About Us

The Libertarian Party of Illinois is a political home for those who value honesty, fairness, respect, responsibility, and compassion.

Honesty

Libertarian politicians won't promise something for nothing, like free education, free healthcare, or free housing. Libertarians know "there's no such thing as a free lunch." Fortunately, businesses and charities can provide education, healthcare, housing, and other services better and cheaper than waste- and, corruption-laden government programs, but only if we get government meddlers away from them.

Libertarians also challenge busy-body laws like:

• Gun laws that don't keep guns from criminals, but do keep them from law-abiding people who want to protect themselves and their families
• Drug laws that don't keep drugs from users, but do cause communities to suffer from drug-related violence, theft, and corruption

We've had enough pandering to special interest groups. We've had enough pretense that the government can solve all of our problems. It's time for honest Libertarian answers in politics.

Fairness

Everyone has an equal right to protection under the law. Where government goes wrong is in making laws and taking actions that favor one group over another. For example:

• Giving taxpayer-provided subsidies to well-connected businesses like AT&T, McDonalds, and General Electric
• Taking people's homes (through the abuse of eminent domain) and giving the property to well-connected developers

Libertarians believe that government's job is to help provide safety for all, not dole out dollars or other support to the politically powerful.

Respect

On every question, no matter how personal, other political parties don't respect your decision-making ability. They want to decide the answer for you, like:

• If you are a parent, they want to decide which school your child attends and what your child learns there
• If you own a business, they want to decide how much to pay your employees and impose a host of regulations

And on and on. As long as we're taking about peaceful and honest activities, libertarians respect your ability and your right to make decisions for yourself.

Responsibility

The flip side of rights is responsibility. Libertarians encourage more people to be more responsible for their own lives.

Generations of government handouts, subsidies, and protectionism have created people and businesses locked into dependency, like:

• People so stripped of initiative that they literally won't take themselves out of the path of a hurricane
• Businesses that lobby the government for privileges rather than fight their competitors in the marketplace

Any parent will tell you that rewarding bad behavior means you get more bad behavior. So when government props up and bails out irresponsible people and businesses, the result is more irresponsible people and businesses.

Libertarians oppose the many ways government keeps people from taking responsibility for their own actions. Pride in a job well done is the goal, not the soul-breaking and poverty-creating chains of dependency.

Compassion

But what about the truly less fortunate? Those who really need our assistance? As demonstrated time and time again, Americans are kind and generous people. Libertarians work to help generosity flourish through voluntary charity, not more government spending. Real giving is best because:

• Checks not sent to wasteful government programs free up more money for charitable donations
• Private charities are more effective and efficient in helping the less fortunate than any government program
• If a particular charity doesn't do a good job, you can send your money to a different one (when government doesn't do a good job, you end up sending them more money)

Which of these makes you feel warm inside: writing a check to your favorite charity or to the Internal Revenue Service? To get a more compassionate society, Libertarians say, let us practice less taxing so we have more to give.

Do You Share Libertarian Values?

If you value honesty, fairness, respect, responsibility, and compassion you've found a political home. That home is the Libertarian Party. Join us.

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