Posted on 10/04/2006 8:26:14 AM PDT by tang0r
The libertarian ideology is one of the most misunderstood in American politics. Many citizens don't have any idea what it is. Most of them who do - liberal and conservative - aver that libertarianism is nothing but a worthless form of crypto-anarchy. The author of one recently popular anti-libertarian article, titled with brevity "Why I Am Not a Libertarian," argues that libertarians want to privatize everything, and that since privatization of such things like the Pennekamp Coral Reef in Key Largo would destroy the cute fish and their natural habitat there, libertarianism is not for him. He also alleges that to be libertarian is to support abolishing welfare in favor of ruthless Social Darwinism, and since he doesn't like the idea of handicapped people being tossed in the street, so he rejects that axiom of "libertarianism" as well.
(Excerpt) Read more at prometheusinstitute.net ...
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.
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.
BRING BACK THE CHADORS
"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
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.
Then we have the others...the ones who readily call themselves 'Conservative' while acting nothing of the sort.
Their FR designation is RINO.
Well said
Thunderous applause
I don't trust Libertarians on the subject of war. I don't believe they get it when it comes to fighting wars.
I am a libertarian.
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.
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".
Sounds like you would rather rights be violated by groups of people near to you rather than in Washington.
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.
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)
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.
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.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.