Announcement Statement of Libertarian Robert Murphy As a Candidate for Oklahoma US Senator

Revolution is in the air. People are angry and frustrated. They’re angry at the lockdowns that devastated the economy. They’re angry at the government for constant stories of incompetence and corruption. They’re frustrated that their wages don’t keep up with inflation. They can’t fill their gas tanks. They can’t feed their families. They can’t pay their rent. Many seem to be consumed by an explosive mixture of fear and rage.

Recent events like the BLM riots and the January 6 riot show that some of us – on both sides of the political divide – think that violence is sometimes justified. The trouble is that mob violence, while morally satisfying to the participants, seldom accomplishes more than looting, property damage, and a few people getting injured or killed. It never inspires serious policy changes. Neither does armed insurrection, which usually just replaces one set of pirates with another.

We need a Libertarian Revolution through the ballot box – a political revolution driven by voters who are tired of wealth inequality, endless wars, and political corruption; voters who realize that the path to liberty, peace, and prosperity depends on individual liberty, property rights, and the rule of law. For too long, our national social policies, economic policies, and foreign policies have been influenced and controlled by bureaucratic experts who don’t suffer for their mistakes. We must work to dismantle the complex legal structure that allows the banking system, the military/industrial/congressional complex, the corporate giants, and the main-stream media to control so much of our daily lives.

At the moment we seem to be a divided nation, and the Media, in particular, are to blame for fostering division among us. As demonstrated by Matt Taibbi, they have positioned their business models on appealing to the extremes of the Left-Right spectrum. They ignore the idea that there is a Middle Way, based on the founding principles of our American civilization – a Way that fosters love and brotherhood rather than envy and hatred.

Freedom is the genius of American civilization. Other great nations have been born in conquest. Ours began with the Declaration of Independence and the enshrining of the idea of the natural rights of man. It was founded, not on the power of the State, but on the liberty of the individual. That principle of individual liberty has had its good days and its bad days in the United States; it’s been denied to many groups of people for far too long. But the ideal has always survived. It is our answer and our hope.

Our freedoms are being limited and eroded in many ways. Medical mandates, the war on drugs, the war on guns, the war on terror, internet censorship, NSA eavesdropping, debasement of our currency, enormous debt, frivolous military actions to protect or promote international corporations – all these things reduce our freedom of action.

As a US Senator I could have some influence in this area. In this point in my campaign I intend to focus on the three subjects I think most important to stress: Federal encroachment on Oklahoman’s sovereignty; Tribal relations; and Drug Policy. I’ll address other subjects as the campaign progresses.

Federal Encroachment

I will be watching Federal court decisions on pending 2nd Amendment issues to ensure that Oklahomans retain the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. 

I will be watching Federal restrictions on the energy industry that increase the price of exploration as well as our dependence on foreign energy sources. Without electrical energy we would return to the stone age. Solar Cells and Windmills are too intermittent and undependable for a stable electrical grid. We will be dependent upon fossil fuels for electricity until the development of safe Thorium nuclear plants. The Climate Change hysteria we are presently enduring is essentially an “Anti-Industrial Revolution”. 

Biden's Administration has done everything in its power to degrade and stop energy infrastructure build-out, unless its "green enough" by whatever formula he uses.

Keystone XL is just part of it. In addition there are natural gas pipelines that have had their permitting process obstructed and thus are now unfinished, both for new rights-of-way and capacity increases.

Contrary to the false claims of the climate howlers — current mildly rising temperatures are in keeping with the historical truth that warmer is better for humanity and most other species, too; and climate cycles are a function of powerful planetary forces, such as the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit, which causes ice ages in 100,000 year intervals, and solar irradiation oscillations, which modulate cosmic rays and cloud formation.

These forces have shaped the earth’s climate for eons and long preceded and massively exceed the impact of industrial era CO2 emissions; Continued planetary equipoise requires no interventions whatsoever by the state to retard the use of prosperity-fostering fossil fuels or to subsidize and accelerate the adoption of high cost renewable energy.

Some think the Industrial Revolution was a mistake. To those who wish to go back to the horse-and-buggy days of the seventeenth century I could ask which of us would like to give up trains, planes, automobiles, cell phones, and all the other modern benefits of the Industrial Revolution. P.J. O’Rourke rejects this thought with two words: “Modern Dentistry”.

