Tim4VA

Other candidates may talk to you about who is going to pay for healthcare.

I'd like to talk to you about why it's so expensive in the first place and what we can do about it.

In talking with Republicans and Democrats about Libertarian principles and ideals, I find that many non-Libertarians have a hard time understanding how to frame a Libertarian’s stance, where to put them in a context they understand, or how to put them into a box that they can easily categorize.

This comes from years of learning from society, from schools, and from the media, that politics is a battle of left versus right. People are taught that you are either a liberal or a conservative.

The real point of understanding is that Libertarians aren’t “somewhere in the middle of the left and the right”. Libertarians ARE the left and the right. We ARE liberals and conservatives. We span the entirety of the spectrum.

What really separates Libertarians from Republicans and Democrats alike, is that while Libertarians hold personal views and opinions on certain matters, and yes, even disagree between ourselves on these topics from time to time, …

Libertarians agree that we should not use the power of the government to make you and your family conform to our ideals and we don’t want you to use the government to make us conform to your ideals. We are the party of live and let live. If you are anti-same-sex-marriage, don’t get a same sex marriage. If you do believe in something, you should be able to, until such time as your activity directly impacts the liberty of another individual. If you own a gun and use that gun for self defense or to provide food for your table, then fine.  If you use that gun to impact another person’s liberty through robbery or actually causing harm to an innocent person, then THAT action crosses the line into inappropriateness.

We believe in tolerance. We believe in respect. We believe in personal liberties. We believe in the Kindergarten rule of, “Don’t hurt people and don’t take their stuff.”

My name is Tim Lewis and I’m running for Virginia State Delegate in the 88th District.

Thank you for taking this moment with me. I hope to have more discussions with you going forward on what liberty means to me, to the Libertarian party, and what liberty can do for you.