Thirteen Questions For George W. Bush

by L. Neil Smith
[email protected]

Exclusive to The Libertarian Enterprise

          In these final moments of the 20th century, when the "Old Media" -- TV, newspapers and magazines, and to some extent, radio -- serve interests inimical to the people of America, no one can be relied on to ask real questions of political candidates but the "New Media" -- the internet. Having seen interest rise in the candidacy of Texas governor George W. Bush, son of the former president, The Libertarian Enterprise presents this list of questions we'd ask him if he weren't surrounded by thugs and protected by the round-heeled press.
          Since Bush is as inaccessible as any politician, we suggest that readers forward these questions to every Bush supporter they know, from rank-and-file voters to media personalities. It's our bet that any answers they extract will only support our contention that there isn't a nickel's worth of difference between what liberal Democrats have done to America and what conservative Republicans plan to do.
          1. Bill Clinton's presidency has been a disaster from start to finish, more damaging -- especially to the Constitution and the rule of law -- than any series of events since the war between the states. It will take decades to repair this damage, and only then provided that there's no more done. What will you do to begin the repairs?
          2. The only disaster greater than the election of Bill Clinton is the War on Drugs, which, failing in its publicly stated purpose, has turned into a full scale war against the Bill of Rights. It has corrupted government at every level, made billionaires of petty foreign criminals, turned our inner cities into freefire zones, and inflicted brutality and death on countless innocent victims. It has provided a myriad of excuses for treating a once free people like cattle. Worst of all, it has spread drugs more widely than the traditional purveyors of drugs ever could. What will you do to end this war against the American people and their rights?
          3. One of the worst things Clinton has done is to involve America in a bloody and unwinnable war in the forever-warring Balkans, simply to distract the public and media from his many domestic crimes. What will you do to end this war, bring American troops home, and eliminate the power of a president to do such a thing again?
          4. Americans have been dismayed to observe, especially since 1994, that the elected representatives of your Republican Party are, almost without exception, a collection of cowards, idiots, and four-flushers, more than willing to sell out Americans and their rights to stay in office. As its standard-bearer, what will you do to remedy the pusillanimity, stupidity, and dishonesty of the GOP?
          5. The most overblown "crisis" in American history is "Y2K". Although we now know there are no earth-shattering technical problems in the offing, the media have done their damnedest to panic the nation over it. Meanwhile, contractors and consultants have a gold mine as long as they keep the hysteria going and self-styled experts on survival are selling books, courses, and supplies by the metric ton to gullible idiots. But the creatures who expect to extract the most benefit from this self-inflicted hoax are those in the government who plan to have the President impose martial law, suspend the Bill of Rights, shut down the internet, send troops house to house collecting weapons, and cancel the election of 2000. As your party's leader, what will you do -- now -- to prevent what amounts to a Clintonian coup d'etat using Y2k as an excuse?
          6. Sometime over the last dozen years, the government declared war on America. It now routinely steals people's cash if it thinks they're carrying "too much", takes their cars if they're suspected of breaking some illegal local statute, smashes into their homes, destroys their belongings, crushes their pets underfoot, kidnaps their children, beats people up, and kills them. Ordinary, law-abiding individuals, seeing less and less difference between the police and Serbs ravaging Yugoslavia, worry they'll be treated the same way if they mark the wrong box on some form, make too large a withdrawal at their banks, exercise their rights too conspicuously, or speak out against these violations of everything America is supposed to stand for. What will you do to restore America's peace of mind, disarm the federal bureaucracy, demilitarize the police, and bring government back into compliance with decent standards of conduct and the Constitution?
          7. Another thing deeply troubling thoughtful Americans is the use of the military to enforce domestic -- usually unconstitutional -- laws. So far, training exercises have terrorized thousands and damaged property. Use of the military to augment the Border Patrol resulted in at least one wrongful death. What will you do to end these dangerous practices, and have American troops thoroughly indoctrinated in the Bill of Rights so they can't be misused like this again?
          8. The judiciary at all levels is swollen and putrid with judges ignorant of the law -- and belligerent toward it -- who believe their authority exceeds that of common law and the Constitution. They systematically prevent defendants from referring to the Bill of Rights and viciously suppress the 1000-year-old duty of a jury to examine the law as well as the facts of a case. What will you do to rid us of such judges and restore the rule of law to courtrooms across America?
          9. For decades, the productive class has born a burden of taxes four or five times greater than that of a medieval serf, while local, state, and federal governments are now hundreds of times the size they ought to be. If there's any place in the world or any time in history where people should keep the fruits of their labor it's 21st century America. Yet it's clear that Americans aren't interested in "tax reforms" being offered and regard the difference between a "flat" tax and a national sales tax to be as trivial as the difference between being shot and hanged. What will you do to reduce taxes and the size of government significantly, and how do you define "significantly"?
          10. Prohibitionists, environmentalists, health Nazis, feminists, and other fascist groups have been allowed to drastically alter the architecture of the republic. What will you do to abolish this habit of letting the loudest, most sniveling whiner rule the day?
          11. In the past 65 years, each time a horrible crime has shocked the public, politicians, rather than examining the real cause -- usually something they did themselves -- have used gun owners as scapegoats, making it harder to exercise Second Amendment rights (in a manner reminiscent of Jim Crow laws), while pressure groups and media personalities, (like Klansmen at a lynching), bray support. What will you do to remove this illegal burden from the backs of America's 70 million gun owners who are fed up with being used as a punching bag?
          12. The only value to sovereignty is the protection it offers to the lives, rights, and property of a nation's people. Since World War Two, America's sovereignty has been steadily eroded by participation in various international organizations. Today, Japan and other members of the United Nations openly plan to abolish the Bill of Rights and replace it with a document that is nothing less than a charter for worldwide serfdom. What steps will you take to restore American sovereignty, remove the US from these organizations, and these organizations and their vile, thuggish minions from American soil?
          13. Six years ago, in the state where you're governor, agencies of what is now widely referred to as the "feral government" confined, tortured, and eventually gassed, machinegunned, and incinerated 82 innocent individuals -- 22 of them helpless children -- illegally imprisoned the survivors, bulldozed the evidence of their inhuman crimes, and are still lying about them to the American people. This deeply wounded nation cannot be healed until there is justice in this matter. What will you do to identify, arrest, try, and convict every one of the hundreds of criminals -- including the current President and Attorney General -- who had a hand in committing this atrocity?
          Millions of individuals are waiting to hear your answers to these questions, that the Old Media refuse to ask. Answer them right and you could be the greatest president America ever had. Answer them as any other politico would, you'll be just another Bill Clinton -- or George Bush.

