Touched by Government

Touched by government. Sounds nasty, doesn't it? Kind of like the improper touching that certain priests have been accused of doing to altar boys of tender years.

Have you been touched by the iron fist of government? I have, and if you have, you can corroborate this point. I got mail.

Letters from attorneys. Letters from bail bondsmen. Oddly accurate and sometimes interesting letters suggesting that the information about my arrest was public record, and somehow the city or county government had sold my name and address to these creatures.

About 1998, my friend Randy Dumse came up with a really good idea. He called it "Touched by Government" with the deliberate intention of bringing up that unwanted touching image. The idea is very simple. Buy the lists in your city or county.

People are arrested all the time. Obviously, as libertarians, we oppose aggressive crimes, crimes against persons (murder, rape, battery), crimes against property (burglary, robbery, theft, vandalism) - but some things are just not properly crimes. Smoking in a public place. Drinking or drunk and disorderly. Prostitution. Gambling. Possession of contraband substances such as guns, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes lacking tax stamps. Sale of contraband.

One of the really nice things about this project is that you can customize it for the crimes you think ought not to be crimes. You don't have to contact the people you don't think are doing the right thing.

But you could contact those who are accused of things that would not be crimes if members of the Boston Tea Party won political office. Or which would not be enforced if the sheriff were a Boston Tea Party-goer. And you could tell them about us.

People who are touched by government come from all walks of life. It is sometimes said that a Republican is a Democrat whose business has been regulated, and a Libertarian is a Republican or Democrat who has been arrested. Obviously, if we contact these people shortly after their arrest, they may have a favorable view of less government at all levels. They might join the party. They might campaign for ballot access, or for a candidate. They might contribute money.

Finding the people who are adversely affected by government is supposed to be the great mystery. All the economics texts suggest that those who gain a benefit at the expense of others from government intervention are easy to identify, but the vast majority who pay more for milk because the dairy farmers are well organized are hard to find, hard to motivate. Which seems true.

But the people who are arrested are much easier to find. Their arrests and their names and addresses are a matter of public record, and are for sale. If bail bondsmen can get these lists, we can. You can.

Another nice thing about this project is, you can start any time. You can start in your community, today. You can do as much or as little as you want. Focus only on the marijuana possession cases if that's what lights your fire. Maybe speeding is something you think ought not to be illegal, or a matter for government involvement. Focus on those cases. Maybe next week you are very busy and have no time - recruit someone else to take up the cause, or just set it aside for a while.

More people are going to be touched by government this year, so if you aren't available to work on it for a few weeks, they'll be happy when you are. Maybe letters aren't your thing - find their phone numbers or e-mail addresses. Do database searches. Make of it what you will.

But tell these people that they are not alone. Tell them about the Fully Informed Jury movement. Tell them about our party. Our candidates. Our ideals. The Institute of Justice. The International Society for Individual Liberty. The ACLU. Whatever group you think they should know about, whatever pamphlets you think they should have, whatever you please.

Yes, it is meant to sound kinky, or, really, sick. The idea is that the relationship most people *think* they have with government is very formal, distant, and involves paying taxes and receiving services. During the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, the only person in government most Americans ever had contact with was the representative of the local post office.

This idea evaporates when one gets arrested. People who have been arrested have been touched very directly, very painfully, and very inappropriately. That is especially true of those who have engaged in victimless activities.

There they were sitting on their front porch in New Orleans, determined to protect their Garden District homes from looters, when members of the Oklahoma National Guard showed up on a door-to-door search for guns. FEMA and the fedgov couldn't tolerate individual control over tools of self-defense. So these non-criminal persons were seen on national television with wrists bound and seated under the watchful eye of an Oklahoma guardsman with a battle rifle, while their home was ransacked.

These are men and women touched by government. It happens on the highways, it happens in our homes, it happens everywhere.

It has to end.

More Americans are incarcerated than any other sort of people, per capita, and in absolute numbers. The prison industry is big business. Criminal defense attorney is big business. Bail bonds are big business.

Let's make it our business. Let's touch the hearts of those who have been touched by government. Let's get into their heads. And give them a political home, for a change.