Political Philosophy for Joseph S. Farina

As a Libertarian, I strongly believe in both economic and personal freedom. In the area of personal freedom, I believe we need much a less instrusive government than we currently have and that people should be permitted to make personal choices that affect only themselves. Most importantly, we need to get government out of the regulation and prosecution of victimless crimes.

I strongly support Proposition 215 and believe it is time to end the War on Drugs. Drug addiction should be treated as a health and education problem, similiar to alcoholism. The War on Drugs has been a miserable failure at an enormous cost to the taxpayers and substantial loss of individual freedom. People with AIDS, cancer and other life threatening illnesses should be free to use whatever substances they feel are necessary to alleviate their suffering or prolong their lives. Let's rid our prisons of non-violent drug offenders and instead, lock up the violent criminals, child molesters and repeat offenders. It is absurd to say that intelligent adults cannot ingest any substance they want with the understanding that they cannot harm others in so doing.

I believe the government should end its involvement in the regulation of gambling. Tribal Indians in the State of California should be permitted to have any form of gaming they want on their reservations. In light of what Europeans have done to the American Indian since coming to these shores, it is only just and right to permit the American Indian to determine their own economic destiny. Besides, why is gambling legal and good only when the government does it?

I firmly believe that the citizens of California should be able to own any firearm they choose and believe that every eligible citizen should be permitted to have a concealed weapons permit for self protection. The Second Amendment is one of our most important Constitutional rights and insures that we can protect ourselves against a tyranncial and oppressive government. Banning weapons based on what they look like or how many rounds of ammo they can fire is absurd and something only an anti-gun thug could dream up. Furthermore, banning such weapons takes guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens and puts them into the hands of criminals. Criminals don't purchase weapons legally, don't submit to background and fingerprint checks and don't use so-called "assault weapons" to commit crimes. It is interesting to note that one of the first steps taken by all Communist states is the confiscation and denial of ownership of weapons by individuals.

In the area of economic freedom, I believe that we need a much smaller government than we currently have and that people should be held liable for the consequences of their actions Therefore, we need to end all forms of subsidies, including individual and corporate welfare. We need to get rid of many government agencies and turn to privatization of many so-called "government functions." We need to abolish the IRS and all forms of taxation, which is no more than legalized theft of a person's resources. If government were much smaller and limited to those functions specified in the Constitution, politicians wouldn't need an annual budget of 1.7 trillion dollars to spend like drunken sailors.