[MontaniSemperLiberi]

Thank you.

“A libertarian wants small government - good - but fails to consider of the connection between basic core beliefs, such as those held in common by the founders (Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Catholic, Deist, etc.) and the viability of the society built thereupon. “

I don’t think that’s true. It reads like and assertion, a straw man. Probably the most famous Libertarian today is Beck and he’s led a revival in concern for our founding principles.

[Captain Kirk]

Nonsense. Beck is not a libertarian. For example, like his neocon heroine Palin, he supports the drug war and perpetual war in Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq.

[Captain Kirk]

Oh....I forgot to mention that Beck supported TARP when the chips were down. Some “libertarian!”

[Lexinom]

Look, a number of my own views are libertarian. Seat belt laws, smoking bans, the EPA. I do think it obvious, however, that a basic common presuppositional framework is necessary as a bedrock for building any society, that it is simply not possible to start from "nothing" if for no other reason than the founders of society x's own built-in biases, which we all carry.

In our case, we have built a society in which it is safe to openly profess atheism even though the very foundation that even makes that possible is theistic. This was clearly, to my mind, the spirit of the Jefferson quote.

If I am reading you right, you are challenging my assertion that libertarianism tries to start from nothing, ostensibly to facilitate the greatest amount of liberty. I would love to be proven wrong on this. My bone with libertarianism is not with citizens' rights to believe whatever they wish, but rather with what I perceive as its notion to undermine the foundational latticework, itself not completely neutral, that makes this freedom possible in the first place.