As my tenure as chairman of the Libertarian Party of Utah draws to a close, I pass along the following observations:

• While institutionalized aggression continues to metastasize in this heart of red-state darkness, more and more Americans are embracing the libertarian program of peace and prosperity.
• A former U.S. Senator and former U.S. Representative are among those who will likely seek the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination over the Memorial Day weekend in Denver, Colorado. The 2008 Libertarian National Convention will probably be the most widely-viewed event in the party of free agency's history to date.
• With more than four out of five Americans of the opinion that the country is on the "wrong track" -- and they are correct -- never before have so many people been ready to consider the electoral options outside of the irretrievably corrupt, two-party duopoly.

Ron Paul is a lifetime member of the Libertarian Party. Ron Paul was the Libertarian candidate for President in 1988. Why? Because Ron Paul and the Libertarian Party share the same values:

* Individual Liberty
* Personal Responsibility
* Limited Government

Although the Republican Party occasionally talks about these values, they certainly don't walk the walk. Nowadays, Republicans are the Party of runaway spending and unending war — that's not Ron Paul at all.

Ron Paul is not the choice of Republican voters either: 97% of Utah Republicans rejected Ron Paul in the February 5, 2008 presidential primary.

Ron Paul is the choice of Libertarians: nearly three-fourths of Libertarians support Ron Paul.

Ron Paul's message is distinctly Libertarian, as shown in the following video recounting his appearance last year on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno":

As Ron said, "The message is powerful. You know, I have my shortcomings. But the message has no shortcomings. The message of liberty is what America is all about."

The message of liberty is what both Ron Paul and the Libertarian Party are all about.

We invite you to join the Party that believes what Ron Paul believes. Join the Party that welcomes you and your belief in the values of liberty.

Join the Libertarian Party. Start by joining the LPUtah. We need every Ron Paul fan to join us and nurture the seeds of liberty that Ron Paul plants every day.

Unruly boys
Who will not grow up
Must be taken in hand
Unruly girls
Who will not settle down
They must be taken in hand

A crack on the head
Is what you get for not asking
And a crack on the head
Is what you get for asking

--The Smiths, "Barbarism Begins at Home"

When we talk about the state, we are really talking about authority, which is nothing more or less than the power that one person has over another. When children are young, each family operates as a kind of "mini state."

--Stefan Molyneux, "Man, Family and State"

The winter holidays provide opportunities not only for celebration, but to bond and renew commitments with family members.

Sadly, ‘tis also the season when existing conflicts between parents and children can become more pronounced, often preceding acts of domestic violence.

More and more libertarians are exploring the ideological implications of traditional parenting practices on existing institutions.

For example, what is the source of man’s authoritarian and inhumane treatment of his fellow man?

"So long as libertarians withhold their consent from conservative politicians, those politicians can't win."

--Ryan Sager, columnist and blogger for the New York Post and RealClearPolitics.com

In the American political theory classic, Federalist 10, author James Madison proposed controls on the effects of factions:

If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote.
...
Either the existence of the same passion or interest in a majority at the same time must be prevented, or the majority, having such coexistent passion or interest, must be rendered, by their number and local situation, unable to concert and carry into effect schemes of oppression.

Unfortunately, the bipartisan scheme of oppression most Americans live under today arose as the result of the single-member district plurality voting systems that underlie almost all elections in the United States, which has yielded two dominant political factions. Combined with the advent of "log rolling" -- a technique through which legislators poorly monitored by voters behave in ways that are costly to citizens -- the two-party system has managed to defeat the U.S. Constitution's checks and balances against "the interested combinations of the majority."

A modern example of the majoritarian erosion of constitutional barriers is the receipt of "significant income" from government programs by more than half of all Americans. In other words, the tax eaters -- both from the political left and political right -- outnumber the taxpayers.

How might those who champion the cause of liberty restore the free America envisioned by its founders; an American society as described in Federalist 51 "broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority"?

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats."
--H.L. Mencken

As the handiwork of the 2007 General Session of the State of Utah's Legislature comes online, Utahns have until April 29th to find the exits, or prepare for the next assault upon civil society by the political class.

One tool used by the members of civil society to protect against institutionalized aggression is the jury, an assembly of citizens selected randomly to resolve disputes.

Is it time for juries to make a comeback in the defense of individual liberty?

Random acts of liberty

The classic film "12 Angry Men" dramatizes how one juror can save the citizen accused from being wrongfully convicted.

And because election-rigging Republicans and Democrats continue to cheat all Americans out of more competitive and representative means to choose lawmakers, randomly-selected jurors are among the few individuals who can stop the enforcement of an unjust law.

The Fully Informed Jury Association is one organization working to raise awareness of a juror's powers.

But what if a juror is unaware of his or her power to evaluate the law?

"Lincoln was a master politician, which means that he was a consummate conniver, manipulator, and liar."
--Murray Rothbard, "Just War"

As the Party of Lincoln's Utah affiliates gather this month to pay tribute to their murdered -- and murderous -- namesake, local corporate statists will genuflect before one of their own who employed political means to enrich himself, Larry H. Miller.

Propagandists reinforce illusions that keep the powerful in power with monuments, holidays, official proclamations, and the "party line."

What are some of the myths perpetuated by the political class that empowered Lincoln, empowers Miller, and will empower future crony capitalists until they are widely debunked by a free people?

Utah's political class convenes to divide up the loot

"Government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods."
--H.L. Mencken, Minority Report: H.L. Mencken's Notebooks

The Utah Legislature's 45-day general session runs from January 15th to February 28th.

Special interests -- which contributed 95.7 percent of all campaign donations made to incoming state legislators -- will be lobbying for a healthy return on their investments in the form of the kind of privileges that can be conferred only by the State of Utah.

Dear Abby:
My father is a businessman who travels.
Each time he returns from one of his trips,
his shoes and trousers
are covered with blood—

but he never forgets to bring me a nice present;
Should I say something?
Signed, America.

--Tony Hoagland, "Hard Rain"

Unless you count yourself among those who own stock in or are employed by the companies that federal, state, and local governments pay to fight the War on Drugs, -- in places such as Afghanistan -- you're a loser in that war.

"The war on drugs is really a war on people -- on anyone who uses or grows or makes or sells a forbidden drug."

--Ethan A. Nadelman, Drug Policy Alliance

What has the rest of America lost, aside from the tens of billions spent at all levels of government to fight the Drug War?

"Democrats seem to be basically nicer people, but they have demonstrated time and time again that they have the management skills of celery. They're the kind of people who'd stop to help you change a flat, but would somehow manage to set your car on fire. I would be reluctant to entrust them with a Cuisinart, let alone the economy. The Republicans, on the other hand, would know how to fix your tire, but they wouldn't bother to stop because they'd want to be on time for Ugly Pants Night at the country club."
--Dave Barry

My last post mentioned the late Barry Goldwater, and now an interview portrays prominent Democrats speaking favorably about the former liberty-minded U.S. senator and presidential candidate.

So perhaps Democrats are following through with the strategy of courting libertarian voters, while neoconservatives -- who "despise libertarians" -- attempt to "fear and smear" their way into the dark hearts of authoritarian voters.

Indeed, earlier this year such a Democrat contacted me. He incorrectly took my comments during a radio program (MP3 file) (at about 0:40 to 3:28) explaining the LPUtah's spoiler strategy to mean that I was "urging Libertarians in swing districts to vote for Democrats."

In his latest book, Conservatives Without Conscience, former Nixon White House operative John Dean attempts to explain why the Republican party has abandoned the libertarian policies championed by its 1964 presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater.