Alan Barksdale for Congress


Alan Barksdale for Congress
203 Utica Place, #4
Huntsville, AL 35806
256-830-6601
afbarksd@hiwaay.net

Libertarian Party of Alabama
2330 Highland Avenue
Birmingham, AL 35205
205-328-8683

My name, "Alan F. Barksdale", will appear next to the Libertarian Party's Statue of Liberty on the ballot that chooses the next member of the U. S. House of Representatives from the fifth district of Alabama. I received more than twenty-one thousand votes for the same office in 2000. I hope that even more voters will choose me this year.

I am a thirty-nine-year-old software consultant. I was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, and majored in both computer science and economics at Duke University before receiving a B. S. degree and moving to Alabama 1985. I have served as treasurer and as a district representative for the Libertarian Party of Alabama.

I hope voters will recognize that an election is not a horse race and that one does not get a prize if one votes for the winner. One should vote for what one believes. Voting for a Libertarian sends a message that one wants a smaller, cheaper, and less intrusive government consistent with both the Constitution and the libertarian political philosophy that all peaceful and honest actions should be legal. My positions consistently promote both civil and economic liberties:

Values - Government is not God and cannot do everything. Government's only proper role is protecting us from violence and fraud. It should neither substitute for the family nor subsidize irresponsibility.

Budget - Eliminate programs not authorized by the Constitution. Lower taxes drastically.

Social Security - Privatize by selling government assets to create annuities with payouts unchanged for current retirees and prorated by contributions for those still working.

Defense - Our armed forces should defend our country, not police the world.

Education - Separate education and state for the same reasons we separate church and state.

Drugs - The War on Drugs is a war on the Constitution. Each individual owns his body and should be able to do what he wants with it, including dangerous things, such as taking recreational drugs.

"Affirmative Action" - Government entities should not discriminate by race, etc.; private entities should be unregulated.

Welfare - End forced redistribution of wealth. Aiding the poor is the responsibility of charity. We could give more if government did not spend half the GNP.

Trade - Free trade increases both the wealth and peaceableness of nations. Protectionism decreases both the efficiency and the job-creating ability of an economy.

Guns - I strongly support the right to keep and bear arms for defense against aggression, whether by criminals or by governments.

Abortion - By the Tenth Amendment, the federal government should neither regulate nor fund abortions.

Agriculture - End price supports and subsidized exports, which induce overproduction.