Ed Rutledge for Lieutenant Governor

By Ed Rutledge

Libertarian for Illinois Lt. Governor

08/30/2010

Unless you are a hermit, you are part of a community. Your community is made up of your friends, family, and neighbors. So who is best able to meet the specific needs of members of your community – you, and the other concerned members of your community, or an indifferent bureaucracy located hundreds or even thousands of miles away?

When you ask big government to take care of your community, you are really asking big bureaucracies to take resources from your community, to use the bulk of those resources to feed bureaucrats, finally forcing your community to beg those bureaucrats to return a small portion of your community's resources to you and your community. I struggle to see the compassion in this system.

Libertarians recognize that real charity begins at home and that compassion cannot be outsourced. Libertarians would rather let you feed the hungry in your community with resources from your community, rather than forcing your community to feed hungry bureaucrats in hopes that they will throw you some scraps from what was yours to begin with.

Suffrage and Elections

by Lex Green

Libertarian for Illinois Governor

07/31/2010
 

ARTICLE III: SUFFRAGE AND ELECTIONS

SECTION 3. ELECTIONS

All elections shall be free and equal.

Source: Illinois Constitution.

It sounds like Illinois has fairness built into its nature. After all, if the Constitution says elections are equal, what could be fairer than that? So any law allowed by the Illinois Constitution should protect equality in all aspects of voter choice. Yet we know that isn't the case. We have examined these laws and they are wanting. It is clear that we need to change those laws, not just for the sake of fairness, but also to comply with the Constitution.

But is that all? Shouldn't we expect that any elected official, politician, and even private citizens would also demand fairness in the electoral process? If anyone would want to exploit the obviously unfair laws, that would make that person's choice of action equally unethical. That means it is unfair to potential candidates, but more importantly, unfair to Illinois' voters, who don't really have a say in the process. This is the reason why voters typically stay home on Election Day.

It is no secret of human nature that some people would cheat or have disregard for the equal protection of others under the law. And it would be naïve to think we could expect fairness from everyone in the state. But if our elected officials are orchestrating the effort to deny electoral equality, that bespeaks of tyranny and abuse of power. If anyone in office were to condone or encourage any action to limit fair voter choice, that person is an enemy of the people.

So who is behind the many petition challenges that seek to limit the candidates allowed on the ballot? One is our state's own Governor Pat Quinn. At his request, efforts to throw William "Doc" Walls off the primary ballot resulted in limiting choice last February in the Democratic primary. So Doc is attempting the much harder task of running as an independent. Getting over five times the number of signatures required by Governor Quinn is a daunting task, but citizens gave forth five times the support and helped Doc qualify. By challenging Doc again, Governor Quinn is squashing the competition. This is what we would expect in a corrupt third world regime, and it has no place in American politics.

But the Democrats aren't the only ones who are attacking the democratic process. Challenges have been thrown down for several other independents, the Constitution Party, and my own Libertarian Party. My survival on the ballot is threatened by a Republican lawyer, John Fogarty, who is known to be an associate of Republican House minority leader Tom Cross. And that is not all.

During the recent hearings for the challenges to the Constitution Party's petitions, one of the Republican volunteers volunteered some extra information. He announced he was working for Senator Bill Brady, none other than the Republican candidate for Governor. This puts two highly placed elected officials at the helm of this attack on Liberty. Any senator that would sanction this action does not deserve to be in any office in a free state.

The hardest question I have had to answer in recent weeks is "Who do I vote for if you are kicked off the ballot?" I cannot answer. It is our duty as Americans and as Illinoisans to exercise our right of suffrage. But when the only choices are between unethical power brokers who trample on true choice, I cannot endorse any. It is very hard these days to convince people to come to the polls. Fewer than 1 in 5 came out for February's primary. And we cannot fight tyranny by voting for the lesser of two evils. At a time when we need political courage to solve the dire plight of a nation out of control, Illinois is part of the problem, not the solution.

By Ed Rutledge

Libertarian for Lt Governor of Illinois

07/28/2010

As a candidate, I am frequently asked where I stand on gun control. The problem with answering this question directly is that my support of the Constitution is considered by some to be an approval of kids getting shot. Obviously, while I fully support the Constitution, I am horrified by the nearly constant reports of kids getting killed in our inner cities. But what horrifies me even more than the shootings is the lack of real action to stop the violence.

The problem with gun control laws is that they address a symptom while ignoring the root of the problem. The real issue here is not guns, but endemic inner city violence. But this is a more complex issue than most politicians want to handle, so they continue to pass feel-good, do-nothing gun laws. And kids keep getting shot. Frankly, this is unacceptable. Unfortunately for those kids, while there is a solution to this problem, its implementation will take political courage that our elected officials apparently do not have.

The solution to this problem can be found by looking at the problem, itself. When we consider the disbursement of shootings, and other violent crimes, they are concentrated in areas of high gang activity. This would suggest that our problem with endemic violence is really a problem with gangs. In other words, we don’t have a gun problem, we have a gang problem. So how do we address the gang problem? With a three pronged approach.

First, we need to get kids into performing schools. Whether through vouchers, tax credits, private scholarships, or charter schools, it does not matter. What matters is that our society, through political influence, is condemning a significant portion of our youth to dangerous, non-performing schools. Without a decent education, these kids see a bleak and limited life path ahead of them. Our kids deserve a brighter future than what we are currently offering. We need to start living up to our Constitutional obligation, and make sure that all kids in Illinois have access to a quality education. Unless we start giving these kids a decent education, a life in gangs will remain a very real alternative.

Second, we need to make sure that there are jobs available for kids coming out of high school, understanding that not all Illinoisans will go on to college. There is no reason why Illinois high school graduates should not have opportunities to pick up work experience and start their climb up the ladder of success. Current policy, however, consistently takes away ladders by taxing and regulating jobs out of Illinois. And by imposing a minimum wage even higher than what the federal government requires, our politicians have raised the first rung of those ladders which to a height that few high school graduates can reach. A kid cannot start down the path to success without being able to take the first step. We need to eliminate the government created barriers that limit job availability for these kids. Unless there are real entry level jobs awaiting these kids upon graduation from high school, a life in gangs will remain a very real alternative.

Finally, we need to cut off gang finances. It is well known that gangs generate enormous amounts of money through the illicit drug trade. But since the “merchants” in this market have been forced outside of the legitimate legal system, they also have been forced to protect their business through violence. In other words, government policies have given gangs a highly lucrative reason to exist, while forcing these same gangs to rely on guns, rather than lawyers, to settle disputes. And who gets to carry those guns? The very kids that society left uneducated, without a job, and without hope. Unless we take the government induced profits out of this black market, gangs will remain a very real alternative. 

It is time to demand that our politicians address the root causes of the endemic violence plaguing our state. Gun control laws have not worked, because guns are not the problem. Instead, we need to refocus our energies on giving kids the best possible opportunity to succeed, while reducing the attractiveness of street gangs as a viable option. If we give kids hope for the future, and if we destroy the financial foundation supporting gang activity, then we will see a reduction in violence. We just need the political courage to make it happen.