Okay....THIS is the kind of thing I'm looking for. As I said, some of what libertarians believe is fine with me, it's just their intensity and lack of humor that worries me.
I used to be an LP State Chair, and was active in the LP for about ten years. Though I think the fundamentals of the creed are sound, I also think it's frequently overextended, demands too much too quickly, and its "formal" organizations tend to attract fringy types whose personalities turn more conventional people off. In all probability, the LP cannot be rescued from these faults and made into a successful, influential party. However, it doesn't really need to be such for libertarian thinking to have beneficial effects on the major parties.
Persuasion of the major parties toward greater respect for individual rights and individual responsibilities requires only that their masters become convinced that ordinary people are moving in that direction. Ronald Reagan, the most successful statesman of the post-World-War-II era, called himself a "small-l-libertarian." By his personal qualities and the admiration they engendered among private citizens, he pulled the GOP in a more freedom-loving direction for several years. He built on the foundation Barry Goldwater had laid down sixteen years earlier. We could do the same with Reagan's legacy.
It thrilled me to hear Dubya, whom I admire, say, "I'm an American because I love freedom." He doesn't always act in accordance with that belief, but he's better than his alternatives, and there's hope he'll improve still further if we can take the Senate back from the Democrats. Though he's not analytically oriented, he seems to have Reagan's grasp of the essential tenets of freedom. There is much to be hopeful about -- especially if we can get libertarian ideologues to show more civility and humility in discourse, and get mainstream conservatives to stop writing us off as promoters of all kinds of vice, which we are not.
For further thoughts about conservatism and libertarianism, please see:
The Conservative - Libertarian Schism: A Harmonization
The Conservative - Libertarian Schism: Constitutionalism And Freedom
The Conservative - Libertarian Schism: Freedom And Confidence
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com
My confession: I was a "small l" Libertarian for years, even voting for Harry Browne in 2000. (Could've been worse; could've been Ralph Nader.)
Things changed drastically after 9-11. A few weeks later, I received a mailing (yes, I had sent them a few dollars too) from the Browne people asking me to support their own quaint "hate-America" (anti-retalitation) position that I can only describe as shocking. I returned their solicitation with a few choice words, including "Sell it to Susan Sontag." They were at least smart enough to take me off their mailing list.
But, ironically, it gave me a chance to thing some things through. I had grown most weary of engaging people in so-called debates here who are convinced that libertarians are utopian (they're largely not) and who cannot get their minds around any other concept.
I did eventually understand why libertarians elicit such a reaction: they present their case so badly.
Yet, I'd have stuck with them to the last if not for their anti-war positioning. This is so "over the top," it's breathtaking.
THINGS ARE NOT WHAT THEY WERE! You do not get a pass by being Rush Limbaugh, Noam Chomsky, or anyone in between. THEY MEAN TO KILL ALL OF US...IT IS THEIR STATED PURPOSE!
All convenient philosphies now fall by the wayside if we are to save ourselves.
Screw the Libertarians...to the extent they are listened to, they will only hasten our mass slaughter.
Call me today an American Patriot, and if it comes to philosophy, a strict Constitutionalist. Nothing more.
God Bless America, and the Free Republic people who support the greatest country in the world, a country truly worth fighting and dying for.
Libertarians have a lot to learn from conservatives and conservatives could stand to step back and think of individual liberty before defending a position.
Okay....THIS is the kind of thing I'm looking for. As I said, some of what libertarians believe is fine with me, it's just their intensity and lack of humor that worries me.
In each person's life internal authority takes precedence over "external authority". That some people choose to sacrifice their own authority to external authority is always a net negative/loss to themselves and society.
This forum is used by some people that want the power to initiate force, fraud and coercion against people (be the external authority) or seek to enlist government agents (external authority) to initiate force, fraud and threat of force against people on their behalf.