Libertarian describes party beliefs

Addressing a crowded room of Philadelphia residents and University students, the Libertarian Party's Andre Marrou -- a dynamic, charismatic, dark horse candidate for President -- described the purpose and plan of his party last Tuesday in Vance Hall B-1. "We're the only party that's pro-choice for everything," he said. "[We believe] the government exists to protect us from force or fraud. The constitution provides for national defense, the court system, and at the state and local levels, a police system. Everything else is not part of our government according to the constitution." The Libertarian Party, founded in December 1971, currently holds 50 to 60 state and local offices. Marrou boasted that the first woman to get a vote in the electoral college was not Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, but Toni Nathan in 1972, when she was the vice presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party. Libertarians are committed to the needs of individuals, and they target both minority and majority groups and who do not want their rights restricted by government. "[You should] do whatever you want provided you don't hurt or defraud anybody else. If you don't hit anything going 100 miles on the highway, what harm have you caused?" he asked. "We hold people [accountable] for what they do, not what they might do." For this reason Marrou argued against gun control, drug laws and limitations on freedom of press. He referred to author Charles Murray's statement that government programs make things worse for the people they are trying to help. Citing the increase in federal spending from 10 percent of the gross national product under President Franklin Roosevelt to 25 percent under President George Bush, he exclaimed, "The federal government is eating us alive . . . [there is] entirely too much government." Marrou proposed a "10 Point Plan" geared to reducing governmental power and increasing individual liberty on the delicate balance beam upon which they rest. When he proposed repealing personal income tax and abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, he was greeted with applause. Marrou explained that repealing the income tax would remove one-third of the Federal budget, leaving it at its 1987 figures, which Marrou's enthusiastic audience agreed was sufficient to run the government. Other points included restoring government ownership rights, limiting congressional terms and bringing troops home from the 48 countries that they occupy, whether for defense or offense. Drawing on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Morrou emphasized the founding fathers' ideal of a minimum-intervention government as well as the right of the people to change a government that does not meet their needs. "You can't just change the system by changing the people in charge of the system, you must actually change the system," he said. "That's what we Liberatarians want to do." Marrou entertained questions on a wide range of subjects, including questions on global economics, the role of the Unites States in the UN and the question of foreign aid to needy countries.

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