1. SECESSION

We recognize the right to political secession as the ultimate expression of the freedom of association. This includes the right to secession by political entities, private groups, or individuals.  No government at any level has the right to compel any individual or group of individuals to remain its subjects.  Equally, no seceding person or group has any right to continued services or concessions from the seceded government beyond the retention of their own property.  Exercise of this right, like the exercise of all other rights, does not remove legal and moral obligations against violating the rights of others.

2. ENERGY

We oppose all government control of energy production, allocation, and pricing, such as that imposed by the Public Service Commission. All government-owned energy resources should be sold to private ownership. We oppose all government subsidies for energy research, development, and operation. We also oppose all government conservation schemes through the use of taxes, subsidies, and regulation.  As Libertarians we applaud the efforts of private businesses and citizens to lessen our dependence on foreign oil; but also as Libertarians we believe it is not the business of the The State of Georgia to extend subsidies for alternative energy sources nor to punitively tax traditional energy sources.  We believe objective economics will show if the current ethanol fad is an energy salvation or a financial boondoggle.

3. POLLUTION

Pollution of other people's property is a violation of individual rights. Present legal principles, particularly the unjust and false concept of "public property," block privatization of the use of the environment and hence block resolution of controversies over resource use. We support the development of an objective legal system defining property rights to air and water. We call for a modification of the laws governing such torts as trespass and nuisance to cover damages done by air, water, radiation, and noise pollution. Strict liability, not government agencies and arbitrary government standards, should regulate pollution.

Toxic waste disposal problems have been created by government policies that separate liability from property. Taxpayers should not pay for toxic waste clean-ups; instead, individual property owners, or in the case of corporations, the responsible managers and employees, should be held strictly liable for material damage done by their property. Claiming that one has abandoned a piece of property does not absolve one of the responsibility for actions one has set in motion.

4. CONSUMER PROTECTION

We support strong and effective laws against fraud and misrepresentation. However, we oppose paternalistic regulations which impose prices, define standards for products, dictate to consumers, or otherwise prohibit risk-taking and free choice. We oppose governmental promotion or imposition of the metric system.

We oppose governmental promotion or imposition of the metric system. We oppose all so-called "consumer protection" legislation which infringes upon voluntary trade: citizens' choices should not be limited in the name of a paternalistic protection ultimately based on a consumer's laziness or ignorance. We call for the abolition of the Governor's Committee on Consumer Affairs. We advocate the repeal of all laws banning or restricting the advertising of prices, products, or services. We specifically oppose laws requiring an individual to buy or use so-called "self-protection" equipment such as safety belts, air bags, or crash helmets.

We advocate an end to compulsory fluoridation of water supplies. There should be no laws regarding what substances (nicotine, alcohol, hallucinogens, narcotics, Laetrile, artificial sweeteners, vitamin supplements, or other "drugs") a person may ingest or otherwise use.

5. EDUCATION

We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools have led to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choices of parents. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended. We call for the repeal of the guarantees of tax-funded, government-provided education in Georgia.

As an interim measure to encourage the growth of private schools and variety in education, including home schooling, we support tax credits for tuition and other expenditures related to an individual's education. We likewise favor tax credits for child care and oppose takeover, regulation, or subsidy of the child-care industry by any level of government.

We oppose denial of tax-exempt status to schools because of those schools' private policies on hiring, admissions, and student deportment. We support the repeal of all taxes on the income or property of private schools, whether for profit or non-profit.

We condemn compulsory education laws, which spawn prison-like schools with many of the problems associated with prisons, and we call for an immediate repeal of such laws; we believe they violate the 13th Amendment prohibition of involuntary servitude.

Until government involvement in education is ended, we support elimination, within the governmental school system, of forced busing and corporal punishment. We further support immediate reduction of tax support for schools, and removal of the burden of school taxes from those not responsible for the education of children.

6. POPULATION

Georgians present and future are not state resources and should not be treated as such. Nor should current or future Georgians be considered sources of revenue. We therefore oppose all coercive measures for population control, including the implementation of any taxes, regulations, or subsidies which may be designed to encourage or discourage relocation to or from Georgia. This principle applies not only to individuals and families, but to businesses as well. We believe that the establishment of a truly free society and market within the State of Georgia would be more than enough incentive to attract desirable business and industry to the state.

We regard the tragedies caused by unplanned, unwanted pregnancies to be aggravated, if not created, by government policies of censorship, restriction, regulation, and prohibition. Therefore, we call for the repeal of all laws that restrict anyone from engaging in voluntary exchanges of goods, services, or information regarding human sexuality, reproduction, birth control, or related medical or biological technologies. We equally oppose government laws and policies that restrict the opportunity to choose alternatives to abortion.

We support an end to all subsidies for childbearing built into our present laws, including welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children. We urge the elimination of special tax burdens on single people and couples with few or no children.

7. TRANSPORTATION

Government interference in transportation is characterized by monopolistic restriction, corruption, and gross inefficiency. We therefore call for the dissolution of all government agencies concerned with transportation, and the transfer of their legitimate functions to competitive private firms. We call for the return of all railroads within the State of Georgia to private ownership, and for privatization of airports and public roads.

