you enjoy talking about politics, running for President is surely one of the most enjoyable things you can do. It was an amazing opportunity to talk about our country with a broad cross section of people and personalities.
In 2020 the prospect of Sanders v. Trump was frightening enough that I started running in the 2020 Libertarian Presidential Primaries, dropping out once Bernie faded. I came away from the experience of running for president convinced of three things:
Like it or not, governments have to make hard decisions – we have to allocate scare resources among many competing needs. The start of that process has to be transparency – we have to be conscious to ask the hard questions. Too often elected officials of both parties shy away from the full truth, afraid of offending a part of their constituency. But we have no choice – unless we start with an honest, even harsh appraisal of our problems, we will never arrive at the right solution. And we have to get it right. Individual freedom doesn’t just happen. It happens because we as a society make decisions to ensure that each new generation has the skills and opportunities to take control of their lives. We need an effective, efficient government to ensure that each of us has the best possible opportunity to choose the course of our own lives. And this means Democratic Capitalism. The compromise we made in the 1930s – stick with the free market but use the power of government to ensure everyone gets in the game, everyone benefits and everyone plays by the same set of rules – is still the best, even the only answer for our country. We need to get back to Democratic Capitalism. |
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