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Why you might be already be a Libertarian
The Prometheus Institute ^ | 10/4/2006 | Editorial

Posted on 10/04/2006 8:26:14 AM PDT by tang0r

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To: tang0r
As far as I can see, Libertarians support:

Legalized drugs
Open borders
No action against terrorists in other countries

I used to think that Libertarians had some good ideas. Now, I would never vote for one.

21 posted on 10/04/2006 8:57:39 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (The broken wall, the burning roof and tower. And Agamemnon dead.)
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To: tang0r
I can't buy into their liberal-like ideas of personal irresponsibility. They argue that each is in fact responsible for himself, and that's true. But social policy and ideas matter. It was a change in social policy and ideas that took us from a time when women who showed their ankles were sluts to today's plague of wanton perversion. Things like homosex aren't beneficial to a people but they flourish when social and political constraints are removed.
22 posted on 10/04/2006 8:58:22 AM PDT by Jaysun (Idiot Muslims. They're just dying to have sex orgies.)
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To: bmwcyle
IMHO, Libertarianism is like Communism in that for either to be viable, basic human behavior/desires would have to undergo a radical change.

And that will never happen.

Besides, I am very content to be a staunch Conservative while at the same time being pro-recreational marijuana. I don't see it as hypocritical in the least.

23 posted on 10/04/2006 8:59:08 AM PDT by -=SoylentSquirrel=- (There will only be peace on Earth when Mecca becomes a glass parking lot.)
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To: tang0r
Personally, I've always felt that Libertarians are just Anarchists who bathe.
24 posted on 10/04/2006 9:00:13 AM PDT by Psycho_Bunny
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To: Jaysun

BRING BACK THE CHADORS


25 posted on 10/04/2006 9:00:42 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: xrp
I am happy to see any view points on this forum

Some make wonderful kitty food
Some I happily agree with
Some require a thoughtful, cognitive response
Some are best ignored

Fortunately, this is not my forum
I am a visitor, by permission
but I like a broader viewpoint

It is the mark of an educated mind
To be able to hold on to a thought
without agreeing with it
-- Aristotle --

26 posted on 10/04/2006 9:01:12 AM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: tang0r
"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals–if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is."

"Now, I can’t say that I will agree with all the things that the present group who call themselves Libertarians in the sense of a party say, because I think that like in any political movement there are shades, and there are libertarians who are almost over at the point of wanting no government at all or anarchy. I believe there are legitimate government functions. There is a legitimate need in an orderly society for some government to maintain freedom or we will have tyranny by individuals. The strongest man on the block will run the neighborhood. We have government to insure that we don’t each one of us have to carry a club to defend ourselves. But again, I stand on my statement that I think that libertarianism and conservatism are travelling the same path."

-Ronald Reagan

27 posted on 10/04/2006 9:02:42 AM PDT by Sooth2222
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To: nosofar
They are unwilling to accept that a person can be harmed emotionally or spiritually.

The problem isn't unwillingness. The problem is that such a claim is so wide open you can drive a giant planet through it. It's the same muckity muck that every crying liberal proclaims. It just turns into a battle of who will rule over who.

28 posted on 10/04/2006 9:02:54 AM PDT by Dracian
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To: lormand
It is a solidly conservative forum, with sprinkles of ideologically confused individuals who are unjustifiably squeamish about calling themselves Conservatives.

Then we have the others...the ones who readily call themselves 'Conservative' while acting nothing of the sort.

Their FR designation is RINO.

29 posted on 10/04/2006 9:03:29 AM PDT by MamaTexan (I am NOT a 'legal entity'...nor am I a *person* as created by law!)
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To: Sooth2222

Well said

Thunderous applause


30 posted on 10/04/2006 9:05:06 AM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: tang0r

I don't trust Libertarians on the subject of war. I don't believe they get it when it comes to fighting wars.


31 posted on 10/04/2006 9:05:19 AM PDT by samtheman (The Democrats are Instituting their own Guest Voter Program.)
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To: Dracian
"That's not really the "conservatism" of the founders of this republic who wanted a seperation of church and state."

