News

2020 National Convention Now Live!

May 7, 2019

Join us at the next Libertarian National Convention, May 21–25, 2020, in Austin, Texas!

Convention is coming! All the packages are finally here! Whether it’s bronze, silver, or gold, since there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, get your package early and save some green. Prices will never be lower and are only going up from here.

If you plan on attending the gala, the Gold is the package for you! Bring your date by adding an extra Gala ticket to your Gold package.

If you want to help keep the convention affordable for everyone, consider throwing in an “Add-On” at checkout.

If you want to do even more to help the Libertarian Party financially, consider joining the Welcoming Committee, which includes a Gold package along with various mentions on convention literature and media. It’s the only committee that comes with ZERO work!


- Convention Oversight Committee

Running For Office: Livingston Parish Council District 3

March 20, 2019

From theadvocate.com


Shannon Sloan has announced her candidacy for Livingston Parish Council District 3 in the Oct. 12 election.


The seat is held by Maurice “Scooter” Keen.


Sloan says she does not consider herself to be a politician but is running for office because she feels a responsibility to fight for individual rights. “It is the government’s responsibility to protect the rights of the people, not to solve their problems for them or outline how they should live,” she said.


A former Republican, Sloan says she grew tired of the two-party system. “The pendulum just swings back and forth with both parties fighting to control our lives, just in two different ways,” she said.


She is now a member of the Libertarian Party and agrees with its platform in that individuals have the right to live their lives the way they choose, so long as they don’t infringe on the rights of others.


“I believe that God gave us free will, and that the individual has the right to make his or her own choices, as well as responsibility for the consequences of those choices,” she said.


Sloan is a fiscal conservative and a strong supporter of the free market, individual property rights and lowering taxes. She believes that the government has no business in social issues.


“The government has grown completely out of control, even at the local level. What we need is more freedom and less government,” she said.


Sloan, 42, grew up in the New Orleans area and relocated to Baton Rouge in 1995 to attend LSU. She has lived in District 3 for the past 11 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in business management and has been employed by Franklin Press for 20 years. She also serves on the Libertarian Party of Louisiana State Central Committee. She is the mother of three children, Anna, Ryan and Remy.

 

Libertarian Party condemns government persecution of Bitcoin exchange vendor

June 7, 2017

Nicholas Sarwark, chair of the Libertarian National Committee, released the following statement today:

The Libertarian Party vigorously condemns the trumped-up case against Randall Lord, a former Libertarian candidate, who was sentenced to 46 months in prison for the victimless “crime” of operating an unregistered money service business involving Bitcoin, a digital currency.

Trading bitcoins is perfectly legal. Major retailers such as Microsoft, Expedia, Dell, Overstock, and Whole Foods accept bitcoins. Prosecutors targeted Lord for not being registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Treasury, and for not being licensed to operate as a money service business in his home state of Louisiana.

Despite Lord’s conscientious objections to government control of currency, the Shreveport resident attempted to comply with the laws and regulations governing Bitcoin. He filed for registration with FinCEN, but the bureaucracy misplaced his filing, for which he now faces almost four years in prison.

Lord was not licensed in Louisiana because state officials had told him that Bitcoin is not a currency, and therefore he didn’t have to have a license to operate. Then in March 2013, FinCEN expanded the definition of “currency” so they could pull exchanges like Lord’s under their regulatory control. 

Lord pleaded guilty to not having a state license, but later he proved to the court that the state did not require one. Then a federal court ruled that “unlicensed” could also mean “not registered with the Treasury Dept.” and refused to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea and take this issue to trial.

Every aspect of this case is a travesty:

·         Politicians’ insatiable addiction to spending, which they finance by printing dollars out of thin air, devaluing the dollar and in turn creating the demand for alternative currencies such as Bitcoin;

·         the contemptible government regulations these very politicians enacted to obstruct Bitcoin trading, and which were used to prosecute Lord;

·         the bumbling FinCEN regulators whose ineptitude set Lord up for prosecution (unless it was deliberate that they “misplaced” Lord’s filing);

·         the use of multiple taxpayer-funded federal agencies—the IRS, FBI, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service—to go after Lord for openly trading a legal commodity and harming no one;

·         the failure of prosecutors to show any intent by Lord to violate the law;

·         the harsh sentence imposed on Lord, which appears intended to intimidate others who trade in bitcoins, much like the life sentence imposed on Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht; and

·         the government’s as-yet uncertain plans to confiscate Lord’s assets, including possibly his home, adding to his family’s distress.

