I’ll admit it. That was my reaction when a friend of mine told me a few years ago that he was a Libertarian. “But, Libertarians are anarchists!” I admit, I was a sheep. I had heard it somewhere, the word “Libertarian” sounded weird to me, and just like most people, I sometimes don’t like things that are new or unfamiliar, so my first instinct was to repeat what I had heard somewhere about this strange phenomenon called “Libertarianism.”
I was an independent voter, who voted for the person from either party who was the best candidate. I thought that casting a vote for a third party was wasting your vote. I didn’t know who or what these “Libertarians” were, so my first reaction was defensive. The only reason I admit my previous rush to judgment is that I’ve noticed it a lot lately, by Democrats, Republicans, and the media, in response to the presidential candidacy of Congressman Ron Paul. People don’t know what “libertarians” are or what they stand for, so they immediately insult them and call them crazy. I had no idea that Libertarians were a hybrid of ideas from either party (kind of what the independent voter wants, after all) and I may have guessed they were close to Communists if someone had asked me. I’ve noticed that many others make the same mistake. These are some misconceptions I’d like to help clear up with this blog.
What’s most interesting to me is that according to a study conducted by the Cato Institute, 60% of Americans describe themselves as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, which means that most Americans are libertarian and don’t even know it. There used to be a lot of people within the Republican Party who were libertarian, and Ronald Reagan himself said in 1975: “Libertarianism is the heart and soul of conservatism.” Current Republican candidates love to proclaim what Reagan said and what Reagan taught us, but they conveniently forget that Reagan had a libertarian streak which they lack. The only candidate who actually knew Reagan, Ron Paul, is also the only one who doesn’t name-drop.
Very good comments. I like your writing. I do think that a strong, hearty Libertarian Party would do great things for this country. Certainly, it would help keep the two major parties more honest.
Wickle
December 7th, 2007
Thank you very much, Wickle. I think that any strong third party would help democracy in America and honesty in politics, and the Libertarian Party or the Constitution Party seem to be the strongest third parties by a few different measures.
libertariangirl
December 7th, 2007
I think this is the single most largest challenge to Libertarianism we have today. It is my unproven faith that Libertarianism would simply and naturally skyrocket to prominence as a hip and relevant political force in our times, IF ONLY people understood what it is fundamentally about. It is, more than anything, the people’s ignorance of what the word means that is the greatest impediment to our success and man-on-the-street normality.
I’d also like to comment that although libertarian ideals and precepts sometimes coincide with Republicrat du jour positions, libertarian values stem from a completely independent source, a source which is based in fixed fundamental principles of personal intrasocietal property & liberty sovereignty.
The fact that those positions may overlap Demopublican positions is more a matter of happenstance than one of libertarians being a hybrid of the other two Parties.
Gary Treistman
December 13th, 2007
[...] started discussing this with the friend who first introduced me to libertarian ideas, and he said: “I’m a hardcore libertarian who doesn’t believe that the government [...]
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December 28th, 2007