Republicans and Democrats dominate the political landscape ofIndiana and one gubernatorial hopeful said that's a bad thing forvoters.
Kenn Gividen, Libertarian candidate for governor, was in MuncieFriday speaking to Ball State students about the importance of athird party.
"I like to call them Republicrats," Gividen said, "they're bothpretty much the same. The Republicans and Democrats are both takingus in the wrong direction."
Both parties have steadily increased taxation and overallgovernment size, he said. If elected, the gubernatorial candidatesaid he would guide Indiana in a direction which his party feels ismore in keeping with the vision of the Founding Fathers.
This direction includes dropping state property taxes and makingthe education, health care and criminal justice systems moreprivate.
Gividen said it is the government's duty to protect the life,liberty and property of citizens. Anything outside of this is theresponsibility of individuals and private businesses, he said.
Speaking about the illegal drug issue, Gividen said, "Thegovernment shouldn't get involved in crimes that have no victims.People should have the right to hurt themselves."
Just because something is sinful or wrong doesn't necessarilymean it should be illegal, he said.
Gividen, who is a devout Southern Baptist said that legislatingmorality can be a slippery slope.
"When you empower the government to take away your beer, can yougive it the power to take away my Bible?" he said.
Addressing the issue of national security, Gividen said that anend to gun control laws would be a good start. "If the people onthe planes were armed, 9/11 would not have happened." he said.
Gividen said most Libertarians are opposed to the way the War onTerror is being fought. "The government shouldn't be spreading thetaxpayers' money all over the globe when there are bettersolutions." he said.
One solution Gividen gave was free trade. He said terrorismwould be less of a threat if the U.S. government were to establishbetter trade relations with the people of the Middle East.
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