Randall Lord has long opposed the federal government’s tax-and-spend policies and the Federal Reserve Bank’s manipulation of the dollar. He did his part to try to change these onerous laws and regulations when he ran for U.S. House on the Libertarian ticket in 2014 and 2012, receiving 27 and 25 percent of the vote, respectively.

This case illustrates that the problem is not a well-meaning, civic-minded family man like Randall Lord who offers a service to people aiming to preserve the value of their hard-earned money.

The problem is overspending by federal politicians, their manipulation and regulation of currencies, and grandstanding prosecutors who get rewarded for convicting people rather than for achieving justice.

The solution is to overturn the sentence of Randall Lord, repeal onerous laws and regulations, and stop federal government overspending so that the dollar will stop losing value, jobs will be plentiful, and Americans will be financially secure.

Please add your voice to ours in demanding freedom for Randall Lord.

Listen to an interview of Randall Lord in a Lions of Liberty podcast here.

Libertarians Support Obamacare Repeal, Not Replacement

April 10, 2017

While Democratic and Republican representatives in Washington debate on how to alter or replace “Obamacare,” the Libertarian Party stands resolute in calling for a full repeal without replacement.

On Saturday, April 8, 2017, the Libertarian Party of Louisiana (LPL) State Central Committee passed unanimously the following resolution:

WHEREAS, the Libertarian Party supports the free market and recognizes it as the most efficient and fair means of trade; and

WHEREAS, healthcare is a need too important to trust to the bureaucracy of the state; and

WHEREAS, no free person should be forced to purchase or subsidize the purchase of any product against their will; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that the Libertarian Party of Louisiana calls for the full repeal of the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” known as Obamacare, without replacement.

The LPL supports free market solutions and believes that giving people more freedom always yields better results than forced solutions. 

 “Unlike the Democratic and Republican Parties, Libertarians support individual liberty in all areas and healthcare is no exception.  We support voluntary charity and the free market; the government getting in between you and your doctor only causes harm.” said LPL Communications Officer, Keith Thompson.

Thompson went on to say “Even from an economic standpoint, the Republican’s plan makes no sense.  They claim that it saves money, but only when comparing it to Obamacare projections, not when compared to the free market.  Americans are fed up; it’s time to demand that the government get out of your wallet, out of your bedroom, and out of your hospital room.”

The Libertarian Party is America’s largest third party with over 14,000 registered members in Louisiana. Their platform supports individual liberty, free market economics, and civil liberties.  To learn more about the Libertarian Party visit LP.org.

Libertarian Party to Muslims: We stand with you.

January 29, 2017
Via LP.org: In the early morning hours of January 28th, a fire broke out in the Victoria Islamic Center in Victoria, TX. It quickly destroyed the whole building. The cause has not officially been determined.

Two weeks ago, another mosque, the Islamic Center of Lake Travis, in Austin, TX, burned. Again, the cause of the fire has not been officially determined.

Both mosques have previously been vandalized. And the mosque in Victoria was burglarized last week.

Regardless of the causes of these fires, the Libertarian Party extends sympathy to the Muslim communities in these towns and across America.

As one member of the mosque in Austin, TX, said, “We are all just praying it wasn’t a hate crime.”

Indeed. The Libertarian Party hopes that these fires were caused by some innocent accident. But the fact that our Muslim brothers and sisters even have to worry about hate crimes perpetrated against them or their buildings of worship is a sad statement on current affairs in America.

New executive orders have barred entry of people from 7 countries that are mostly Muslim. We’ve heard talk of registries for Muslim Americans. And we’ve heard a lot of nasty rhetoric from the President and others. Muslim Americans have every reason to feel uncomfortable. And their concern should be the concern of every American.

Libertarian Party Chair, Nicholas Sarwark, says, “America was founded on freedom, including and perhaps especially freedom of religion. It is central to who we are as Americans and it is values such as this that make our country great. When we lose sight of these values, our country ceases to be great.”

He continues, “There are two real threats here: One is the infringement on people’s rights to live and worship as they see fit. The other is the complacency that some Americans have about it.”

The Libertarian Party calls on all Americans not to be complacent when the rights of one group, any group, are infringed. Sarwark says, “When we allow one group’s rights to be degraded, we are degrading the human rights of all of us, and degrading our country.”

Today and everyday, the Libertarian Party stands for the rights of all people, all the time.

Today and everyday, the Libertarian Party says to our Muslim brothers and sisters, we are with you. We have your back. We’ll do our best to speak out and amplify your voice. We hope and pray that a registry is never created. But if one is, we will oppose it vigorously and you can rest assured that many of our members will register themselves in protest. We will speak out against travel and immigration bans. We will speak out loudly against any and all acts of violence or destruction that may be committed against you. When your rights and humanity are infringed upon, we stand with you.