About Green Liberty

Green Liberty is about a vision of the future–one where we seek to achieve our highest ideals while adhering to core principles regarding individual liberty and free association. It’s a vision where “the right” and “the left” can peacefully coexist; where the aims of society are achieved away from the political battlefield; where we can reach the maximum amount of “utopia” with a minimum amount of conflict.

America has realized unprecedented prosperity and success as a nation, but we know we can do better–much better. With the amount of ground we need to cover in order to meet our highest ideals as a nation, it’s vital that we approach our problems in the way that has the best chance for creating long-term, lasting solutions. Solutions like:

  • a permanent and robust “safety net” for the less fortunate, the elderly, children and other at-risk individuals
  • a future of sustainable and affordable energy solutions
  • a strong and dynamic economy
  • a revitalization and strengthening of local communities
  • a safe, efficient, and affordable health care system that provides care for all who need it
  • leadership by example in a global community defined by peaceful cooperation among nations

How We Got Into This Mess

We can have the best future available to us, but not if we continue to use the methods that have failed in the past. It’s important to remember who got us here – that the leaders of our political system, most of whom are career politicians, are the ones who have largely been given the responsibility for “solving” our nation’s problems. And they have failed, and failed, and failed again.

Certain political personalities have a talent for persuading us that their brand of “change” is going to somehow bring about a sweeping wave of national reform–the lasting change our country needs to heal our differences and move forward together to solve the problems of our day. But it doesn’t happen.

Bill Clinton was voted in on that notion of a change, of a fresh start. It didn’t happen. Shortly thereafter, there was a so-called “Republican revolution” in Congress–another wave of “change”. That fizzled out before the end of that decade. Republicans also like to celebrate the era of Ronald Reagan–but usually in the context of talking about how far we’ve strayed from it. (And of course there is a new wave of Republican change-wanters since 2008.)

And Democrats who celebrate the legacy of FDR, JFK, LBJ, and now Obama know that many of the fundamental planks of their overall vision remain in an unresolved state of constant danger still today, 50 to 70 years later. (Just read almost any email MoveOn sends to their list–social security, the environment, health care, and more…all are in critical danger of being ruined, by you-know-who. The other guys.)

If you want to make sure that positive goals actually get achieved, it’s not a good idea to rely on two permanently-warring parties to achieve those goals.

Even if a presidential administration or a Congress succeeds in making positive progress (a rare thing indeed), a subsequent administration or Congress is certain to try and undo it–or try and “fix” it via a compromised (and decades-long) game of trial and error. And that’s not even taking into account all the counter-progress that is constantly being made to counteract any small steps forward. The federal budget was at $.5 trillion in 1980. It reached $1 trillion in 1990, $2 trillion in 2000, and now has topped $3 trillion. How long will it be before we have a 10-trillion-dollar federal budget, and yet still have so many of the major concerns of recent generations unresolved–and so much of the future unsecured?

It’s not for lack of resources. It’s not for lack of ingenuity. The amount of wealth and brains in the U.S. is greatly in excess of what is needed to conquer most of our nation’s problems. And yet even simple resource allocation and education–the sort of thing that would wipe out hunger in the U.S., for example–remains out of reach somehow, unbelievably.

How We Get Out

I submit that as long as the most important issues facing our society are left in the hands of politicians and elected officials, they will never be resolved. The nature of our political system guarantees this. As a society and as individuals, we must find a way to take back responsibility for resolving the matters that are most important to us, and leave government to focus on protecting us so that we can do so.

Green Liberty is an exploration of how we can accomplish that.

-Lance Brown, founder


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