Clark Patterson
Libertarian | Texas
Candidate Profile
Leans Liberal
BIOGRAPHY
Name
Clark Patterson
Party
Libertarian
Election Year
2018
Election
General
Race
U.S. Rep., Dist.35
Incumbent
No
Links
EDUCATION
University of Texas, Austin, BA, 1988
WORK & MILITARY
Clark Patterson Photography & Videography, Owner/Principal Photographer & Videographer, 21
AFFILIATIONS
Beta Theta Pi, Member
POLITICAL OFFICES HELD
(Candidate did not provide)
POLITICAL OFFICES SOUGHT
Texas State House District 48, 1982
Texas Congressional District 1, 2012
OTHER INFORMATION
QUESTIONNAIRE
RIGHT TO LIFE
Human life begins at conception and deserves legal protection at every stage until natural death.
Disagree
Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, should not receive taxpayer funds or grants from federal, state, or local governments.
Strongly Agree
Under what circumstances should abortion be allowed?
Abortion should be allowed in almost all circumstances. Ayn Rand Objectivists don't believe that life begins at conception. The fetus is not a human being until it is biologically viable. Outlawing abortion and requiring a woman to carry a pregnancy to term against her will forces her body to be a mandatory life support system for the fetus for up to nine months. All individuals, including pregnant women, possess an inalienable right to their own life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Even if a fetus is a human life, no human being can abridge the inalienable rights of another human [in this case, the pregnant mother] by forcing her to carry a pregnancy to term.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Governments should not discriminate against individuals, organizations or small businesses because of their belief that marriage is only a union of one man and one woman.
Strongly Agree
Governments should define marriage as between one man and one woman; no other definition of marriage should be legalized or supported with taxpayer or public funds.
Disagree
Religious liberty is at risk in the United States and deserves the highest level of protection in the law.
Agree
NATIONAL SECURITY
I am in favor of construction of a wall and other necessary infrastructure on our border that gives complete control over entering and exiting the United States.
Strongly Disagree
The United States should help defend Israel from attack by its enemies.
Neutral
Islamic law (Sharia) should take precedence over national and state laws where there are Islamic majority communities in the U. S.
Strongly Disagree
I support sanctuary cities.
Agree
The United States should protect its sovereignty from the United Nations.
Agree
The best way to maintain peace is through a strong military.
Disagree
What should the United States do to help eradicate the threat of radical Islamic terrorism?
Like the Founding Fathers, Libertarians believe in a foreign policy of strict non-interventionism in the internal affairs of other nations. During the last 70 years, the US has aggressively intervened in the internal affairs of Islamic nations, planting the seeds for the blowback of radical Islamic terrorism. The US overthrew the democratically-elected governments of Syria in 1949 and Iran in 1953. It invaded Lebanon in 1958 and helped overthrow the Iraqi government in 1958 and 1963. The US also began furnishing nuclear technology to Iran in 1957 with its Atoms For Peace program and in the 1970s supported a plan to build 20 nuclear reactors in Iran. The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 has led to the disastrously destructive regional sectarian civil war that has raged in the Middle East for the last decade. In fact, the biggest enemy of ISIL and al-Qaeda today are Shiites, not the US. Libertarians believe that the US should completely phase out its intervention in the Islamic world.
HEALTHCARE
It is the government’s responsibility to be sure everyone has health insurance.
Strongly Disagree
How would you promote healthcare coverage that is adequate, affordable and accessible for all?
Libertarians believe that Obamacare should be phased out and replaced with a complete free market in health care. We should also phase out Medicare and Medicaid within one to two generations [25-50 years]. Libertarians believe there should be no governmental involvement in health care. Unfortunately, too many Americans today believe that health care is a right. It is not. Removing all levels of government from health care would, in the long run, greatly reduce overall health care spending. In a complete free market in health care, Americans would pay almost all of their health care costs "out of pocket." Insurance would likely only pay for health emergencies.
ECONOMY
It is the government’s responsibility to be sure everyone has a livable income.
Strongly Disagree
Free enterprise and the right to private property are essential elements of a productive economic system.
Strongly Agree
Congress should pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
Agree
What role should government play in boosting the economy?
Libertarians believe in extremely limited governmental spending and no taxation. In fact, this is the best way to promote private economic growth. Libertarians also believe that only the private sector should create jobs. If US federal governmental involvement [and state and local governmental involvement] were completely removed from the American economy, the result would be unprecedented economic growth and expansion. At that point, any job unemployment would be completely voluntary.
What changes should be made to the tax code?
