All the libertarians I’ve ever “debated” with (to use the term loosely) claim they are not large “L” libertarians, just small “l” libertarians, but although they often try to hide it, they are all 100% pro vice. So what part of the LP platform do they disagree with? They just try to avoid the stench of the LP platform, but most of them (about 99% I’d say) really agree with it.
So they lie.
Duplicity, avoidance, sloganeering, straw men and the entire gamut of dirty dihonest debate methods are their SOP. They are masters at trying to hide what their real beliefs and philosophies are. If the small l’s are really opposed to the large L platform so much, why don’t they call themselves something else? For instance, I call my myself a “constitutionalist”. Fits my philosophy.
They to a man want all vice legalized. They pretend to claim that they only don’t want the fedgov making anti-vice laws (which is fine with me, other than abortion) but they also do not want the states to make anti-vice laws either. So they are really the Huge Giant Big Nanny State JBTs. Their ideal utopian state has nothing to do with Constitutional principles nor the writings of the men who wrote it.
Probably, but I think the movement is growing up.
Most promising, I’ve been hearing a lot of small-l libertarians who are pro-life, on the basis that the murder of a child violates the rights of child.
There’s even a website with some pretty good articles — libertarians for life.
Me, I view the government as a lost cause, basically impossible to use to promote conservative values and only a danger to Christian and other conservative values.
In short, I think I agree with libertarians about the role of government (next to nothing), but for a different reason.