BY: DARRYL W. PERRY<\/p>\n
The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and do not reflect in any way those of the Tiger Media Network, its staff or Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n Libertarian Party Chairman Nicholas Sarwark recently received some criticism for a statement he made on the Lions of Liberty podcast. When asked about Ron Paul, Sarwark responded, \u201cHe had policy prescriptions that were straight-up wrong and anti-libertarian\u2026 None of us should be given a pass on having to have actual libertarian positions\u2026 State\u2019s rights is not a libertarian position, and it\u2019s something Ron Paul had pushed for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n Some people are claiming that Libertarians should embrace States\u2019 Rights because it helps ensure a localized check on federal tyranny and anyone opposed to this is a \u201clibertarian centralizer\u201d \u2013 whatever that means. However the people making this claim often forget that States\u2019 Rights can also be used as a form of localized tyranny, and they will oppose federal efforts to protect individual rights as a violation of States\u2019 Rights. Frankly, they are making a constitutional argument instead of a philosophical libertarian argument.<\/p>\n To understand whether or not States\u2019 Rights is supported by the Libertarian Party, one needs only look at the Party Platform. The LP\u2019s Platform begins with a Statement of Principles that reads:<\/p>\n \u201cWe, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual. We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.\u201d Additionally, going back to the first LP Platform in 1972, whenever rights are mentioned, it is always in the context of individual rights, not rights of any government. Further advocates of States\u2019 Rights often forget what rights actually mean.<\/p>\n Those who truly support liberty believe: This is the essence of individual rights, and any attempt to grant rights to a State or any other level of government not also granted to the individual is invalid.<\/p>\n Darryl W. Perry has spent most of his adult life as an advocate & activist for peace and liberty. Darryl is an award winning author, publisher & radio\/TV host. He is a regular contributor to several weekly and monthly newspapers.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY: DARRYL W. PERRY The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and do not reflect in any way those of the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[55],"tags":[106,10710,441,103],"class_list":["post-30444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-fort-hays-state-university","tag-libertarian-party","tag-opinion-2","tag-tiger-media-network"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30446,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30444\/revisions\/30446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe SoP also states, \u201cWe\u2026 hold that where governments exist, they must not violate the rights of any individual.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nEveryone has the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not cause unjust harm to another.
\nEveryone has the same rights as everyone else.
\nPeople don\u2019t have more rights, or fewer rights, because of their place of birth.
\nNo person can delegate a right they don\u2019t possess to another person.
\nNo person or group has more rights than any other person or group.
\nNo group can claim a right not possessed by any member of the group.
\nSince no group of people can have more rights than any individual member of the group, no group can revoke the rights of any other person or group.
\nNo law, regulation, statute, or other dictate can rightly infringe on the rights of any person.<\/p>\n