Libertarians believe that taxation has no place whatsoever in a free society and that all taxation should be phased out and eliminated. Libertarians believe that the only proper, constitutional function of the federal government is national defense and that the only proper functions of state and local governments are to provide police and court services. Also, both the federal government and state and local governments should be completely funded by voluntary contributions from Americans and voluntary lotteries. These developments would likely reduce current government spending by at least 95 percent.
What is the best way to bring down unemployment?
We've known for years how to both prevent and resolve economic bubbles. We know from Austrian economic theory that completely deregulating interest rates (specifically, permitting them to rise to reflect deficit spending), avoiding pump-priming fiscal stimulus policies, and allowing recessions to run their course for 18-24 months is the only long term strategy to both avert and rectify economic downturns. Austrian economic theory holds that artificially low interest rates create economic booms and busts and business malinvestment. Instead of attempting to avoid recessions and unemployment, the federal government should pursue economic policies that acknowledge that recessions and shifts in employment are the only long term cures for malinvestment and the economic busts that malinvestment generates. Finally, in an unfettered free market economy, the only unemployment would be voluntary.
How would you guarantee Social Security benefits for future generations?
Libertarians believe that the Social Security and Medicare "entitlement" programs are transparent Ponzi schemes. Because entitlement programs and Ponzi schemes are antithetical to limited government, Libertarians believe that Social Security and Medicare should be phased out -- not protected and restored. Currently, taxpayers who pay into Social Security and Medicare for their entire working careers do not own their benefits, meaning that US citizens who die before retiring receive nothing from these programs. With private retirement plans, Americans could leave huge financial nest eggs to their heirs.
EDUCATION
Tuition-free public education should be guaranteed through college.
Strongly Disagree
CRIMINAL JUSTICE & PUBLIC SAFETY
I support the death penalty.
Disagree
2ND AMENDMENT
More restrictive gun control is needed to protect public safety.
Strongly Disagree
OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES
Additional regulations are needed to prevent climate change.
Strongly Disagree
It is OK for Congress to exempt itself from compliance with laws applicable to all citizens.
Disagree
ABOUT YOU
I voted in these primaries and general elections:
2010 General Election, 2012 General Election, 2014 General Election, 2016 General Election
When you consider your views on a wide range of issues from economic and social matters to foreign policy and immigration, which of the following best describes you overall?
No Answer
Please provide publicly available information validating your answer to the previous question.
Politically, I'm a libertarian. As a political libertarian, I believe in reducing about 99 percent of the current size of the federal government in Washington. Political libertarians don't believe in a left-right or liberal-conservative political spectrum. Instead, libertarians believe that the political spectrum is shaped like a baseball diamond, with home plate representing complete authoritarianism and totalitarianism and second base representing extremely-limited government and libertarianism. In short, libertarians believe that it's more important to be closer to second base and away from home plate than it is to be on the right near first base and conservative or on the left near third base and liberal.
What education or experience qualifies you to hold the office for which you seek election?
I possess a college bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin that I received in 1988. I’m running for Congress to advocate the philosphic ideas of Ayn Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism and the economic views of Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian School of economics. Bad philosophic and economic ideas have led America to our current philosophic, cultural, and financial crises. My absolute, overriding conviction is that only the sound views of Rand and of Mises and the Austrian School can make America great again.
E-mail address and phone number for voters to reach you:
clarkryanpatterson@gmail.com (512)784-0929
Is there anything else you would like voters to know about you?
The US federal government currently has a $21.4 trillion debt and unfunded liabilities of $210 trillion. In order to avoid economic catastrophe resulting from these debts, Congress must immediately begin making massive, across-the-board cuts in government spending and severely reducing the size and scope of the federal government. Two specific areas should be emphasized. First, the US should phase out over the next 25-50 years, all entitlement programs -- including Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. And second, the US should immediately switch to a foreign policy of strict non-interventionism.
VALUES
Judeo-Christian values established a framework of morality which permitted our system of limited government.
Disagree
People should be allowed to use public restrooms, showers, and changing rooms based on "gender identity."
Neutral
What in the nature of mankind caused America’s Founders to carefully define, separate, and limit powers in the Constitution?
The Enlightenment belief that humans require freedom and natural rights in order to flourish, prosper, and achieve a secular, happy life on earth.
Briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values.
I'm an Ayn Rand Objectivist. Ayn Rand Objectivists are secular atheists. In the age-old duel between Plato and Aristotle, Ayn Rand Objectivism is an Aristotelian worldview, whereas Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are Platonist worldviews. Like Aristotle, Objectivists believe that morality is a normative science, moral values can be rationally derived, and that ultimate Right and Wrong must be based on the requirements of human life. [For more information about this, please consult the works of Ayn Rand.] We also believe in complete laissez faire, free market capitalism. Finally, Ayn Rand Objectivists are political libertarians.
