My name is Pat Kim. I work as a Software Engineer. I also own and operate a Punk record label called Insubordination Records and play in a band called the Beatnik Termites. I am also a moderator on the Conservative Punk Website, a board run by 'Classical Free-Market Liberals' (ie: fiscal Conservatives) who are socially liberal.

I am an immigrant from the Republic of Korea. My mother and father lived through the brutal Japanese occupation of Korea until liberation by the Allied Forces in 1945. During WW2, my mother helped feed her family by washing GI's uniforms while in the refugee camps. She put herself through medical school (Seoul Women's Medical College) by working menial labor jobs. Upon the partition of Korea my mother's family fled to the U.S. lines at the 38th parallel under cover of darkness after her uncle was arrested, tortured and executed at the hands of Kim Il-Sung's troops as a bourgeois enemy of the state.

Upon the expulsion of the Japanese from Korea in 1945, my father completed his medical degree and worked at a hospital until 1950 when North Korean tanks rolled across the 38th parallel. He was immediately drafted into the newly formed ROK forces as a surgeon assigned to a field hospital and commissioned at the rank of Captain. My family witnessed the brutality of both the Japanese Imperialists and the North Korean Communists within a single decade.

In 1959, my father came to the USA, to teach at Columbia University as a visiting Professor. There, he met my mother, who was completing her residency. They were married 4 months later.

In 1966, right after I was born, my mother and father immigrated with me and my two older sisters to the United States under the auspices of Lyndon B Johnson. They immediately registered Democrat. However, when McGovern ran in 1972, my extremely Anti-Communist parents voted for Nixon. Returning to the Democratic fold, they voted for Carter in 1976 only to be disgusted with his lack of strong leadership and mishandling of the economy. The straw that broke the camel's back was when Jimmy Carter announced his intention to unilaterally withdraw U.S. forces from South Korea. In 1980, they voted for Reagan and changed their party affiliation to Republican and never looked back. They were always Fiscal Conservatives anyway and realized that the Republicans were closer ideologically to their core beliefs. The era of the archaic mainstream Democrat ala Truman, Kennedy, and LBJ had passed into a time long forgotten.

I was raised in a very socially conservative traditional Korean authoritarian household. As soon as I was old enough to realize it, I rejected this social conservatism as it was shoved down my throat and became involved in the punk scene in my teens as a form of rebellion. Unlike my parents, I have always been extremely socially liberal and tolerant of other people's lifestyles, something that I identified with as a basic punk value. At the same time, I have always had a basic distrust of government, also a basic punk value. However I still retained a lot of my parents' core beliefs of personal fiscal responsibility and virulent Anti-Communism, manifested in my fervent gratefulness to the USA for its policy of military intervention on behalf of my freedom and the lives of my fellow Koreans and now Korean-Americans.

Such is the story of evolution of my beliefs in a nutshell. For a while, I identified as a Liberal Republican, (socially liberal, fiscally conservative, hawk). In 1992, I got fed up with the Republican social agenda and cast my vote for the conservative pro-choice independent candidate Ross Perot. Subsequently, I had to deal with the consequences of splitting the Conservative vote as I suffered through 8 years of Clinton's Socialist hell. I returned to the Republican fold soon thereafter.

In the mid 90s, I started to identify as a Right-Libertarian because I finally found a party that espoused both personal and economic freedom. I found myself in agreement with virtually every LP platform issue with the exception of its stance on foreign intervention, for obvious reasons. Not counting this issue, I am in agreement with more Libertarian beliefs than those of any other party.

I admire Barry Goldwater, Ayn Rand, Neal Boortz, and Milton Friedman.

I hope to make a difference and bring the Libertarian Party to a position of national prominence because I believe that there is a potential Libertarian in every freedom loving American. Libertarianism just makes so much sense. How can you argue with the basic creed of "mind your own business, what's yours is yours and what's mine is mine"? It seems like common sense, decency, and consideration to me!

Pat Kim
LFC Associate Member