George Phillies

The great majority of Americans agree: We are on the wrong track. The things that matter are getting worse, not better. * Our budget deficit this year is over $700 billion on an accrual basis. ('accrual' means the money we owe the Social Security Trust Fund is a real debt.) The trade deficit is another $750 billion a year. We are selling our grandchildren into de facto debt slavery. *American civil liberties are in a state of collapse. The President believes he can ignore any law, so warrantless wiretaps of your phone conversations and email, and warrantless searches of your homes are now widespread conversations. The President believes that there is no longer a right to trial by jury, so Jose Padilla was thrown into a military prison for years without trial or access to lawyers. *We spend billions and billions on airline security, while ignoring the most basic precaution, namely allowing the vast numbers of former military pilots now flying airliners to carry a firearm that they all know how to use. Meanwhile, millions of people are crossing our borders illegally. *Medical care costs are soaring via cost transfers, under which when you go to the hospital your medical insurance pays for care for anyone who lacks insurance. *Just as in the 1950s, when the Russians surprised us with the first earth satellite, American education lags other places. Particularly disturbing is the lag in college graduates in science and engineering, the fields that will eventually create the new products and services that mean jobs for the rest of us. *The Federal budget is under the control of wastrel spendthrift profligates who spend money as though there will be no tomorrow. For February and March 2005 of this year, Federal spending exceeded 3 trillion dollars at an annualized rate, while the national debt was climbing at 1.2 trillion dollars a year.

I could go on.

We have the solutions that America longs for.

Now all we need to do is to put our Libertarian solutions into effect and Save America.

However, those solutions are worth nothing until they are presented to the American people and put into effect.

We need effective spokespeople who will deliver our message in a way that will be heard. Those spokespeople are called candidates. Message delivery is called the campaign. Real campaigns are based on advocacy, activists, and advertising.

How do we advocate for our issues? How do we energize our friends to become active in politics? How do we justify those issue and campaign ads?

We run candidates. Lots of candidates. Candidates at every level. In particular, in every election, every American should have the chance to vote Libertarian. (For more on candidates and campaigns, read my book "Stand Up for Liberty" from Third Millennium, now available from Amazon)

I'm going to do my share. In 2008, I'll be 61. I have already had a long and successful professional life as a physicist and author. I've run for Federal office before, Congress in 1998. I won my debates. I've been active in our Presidential nominating and general election campaigns at a high level. I've seen what needs to be done. In fact I wrote a book one what we did in past cycles, and how we might do it better next time. And I can see where we are in the election cycle.

It's time to get moving! If a much stronger Libertarian Party candidate came along, I will be delighted to withdraw and turn my energies to building her or his campaign and our Party. There is no sign that this is going to happen.

At some point, you have to stand up and be counted.

I am therefore seeking our Party's nomination for the 2008 Presidential Campaign.

One of my earliest steps in preparing for this campaign was to ask myself who would be a sound choice for a candidate for Vice President. My immediate thought was Karen Kwiatkowski, whose writings on the War on Iraq have had a major effect on public policy. We spoke. She is now in the Libertarian Party race for Vice President. America's campaign finance laws have some interesting features, such that it is extremely advantageous for the pre-nomination campaigns for President and Vice President to remain entirely separate. We do not know who will be in the race in 2008, so she is not endorsing anyone as a candidate for our Presidential nomination.