Centuries ago, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine recognized the futility and evil in trying to force people to be virtuous. They taught that government should limit itself to keeping the peace by protecting people’s lives and property.

The golden rule teaches that we must not do to another what we would not want done to ourselves. Don’t cheat. Don’t steal. Don’t hit. Don’t harm others. Live and let live. Mind your own business. Libertarians call this the non-aggression principle: that no person or group may initiate force against another.

The modern state knows no such limits, making everyone’s business its own and leaving the individual naked before it. No matter which political party is in power, the government continues to grow unchecked, ignoring justice and fundamental rights, keeping the poor in a place of permanent dependency, while plundering the future to give favors to its friends and extending its world-wide empire through endless warfare.

It is time to consider libertarianism, the most just system in a fallen world and the only political philosophy that takes human dignity and free will seriously. Liberty will not feed a man, nor will it get him into heaven, but does guarantee him the freedom to do both.