Farbs
My position is that the formation of the Libertarian Party did more to destroy freedom in the United States (and therefore, the world) than any event since. The Libertarian Party acts as a magnet for liberty-minded individuals and has allowed both major parties to drift further from liberty, as the potential Ron Pauls of the world move into a world of endless bickering. The two major parties, freed of liberty-minded voices, move faster towards the ultimate goal.
I can’t disagree.
November 20th, 2006 at 10:27 am
It would be hard to see the Libertarian Party faithful fitting in with either the Republicans or Democrats. I think moderate libertarians don’t really have a home anywhere right now.
November 20th, 2006 at 10:35 am
Not to mention that real big-L Libertarian Party members tend to be nucking futs.
As Xrlqs Wrqly said, “The notion that government has no interest in discouraging any behavior it doesn’t (or shouldn’t) ban is beyond silly. Frankly, I’m not sure which I dread more: an authoritarian government that prohibits alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, adultery, strip joints, poor dietary habits or encouraging one’s kids to learn as little as possible in school, or a looneytarian one whose members feel duty bound to pretend there is nothing socially undesirable about any of these things.”
The hard libertarian line that an ideal word is one where you can pay a toll to walk on a privately-owned sidewalk so you can buy legal heroin from your legal prostitute (as Stephen Green put it) is just goofy. People who go through the hard L phase and come out of it tend to become pretty reasonable people, but in the middle they sure believe some crazy stuff.
November 20th, 2006 at 10:41 am
Good points. I’ve never been hard L, after all I tolerated the Rs even with all their god-squad baggage. Well, and the fact that libertarian foreign policy is to have no foreign policy.
November 20th, 2006 at 11:41 am
part two is up.
November 20th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
Not to mention that real big-L Libertarian Party members tend to be nucking futs.
Most everybody gets that. It pisses me off a little to be called a Libertarian but I don’t understand how people don’t have some Libertarian leanings.
Uncle is right about the God-squad hard Republicans. Barry Goldwater had a lot of good ideas but they have been lost to history. One of the big problems with the Reagan revolution was the invasion of the God-squad.
Big L Libertarians are worse than far left democrats on national security. How hard is it to understand this stuff. Apparently pretty hard. A lot of the mess we are in today comes from the two National Parties and the Fourth Estate. I don’t think they could have screwed this country up any worse if they had tried.
November 20th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
Yes, it’s the libertarians fault that the conservatives completely sold out their principles. They only hit us because they love us, after all.
November 20th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
Stormy, I’m not saying that conservatives didn’t sell out. But Libertarians with a big L are often their own worst enemy.
November 20th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
I know you avoid KTK’s posts on our blog, but read his post on “Ideological Purity.” There’s a great deal there that applies in this case, as well. In fact, I’d bet you could say the Ideological Purity bug bites libertarian types even worse than it bites Democrat-types.
November 20th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
Yes, but statements like “Libertarian Party did more to destroy freedom in the United States (and therefore, the world) than any event since” seem to imply it’s out fault they sold out because it was apparently our job to stop them from being whores.
For the last six years, the Republican leadership and intellectual establishment has made it clear they didn’t care at all about the libertarian agenda, in some cases all but telling us to our faces “We’re going stomp all over you and there’s nothing you can do about it because you got nowhere else to go–so suck it bitch!”
And when we predictably stopped voting for them, now they want to whine about how we’re setting the cause of liberty back because we would just sit there and take the abuse.
November 20th, 2006 at 11:55 pm
The thought that Libertarian leaning folks would have settled for voting for the lesser of two evils because the LP didn’t exist seems a big jump.
Given the numbers of citizen’s that don’t bother to vote, Libertarians might have just ended up in that silent majority.
That also could mean the only reason they participate in the political process at all is because of the party that stands behind their beliefs.
And turning themselves into an actual voting block could also be reminding the two major parties that government itself IS the problem, (in 99% of situations).