While looking over the senatorial candidates for my district, I find myself looking at the Libertarian candidate and asking questions.

From the candidate's website: "The proper role of government is to protect our rights. Since rights can only be violated by force, specifically by the initiation of force, government's just role is to stop and apprehend those who initiate force: criminals, con artists, terrorists, invading armies." This sounds good. He's saying the government should have a police force and an army. This, I am led to understand, is one of the central tenets of Libertarian thought.

The thing that bothers me is his stance on taxes. "Theft is theft, whether it is a mafia syndicate or a government doing the stealing. As a first step towards the abolition of coercive taxation, I call for the repeal of the federal income tax, concurrent with a dramatic reduction in federal spending." He's running for a federal position, so he's saying "federal", but I believe he means that local, state, and federal income taxes should be abolished.

So, if Libertarians were in charge, all taxation practices were cancelled, where would the money come for the police forces and army?

-FP