I will be watching how the Federal courts deal with vaccine mandates and other intrusions into the rights of Oklahomans to determine for themselves what to accept as medicine. No matter the cause of the recent coronavirus, it has been used to provoke an unprecedented reaction of fear that led to the shutdown of our entire economy, with disastrous results. Now, it seems, the vaccines meant to prevent the disease are relatively ineffective and often dangerous.

I agree with the Attorney General of Nebraska that Doctors should be free to prescribe Ivermectin, Hydrochloriquine, or any other drug that, in their opinion, would be a therapeutic for Covid-19.

The Statists among us are attempting to build a Bio-Security State in which individuals are subject to the whims of Big Pharma, and individual liberty is subsumed by the Medical/Industrial Complex.

Tribal Relations

The recent McGirt Decision, that rendered portions of Eastern Oklahoma outside the jurisdiction of Oklahoma courts, has placed Tribal Relations in turmoil. Major crimes committed on Indian Land must now be tried in either Federal or Tribal courts, and it seems that neither Federal or Tribal courts are up to the task. According to some, many prosecutions are not being pursued, and many victims are suffering. It is important that perpetrators of crimes are punished and victims are compensated for their losses.

I want to work with the Federal Authorities and the tribes to help them step up their game regarding law enforcement. The suddenness of this Supreme Court decision has come at a surprise to us all, and it takes time to develop effective institutions for law enforcement. They must develop responsible responsive forces to respond, investigate, and prosecute crimes on Indian Land. I want to help.

The idea of dual sovereignty over certain geographical areas brings legal questions. Could the Tribes, asserting their sovereignty, authorize such things as energy regulation, abortion availability, or even drug legalization, despite State or Federal law? It is an area I have just begun to study.

I regard the Tribes sovereign status as an experiment in sovereignty. Can the Tribe’s governing bodies enact and enforce just laws to control crime in their territory? Can the Federal Authorities provide justice either? It is yet to be seen. 

Drug Policy

The Drug War is a Racket, a Charade, a Fiction, designed to rally political support against a mystical threat to civilization in order to justify authoritarian regulation of human behavior. The threat, of course, is the use of drugs, which was said to be a source of all sorts of immoral and criminal activity. When President Nixon declared the War On Drugs in 1971, though, it was for political reasons.  

To quote an aide of President Richard M. Nixon, who first declared War On Drugs: "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." John Ehrlichman, to Dan Baum for Harper's Magazine in 1994, about President Richard Nixon's war on drugs, declared in 1971. It was essentially a continuation of an attack on the freedom of every individual to decide for themselves what to use as medicine.

 

Legal prohibition of a powerful human desire always leads to corruption, and eventually catastrophe. The lesson was clear in the 1920s, when alcohol was banned, and criminal gangs rose to satisfy demand. It is working in the same way today.

There always has been, and there always will be, a certain percentage of every human population that wants to use various substances to ease their pain, stimulate their thoughts, or induce euphoria. The substances used through history have varied from the seemingly benign nicotine, caffeine, and alcohol to the seemingly dangerous such as cannabis, opiates, cocaine, methedrine, and psychedelics. The hunger for these things is never-ending.

Just as there have been those who want to use various substances, there have been those who, for moral or political reasons – or simple envy -  are determined to stop them. The crusade against alcohol began with the Post-Millenial Pietist Christian movement of the 19th century – mainly Puritanical Protestants- when many Evangelicals thought it was justified to use the Law to prohibit bad moral behavior. Their zeal was well intentioned, but was soon hijacked by Progressive politicians eager to use the Law to control many more aspects of human behavior – economic, social, and global. They have led us into a morass of corruption, pain, and wasted lives.

Coffee was banned in many countries when it first became popular in the 15th century. Coffee houses throughout Europe were often seen as sources of political subversion by caffeine-agitated hooligans.

One of the more cruel Ottoman Sultans – Murad IV – used to take great delight in wandering the streets of Istanbul at night with his bodyguards, eagerly slicing off the heads of those he caught smoking tobacco.

Here is a brief list of some of the negative consequences of the Drug War:

- Because drugs are illegal, the prices are many times what they would be in a free market.

- Because drugs are illegal, there are profits to be made financing the demand for drugs in underground markets..

- Because drugs are illegal,  the growers, manufacturers, and suppliers who satisfy popular demand must rely on extra-legal means to enforce their contracts – too often involving violence, just like Al Capone’s gang in the 1920s.

- The vast profits to be had often lead to the corruption of police, judges, and politicians.

- Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Mexico from the warring gangs competing to satisfy the appetite for drugs.