L. Neil Smith is the award-winning author of The Probability Broach, Pallas, Henry Martyn, Bretta Martyn, The Mitzvah (forthcoming, with Aaron Zelman), and 15 other novels. Order them from Amazon.com via http://www.lneilsmith.org//index.html or from Laissez Faire Books at http://www.laissezfaire.org or just call Laissez Faire toll free, 1-800-326-0996.

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Correction (of sorts):

          "In his last TLE article, Don Tiggre spoke of burying guns before gun-grabbers can confiscate them. This was not meant to imply that hiding is better than fighting unjust and unconstitutional laws. What Mr. Tiggre had in mind was only a temporary tactical retreat at the moment of attempted confiscation, so that liberty minded individuals could hold on to their tools for fighting tyranny and use them in a more effective way than simply waiting at home to be Waco-ed, one by one. Guerrillas don't dig in and wait to be bombed or overrun -- they disperse and only engage the enemy at times and places to their own advantage, if they can at all help it. Now, Mr. Tiggre understands that not everyone will agree with his notion of tactics (he doesn't claim to be a military expert), but he hopes readers of The Libertarian Enterprise will understand that he did not mean to advocate giving up the fight to be free. He apologizes for any confusion his poor choice of words may have caused."

Prometheus Award finalist Y2K: The Millennium Bug, a suspenseful thriller by Don L. Tiggre does "a superb job of conveying the impact of Y2K to the average non-technical reader," says Ed Yourdon, author of Time Bomb 2000. Bob Boardman, author of Savior of Fire says: "I was up all night, tossing and turning, trying to think of the right words to tell you how great I think your book is." Details at: http://www.allwest.net/ralston/

And if you really want to do freedom check out: http://www.lrt.org/

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