As interim measures, we advocate an immediate end to government regulation of private transit organizations and to governmental favors to the transportation industry. In particular, we support the immediate repeal of all laws restricting transit competition such as the granting of taxicab and bus monopolies and the prohibition of private jitney services. We urge immediate deregulation of the trucking industry. Likewise, we advocate the immediate repeal of speed limits. We call for immediate and complete cessation of government funding of MARTA and other mass transit systems; the assets of these systems should be sold to private ownership as soon as possible, where they should be allowed to thrive or perish as dictated by the demands of the free market.

8. POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT

Government fiscal and monetary measures that artificially foster business expansion guarantee an eventual increase in unemployment rather than curtailing it. We call for the immediate cessation of such policies as well as any governmental attempts to affect employment levels.

We support repeal of all laws that impede the ability of any person to find employment, such as minimum wage laws, so-called "protective" labor legislation for women and children, and governmental restrictions on the establishment of private day-care centers. We deplore government-fostered forced retirement, which robs the elderly of the right to work.

We seek the elimination of occupational licensure, which prevents human beings from working in whatever trade they wish. We call for the abolition of all state and local government agencies that restrict entry into any profession, such as education and law, or regulate its practice. No worker should be legally penalized for lack of certification, and no consumer should be legally restrained from hiring unlicensed individuals.

We oppose all government welfare, relief projects, and "aid to the poor" programs. All these government programs are invasive of privacy, paternalistic, demeaning, and inefficient. The proper source of help for such persons is the voluntary efforts of private groups and individuals.

To speed the time when governmental programs are replaced by effective private institutions we advocate dollar-for-dollar tax credits for all charitable contributions.

9. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE HEALTH

We favor restoring a free market health care system. The bureaucratic, top-down system called "managed competition" inevitably will lead to lower quality health care that is less available, as we have seen in Canada. Government imposed rules eliminate the free choices of individuals in the market and replace them with a political scramble by special interests seeking health dollars.

Therefore we advocate the complete separation of medicine and State. We seek the elimination of all government restrictions on the right of individuals to pursue alternative forms of health care. Individuals should be free to contract at a mutually agreed upon rate with practitioners of their choice for all health care services. We oppose any government infringement upon the practitioner-patient relationship through regulatory agencies or contracted review organizations. We condemn the use of anti-trust laws to prosecute medical practitioners criminally.

We oppose any form of compulsory health insurance, including employer-provided health insurance benefits required by the government.

We oppose any Georgia area planning boards whose stated purpose is to consolidate health services or avoid their duplication, for their ultimate effect is to limit availability and choice of health services. To that end, we call for repeal of Georgia’s “Certificate Of Need” program that inhibits the creation and location of new hospitals and medical clinics, and oppose the creation of “community rating” or “guaranteed-issue” rules for health insurance.  We support the removal of all government barriers to medical advertising, including prohibition of publication of doctors' fees and drug prices. We further support the elimination of laws requiring prescriptions for the dispensing of medicines and other health-related items.

We condemn efforts by government to impose a medical orthodoxy on society. Until such time as the tyrannical and futile drug prohibition is repealed, we advocate immediate reclassification of all drugs, particularly marijuana and heroin, to make them available for medicinal use.

We oppose the prohibition of home births and discouragement of privately funded women's clinics. We call for the repeal of all laws that restrict the practice of lay midwifery or that permit harassment of lay midwives and home birth practitioners. We also call for the repeal of all medical licensing laws, which have raised medical costs while creating a government-imposed monopoly of doctors and hospitals.

Since a person's body is his or her own property, we favor repeal of the existing prohibition on the commercial sale and purchase of body parts.

We favor the deregulation of the health insurance industry, and oppose government-imposed limits on its use of genetic and other screening and testing methods. We oppose laws that limit the freedom of contract of patients and health care professionals, and laws regulating the supply of legal aid on a contingency fee basis. We also oppose subsidy of malpractice insurance through public funds. We call for the repeal of laws forcing health care professionals to render medical services in emergencies or other situations.

We recognize that AIDS is a dread disease of wide concern. But some governmental proposals to combat it present a threat to individual liberty and encourage the spread of the disease. We oppose all government-mandated AIDS testing. We are opposed to restrictions which make it difficult for individuals to secure treatment for this disease. We also call for the decriminalization of hypodermic syringes, especially since sharing needles is now a major means of transmission of the disease. We oppose state intervention into the private medical records of individuals. We are opposed to efforts by the government to restrict the dissemination of AIDS education material.

We condemn attempts at the state or local level to cripple the advance of science by governmental restriction of research. We oppose subsidies to, or restrictions of, medical education. We call for an end to government policies compelling individuals to submit to medical experiments, treatment, and testing. We condemn compulsory hospitalization, compulsory vaccination, and compulsory fluoridation. As interim measures, we advocate dollar-for-dollar tax credits to any individual or group providing health care services to the needy or paying for such services. Tax credits should also be made available for private grants to medical education and medical research.