- Asset Forfeiture laws have turned cops into robbers, seizing money and property from travelers on our highways, often enough without ever charging them with a crime.

- The Medical/Mental Health Establishment benefits with steady employment in Rehab Centers and Counseling for penitent convicted users.

- The CIA has used the trade in both heroin and crack cocaine to finance illegal underground wars and black operations.

- Because the most popular drugs are illegal, there’s a market for new experimental ways to get high, like Bath Salts, or Salvia, or Beladonna, with unpredictable and often tragic results.

- Most of the thousands of deaths from the “opioid epidemic” were caused by contamination. Fentanyl is the main contaminant – a cheaply-made painkiller that can kill in small amounts.

Too often, laws passed with the best of intentions lead to tragic unintended consequences. So it is with the Drug War and Drug Prohibition. Those in the lower economic classes suffer the worst. Those who use drugs to assuage the pains of their wretched lives are under constant threat of arrest and imprisonment, while those among the upper classes are too often allowed to enjoy their various stimulants with impunity. 

A Better Way

If those who are determined to use drugs to alter their physical or emotional state are allowed access to pure unadulterated forms of their chosen drugs, cheaply and without undue restriction, most of the problems of drug use would be lessened. Please notice the I’m saying most drug use problems, and that they may not be solved, but would certainly be lessened.

Fewer people would die from Fentanyl overdose from contaminated opiates, and they could predictably  regulate their dosage – as long as the drugs were produced under regulated conditions and subject to testing for impurities.

Fewer Speed Freaks would lose their teeth or their senses due to homemade Meth, when Ritalin and Adderal – approved and pure forms of Meth - are freely available.

The relative success of the use of psychedelic drugs to treat various psychological or substance-dependent maladies is well-documented. Their legalization could be a major contribution to mental health.

The criminal gangs like the Bloods, the Crips, and the rich Mexican cartels would be deprived of their markets, their money, and their political influence, and the remaining criminals among them would be reduced to the traditional crimes of thievery, robbery, and extortion, all of which are more easily combated than the lucrative drug trade.

People would be free to determine for themselves whether or not to choose to use various drugs when the effects and consequences of occasional use versus habituation are published truthfully and are well known. This renewed sense of freedom would promote the idea of individual choice and individual responsibility – a prerequisite for a free society.

There will always be some who are so emotionally damaged that they will willingly risk death rather than face the real world, and they may too often shun the world with the use of drugs – usually physical depressants such as opiates, but often things like alcohol, Valium, or other physiologically active substances. We must help them if we can, but we must recognize free choice.

But we must also recognize that most of us use conscious discretion when choosing which drugs to use.

Usually when we’re young, we hear of various things – Pot, LSD, Ecstasy, Oxycontin, or lots of other pills that will make you think better, sleep better, or enter you into mystical realms a la Timothy Leary, Sgt. Pepper, or Carlos Castanada. We may have experimented – usually beginning with alcohol – but we soon decided what we liked – whether through a good meal, a good drink, a good smoke, or even a drink of pure water - and we stuck with that, for better or worse. 

Mormons, and maybe the Amish, as I understand, reject the use of both caffeine and alcohol as spiritually debilitating – and I’m pretty sure they don’t approve of tobacco. They may be right. I don’t know. I tend to think that the key to a good life is “moderation in all things”. 

What, after all, are the problems of drug use? Sometimes it’s an accident caused by someone intoxicated. Sometimes, someone dies from an overdose. Most often, it’s a robbery or murder committed because of high drug prices or Gang competition in drug sales. Inevitably, the problem comes down to a lack of an affordable and legal pure supply. 

A century of anti-drug propaganda has painted drug users as a danger to society when they are no such thing. Most drug users are passive people merely trying to enjoy life. They are not a threat to anyone.

Most of the people who become habituated to things like alcohol, opioids, or cocaine eventually grow out of it. All attempts to stop drug use through law and punishment are futile and misguided. The Cure must be allowed to proceed organically. 

It is time to legalize all drugs, recognizing that individuals must be considered competent to make their own decisions about what to use as medicine and should be free to do so. Their purity and consequences should be advertised and controlled, but they should be freely available without prescription. Doing so would eliminate the devastating influence of criminal gangs, Deep State Actors, and reinstate individual choice and individual responsibility as the main thrust of the American Ideal. It is time to make a better world.

With the above statement, I hereby declare my candidacy for the unexpired term available in the US Senate.

Robert Murphy

Libertarian for US Senate

senatormurphy.com

ww@gate.net