An alternative to the politics of Big and Bigger

Mark Grannis

 If you're old enough to vote this year, then you're old enough to remember

• a Democratic president with a Democratic Congress;
  
• a Republican president with a Democratic Congress;
  
• a Republican president with a Republican Congress; and
  
• a Democratic president with a Republican Congress.
  

Taken together, these four periods exhaust all the ways power can be split between the two major parties in Washington.  What did all these periods have in common? Government got bigger.
That’s a problem, not because government is always bad, but because the proper functions of government do not require it to be very big. Government today is big not primarily because of waste or indolence, but because we have asked it to do too many things. And now, thanks to both Democrats and Republicans, the relentless growth of our government has brought us to financial calamity.
Our government can't pay its bills, but it won't stop borrowing or spending.  As a result, the government is currently headed for insolvency.  Our economy badly needs jobs and investment from the private sector, but instead of encouraging private enterprise our elected officials continue to concentrate power and money in Washington.  We need to change course, and we need to do it now.
The new course we should chart is not really new to people who know our history.  It's actually a return to the values that made our country great.  It's a return to individual liberty, limited government, economic freedom, and the good sense to mind our own business in military matters.  That's the Libertarian way forward, and it's a way that the two major parties both abandoned years ago. 

• I'll fight for government that protects us from violence and theft but otherwise respects our liberty.
  
• I'll demand balanced budgets and oppose new regulatory burdens. 
  
• I'll stand for civil liberties, against foreign wars, and against our counterproductive war on drugs. 
  
• I'll support Congressional reform to prevent a relapse.
  

Now for the make-or-break question:  Will you help me?
Every year, many voters go to the polls with a sense of futility—or worse, stay home from the polls with a sense of futility.  The choice always seems to be between Big Government and Bigger Government.  Smaller, less intrusive, more peaceful government never seems to be on the ballot.

Mark Grannis is the Libertarian Candidate for Congress in Maryland's 8th District.