Pubdate: Mon, 14 Nov 2005
Source: Arbiter, The (Boise State, ID Edu)
Copyright: 2005 The Arbiter
Contact:  http://www.arbiteronline.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3516
Author: Micah McLaughlin

BADNARIK FOCUSES ON COMMUNISM, CONSTITUTION

"The United States is at war," said Micahel Badnarik, the 2004 
Libertarian presidential candidate. Badnarik spoke Thursday in the 
Student Union Jordan Ballroom. "I'm not talking about the war in 
Iraq," he continued. "We are engaged in a... war of ideas. We are in 
a war between individualism and collectivism."Badnarik, a 
self-declared expert on the Constitution, lectured to a group of 
around 100 supporters and students about the abuses of the 
Constitution throughout American history up to and including the 
present.One of the major themes of his lecture was a comparison of 
the United States with its current form and institutions to the 
Communist Manifesto of Marx and Engels. According to Badnarik, the 
United States is not a truly capitalist nation. "The United States is 
.. supposed to be the antithesis of communism," Badnarik said. "The 
first item in the Communist Manifesto is the abolition of private 
property. Our Founding Fathers said that private property was as 
sacred as the word of God and the communists think we're going to 
abolish private property."Badnarik cited the recent Supreme Court 
ruling on eminent domain and compared it with the first plank of the 
Communist Manifesto. "The purpose of the Constitution and the 
government it creates is to protect you private property," Badnarik 
said.Badnarik said his taxes, when he lived in California, totaled 48 
percent. "When do you get to say 'alright, that's too much'?" he 
asked. "The founding fathers asked that same question. The Founding 
Fathers decided that if the government is taking or controlling one 
third of your productive output the system we have is no better than 
the feudal system we tried to replace," Badnarik said.He also spoke 
on topics such as the drug war. According to Badnarik, the U.S. 
Government has no business restricting the use of drugs. Badnarik 
referred to Prohibition during the early 1900s as "the first drug 
war.""We passed... the 18th Amendment and alcohol was now not only 
illegal but unconstitutional," Badnarik said. "The government ha! s 
no aut hority to tell you what you can or cannot drink. The 18th 
Amendment was technically unconstitutional."Badnarik said more people 
died because of alcohol during prohibition but not because they drank 
more. He said that it was because of the black market created by 
making alcohol illegal. Badnarik said he blamed bootleggers and 
gangsters such as Al Capone, who thrived on the underground market, 
for violence that resulted from a profitable black market for liquor. 
"We are doing the same thing with drugs," Badnarik said. He noted 
that Coca-Cola contained twelve grams of cocaine at one time and that 
opium was once available at drug stores."We didn't have the drug 
problem until we made it illegal, and now that it's illegal it makes 
a lot of money.... $10,000 to make the drugs and you can sell it for 
$1,000,000, and that kind of profit margin is worth killing for," 
Badnarik said.He also related a story of how he was arrested trying 
to get into a presidential debate during the last election to 
illustrate limitations set by government on political freedom.The 
lecture was followed by a question and answer period in which 
attendees asked about specific points of the Libertarian platform. 
Questions ranged from the status of Area 51 to immigration to education.
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MAP posted-by: Beth