Can you back that statement up? The only founder that mentioned the separation of church and state was Jefferson in a letter to the Danbury Baptists.
32 posted on 10/04/2006 9:07:22 AM PDT by antisocial (Texas SCV - Deo Vindice)
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To: tang0r

I am a libertarian.


33 posted on 10/04/2006 9:07:28 AM PDT by therut
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To: rhombus

The peoblem with the idea of legalizing drugs is one of timing to me. I will support legalization of all drugs when the welfare state is destroyed. Not one second sooner. The libertarians make a big mistake in braying about legalizing drugs when everyone know it would be a diaster until they do not have to pay to support the druggies and their dependents.


34 posted on 10/04/2006 9:09:43 AM PDT by therut
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To: nosofar
There may be justification in this view, too, but personally I don't accept it. I'd still prefer smaller central government with more autonomous local government controlled by people at the local level. People must also have the liberty to be governed the way the choose instead of a one-size-fits-all government imposed on them.

Amen to that brother. BTW, that was how this govt. was originally set up. Federalism is embodied, I believe in the 9th and 10th amendmendments to the constitution. The founders most assuredly did not want a "one size fits all" type of system. But it has evolved(devolved) to that it seems. We have now an "all powerful" federal government along with an "all powerful" SCOTUS. The SCOTUS has given itself the power to overrule everything and has in effect become an "super legislature". What ever happened to limited government? In the words of Margaret Mitchell it appears to have "Gone With The Wind".

35 posted on 10/04/2006 9:10:19 AM PDT by mc5cents
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To: nosofar

Sounds like you would rather rights be violated by groups of people near to you rather than in Washington.


36 posted on 10/04/2006 9:10:34 AM PDT by Protagoras (Billy only tried to kill Bin Laden, he actually succeeded with Ron Brown and Vince Foster.)
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To: Sooth2222
The Gipper pretty much summed it up perfectly, didn't he?

I feel real bad for those FReepers who are too myopic to understand that libertarianism and conservatism are, in many ways, the same thing: you are "conservative" because you wish to maintain a "libertarian" political ideology in which the sovereignty of the individual is respected and maintained. This nation wasn't founded on the ideals of a "conservative" political ideology---it was founded on a "liberal" political ideology. In those days, conservatives were the Tories who held for the ideology of royalism, or a constitutional monarchy. The radicals who founded our nation were liberals who held for classic liberalism, which is more-or-less today's libertarianism.

37 posted on 10/04/2006 9:11:11 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost (Spirit of '75)
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To: nosofar
They are unwilling to place any value whatsoever on culture or society, unwilling to acknowledge the social dimension of people, unwilling to acknowledge that harm to a person's culture harms the person. This leads to narcissism and hedonism (just to throw a couple of -isms out there) as people are forced to withdraw from society. We lose the small community and become conglomerations of individuals.

You can't hurt a 'culture'. If people think you're a fool, they just ignore you. If they think what you're saying is worthwhile, they stop, listen, and if they agree will alter their lives of their own volition. Its called the freedom to change through your own free will.

Societies where the collective becomes more important than the individual and the right to use coercive force on those that don't agree are usually called socialist or communist.

--------

Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Madison, from Paris, Jan. 30, 1787;

"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them.
An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of the government."
(Regarding Shay's Rebellion)

38 posted on 10/04/2006 9:12:09 AM PDT by MamaTexan (I am NOT a 'legal entity'...nor am I a *person* as created by law!)
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To: antiRepublicrat

Also there is a solid Libertarian argument aganist abortion. They libertarians are split on this. As for having religion back in school no problem if you get the government out of the school business. They just have not figured out how to state their ideas that make sense to most people at least socially conservative ones like me. They have to first beat back government before spouting off their social ideas. The social ideas only work if government in taken out of the picture FIRST. That should be what they work on.


39 posted on 10/04/2006 9:12:45 AM PDT by therut
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To: King of Florida
There are a handful of "conservatives" around here who are anything but "small-government conservatives." *cough*nannystaters*cough*

Got that right! These "conservatives" were orgasming over Congress banning Internet gambling. Plus you'll see them bashing Wal-Mart and supporting the smoking bans.

40 posted on 10/04/2006 9:14:32 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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