American Individualism
Meet the Libertarian candidate for president in 2020: “I’m running for president because government is too big, too bossy, too intrusive, too nosy, and, worst of all, often hurts the very people it tries to help,” says Dr. Jo Jorgensen, who has been involved in the Libertarian Party since hearing about it on a radio show in 1979 (“I heard about libertarianism for the first time from the guest, and immediately realized I was a libertarian”).
In addition to teaching at Clemson University, where she got her PhD, Jorgensen earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Baylor University in 1979, and then pursued an MBA at Southern Methodist University (SMU). She hopes to “allow people to make their own decisions,” instead of “allowing the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., to make the decisions for them,” by advocating for smaller government. “I’m not interested in politics,” she adds. “I look at this as an act of self-defense.”
In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, Jorgensen supports the “bill to end qualified immunity, a policy that protects police officers from being sued,” introduced by Justin Amash, a former Republican-turned-Libertarian congressman from Michigan. “I don’t think the many good cops in the U.S. will object to a measure that holds bad cops to account for using excessive force,” she says. Jorgensen also supports Senator Rand Paul’s “bill to end no-knock raids, an unconscionable policy, which has led to incidents, such as the killing of Breonna Taylor.”
As for the recent calls for police defunding and abolition, Jorgensen is “for federal-government defunding, and allowing communities to make their own decisions. We need to return policing to their communities – it’s up to the police department, mayor, city council, taxpayers, and voters of each community to decide how to police themselves.”
Additionally, Jorgensen “will work to immediately end the so-called war on drugs, which has caused so many of our problems.” She elaborates, “Like the alcohol prohibition, it’s been a disaster, and encourages, rather than discourages, dangerous substance use.” On her first day in office, moreover, she “will pardon and free all nonviolent drug offenders – Black, white, everyone – in federal prison” and “will also encourage the states to do the same. If there is no victim, there is no crime.”
Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, when asked about lack of healthcare disproportionately affecting Black and brown communities, Jorgensen is “baffled as to why people, who are against corporate monopolies, all of a sudden think it’s fine to have a federal-government monopoly. Monopolies do not have the best interests of the patients, the customers, at heart.” Since “people of color are adversely affected because they are left with no option but Medicaid,” they have “suffered a higher mortality rate from this pandemic. I want doctors and hospitals to compete against one another, offering higher quality and lower prices.”
According to Jorgensen, her platform is especially attractive to the youth, who want much better opportunities than what’s currently in store for them. “More freedom, more choices, a purging of government over-regulation, low taxes, and low government spending will generate millions of new jobs,” she affirms. “Such real change will enable the best of human progress, environmental safety, prosperity, justice, and peace.” If Jorgensen wins the presidential election in November, she says, all the good things will be in store. “Obstacles to healthcare access will become rare,” she shares. “We’ll have a harmonious society where individuals and groups work and live together peacefully.”
She then adds, “If I fall short of being elected, but we succeed in demonstrating our growing strength and numbers, we’ll create a huge opportunity for real change, for real people,” which Jorgensen hopes will inspire many to “join the freedom movement and the Libertarian Party” in order to “move America in a libertarian direction” and to “always prioritize the rights of each individual over the force of government, regardless of the issue.”
Writer: Sophia Mazurowski
Photographers & Videographers: Jason & Tara Massey
Editor: Eiko Watanabe
Special thanks to EPK Media (@myepk & @epkmedia - epkmedia.com)
