Replies

This week, as Congress and Bush push through the latest education reform, I've been thinking a lot about the differences between "conservatives" and libertarians.

Check out this link

http://www.newsmax.com/commentarchive.shtml?a=2001/8/10/143946

For the record, I think it's a bit of a stretch to assert that libertarians follow liberals more closely than conservatives; however it seems to me that part of the problem is one of labels. That is, today's 'conservative' doesn't seem to me to be what 'conservative' was during the Reagan presidency. People are so anxious to identify libertarians in terms of the limited vocabulary , "right" or "left", terms that are themselves not clearly defined, that ultimately all attempts to properly identify them fail.

Since I have ALWAYS been a Conservative ( which predates the formation of the LP, by decades ! ) , your reply doesn't apply to me. Just as there is right and wrong, there is also right and left ! Yes, almost everyone is a combinaion of of right and left ( as in shades of grey); however , modeatsare just " roadkill ', as they say. LOL

OTOH, those who are so mired in an inflexable position, will NEVER attain anything that they desire. There is no such thing , as " instant gratification " , when one talks about a political wish list. Only spoiled children demand things be done / given immediately. Libertarians, for the most part, look at a 1/2 full glass, and see it as being empty.

For the record, I think it's a bit of a stretch to assert that libertarians follow liberals more closely than conservatives; however it seems to me that part of the problem is one of labels. That is, today's 'conservative' doesn't seem to me to be what 'conservative' was during the Reagan presidency. People are so anxious to identify libertarians in terms of the limited vocabulary , "right" or "left", terms that are themselves not clearly defined, that ultimately all attempts to properly identify them fail.

This is because the terms "liberal" and "conservative" are politically relative. Terms like "libertarian" or "socialist" are absolutes. The degree of overlap between libertarians and conservative or liberals will be determined by the conservatives and liberals as they exist in the current political climate, not by the libertarians.

Today's "conservatives" will rail against the outcomes of FDR and his socialist policies, but will not dare to speak against the government-as-savior ideology that made them possible.

Yesterday's liberals are today's conservatives.