Because all individuals should have full responsibility and control of their own lives, we support the right of all persons -- including the terminally or hopelessly ill -- to end their lives. We support the use of living wills and durable medical powers of attorney. In the absence of such wills and the ability for the individual to choose (e.g. coma) the matter should be decided by such person or persons as the individual may have clearly preferred, with whatever guidance they may desire. In keeping with the principle of non-coercion, no individual shall be forced either to continue or terminate life sustaining care. This right does not entitle individuals to force medical professionals or others to assist them in ending their lives or in continuing life support.

Because existing tax policy has dampened price competition and consumer cost-consciousness in the medical industry, we would provide not only tax breaks for employer-provided health plans (whose value is not currently taxed as income), but also individual tax credits so that families can choose their own health plans.

10. RESOURCE USE

Resource management is properly the responsibility and right of the legitimate owners of land, water, and other natural resources. We oppose government control of resource use through eminent domain, zoning laws, building codes, rent control, regional planning, urban renewal, or purchase of development rights with tax money. Such regulations and programs violate property rights, discriminate against minorities, create housing shortages, and tend to cause higher rents.

We advocate the establishment of an efficient and just system of private water rights, applied to all bodies of water, surface and underground. Such a system should be built upon a doctrine of first claim and use. The allocation of water should be governed by unrestricted competition and unregulated prices. All government restrictions upon private use or voluntary transfer of water rights or similar despotic controls can only aggravate the mis-application of water.

We also advocate the privatization of government and quasi-government water supply systems. The construction of government dams and other water projects should cease, and existing government water projects should be transferred to private ownership. We also favor the abolition of all local water districts and their power to tax. Only the complete separation of water and the State will prevent future water crises.

We call for the homesteading or other just transfer to private ownership of lands held by the State of Georgia. Forced surface-mining of privately homesteaded lands in which the government has reserved surface mining right to itself is a violation of the property rights of the present landholders. We recognize the legitimacy of resource planning by means of private, voluntary covenants. We oppose creation of new government parks or wilderness and recreation areas. Such parks and areas that already exist, including Stone Mountain Park, should be transferred to non-government ownership. Pending such just transfer, their operating costs should be borne by their users rather than by taxpayers.

11. AGRICULTURE

America's free market in agriculture, the system that feeds much of the world, has been plowed under by government intervention. Government subsidies, regulation, and taxes have encouraged the centralization of agricultural business. Government export policies hold American farmers hostage to the political whims of changing administrations. Government embargoes on grain sales and other obstacles to free trade have frustrated the development of free and stable trade relationships between peoples of the world.

We advocate the reversal of government policies so that farmers and consumers alike can be free from the meddling and counterproductive measures of the government -- free to grow, sell, and buy what they want, in the quantity they want, when they want. Four steps can be taken immediately:  

1. abolition of the Georgia Department of Agriculture;
2. elimination of all government farm programs, including price supports, direct subsidies, and all regulation on agricultural production;
3. deregulation of the transportation industry; and
4. ending government involvement in agricultural pest control. A policy of pest control whereby private individuals or corporations bear full responsibility for damages they inflict on their neighbors should be implemented.

12. CIVIL SERVICE

We propose the abolition of the Civil Service system, which entrenches a permanent and growing bureaucracy. We recognize that the Civil Service is inherently a system of concealed patronage. We therefore recommend return to the Jeffersonian principle of rotation in office.

13. ELECTION LAWS

We call for an end to government control of political parties, consistent with First Amendment rights to freedom of association and freedom of expression. As private, voluntary groups, political parties should be allowed to establish their own rules for nomination procedures, primaries, and conventions.

Elections at all levels should be in the control of those who wish to participate in or support them voluntarily. We therefore call for an end to any tax-financed subsidies to candidates or parties, and the repeal of all laws which restrict voluntary financing of election campaigns.

The Georgia legislature has established prohibitively restrictive laws which in effect exclude alternative candidates and parties from their rightful place on election ballots. Such laws wrongfully deny ballot access to political candidates and groups, and further deny the voters their right to consider all legitimate alternatives. We hold that no state has an interest to protect in this area except for the fair and efficient conduct of elections.

The Australian ballot system, introduced into the United States in the late nineteenth century, is an abridgement of freedom of expression and of voting rights. Under it, the names of all the officially approved candidates are printed in a single government sponsored format and the voter indicates his or her choice by marking it or by writing in an approved but unlisted candidate's name. We should return to the previous electoral system where there was no official ballot or candidate approval at all, and therefore no state or federal restriction of access to a "single ballot." Instead, voters submitted their own choices and had the option of using "tickets" or cards printed by candidates or political parties.

We oppose any system of voting that does not provide for a clear method by which individual votes and vote totals may be fully and independently verified after the conclusion of an election. Specifically, we call for the replacement of Georgia's current electronic voting system, which cannot be fully and fairly audited.

In order to grant voters a full range of choice in state and local elections, we propose the addition of the alternative "None of the above is acceptable" to all ballots. We further propose that in the event that "none of the above is acceptable" receives a plurality of votes in any election, a new election should be held within 60 days, with the stipulation that none of the rejected candidates from the first election may participate in the second.