My children went through that stage when they were growing up.
After several lessons they were cured.
Posted on 03/03/2006 4:29:51 AM PST by Capitalism2003
Preamble:
As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives, and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.
We believe that respect for individual rights is the essential precondition for a free and prosperous world, that force and fraud must be banished from human relationships, and that only through freedom can peace and prosperity be realized.
Consequently, we defend each person's right to engage in any activity that is peaceful and honest, and welcome the diversity that freedom brings. The world we seek to build is one where individuals are free to follow their own dreams in their own ways, without interference from government or any authoritarian power.
In the following pages we have set forth our basic principles and enumerated various policy stands derived from those principles.
These specific policies are not our goal, however. Our goal is nothing more nor less than a world set free in our lifetime, and it is to this end that we take these stands.
Statement of Principles
We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual.
We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.
Governments throughout history have regularly operated on the opposite principle, that the State has the right to dispose of the lives of individuals and the fruits of their labor. Even within the United States, all political parties other than our own grant to government the right to regulate the lives of individuals and seize the fruits of their labor without their consent.
We, on the contrary, deny the right of any government to do these things, and hold that where governments exist, they must not violate the rights of any individual: namely, (1) the right to life -- accordingly we support the prohibition of the initiation of physical force against others; (2) the right to liberty of speech and action -- accordingly we oppose all attempts by government to abridge the freedom of speech and press, as well as government censorship in any form; and (3) the right to property -- accordingly we oppose all government interference with private property, such as confiscation, nationalization, and eminent domain, and support the prohibition of robbery, trespass, fraud, and misrepresentation.
Since governments, when instituted, must not violate individual rights, we oppose all interference by government in the areas of voluntary and contractual relations among individuals. People should not be forced to sacrifice their lives and property for the benefit of others. They should be left free by government to deal with one another as free traders; and the resultant economic system, the only one compatible with the protection of individual rights, is the free market.
Read the entire Libertarian Party platform here.
My two heroes in politics are Harry Browne and Ronald Reagan. This post is the least I could do in memory of Browne, a true patriot.
My children went through that stage when they were growing up.
After several lessons they were cured.
People do have the right to live how they see fit as long as they don't infringe on the rights of others. Why would you view that as childish? Self-government is childish?
Agreed. I shed a tear or two for Reagan. I really liked Harry Browne though.
> Self-government is childish?
No, but it only works with responsible people.
RIP Harry Browne.
He got my vote in 1996.
We hold that morality is irrelevant to a functioning society -- religion, faith, morality, and virtue are optional (and keep it to yourself, thank you).
Which is exactly where we need to get back to, i.e., people being responsible for themselves. We've seen over and over that gubmint simply cannot be all things to all people and it does this at great expense to the producers in our society. The State, Federal and local response to hurricane Katrina is the most recent example.
You may live in any fantasy world of your choosing. I certainly will not attempt to reign on your parade.
a slip of the tounge?
RIP Harry Browne, a good American.
I will believe it works when I see it actually work somewhere. What happened to the plan to take over a state and make it libertarian? Haven't heard anything since they made their decision (which was not supported by many other libertarians, BTW).
Do you really think so, given the meaning of the word and the context in which it was used?
Wow! That sounds amazingly like:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
--------------
The Libertarian bashers will be along shortly to tell you how wacky the idea of true Freedom is.....
R.I.P. Mr Brown.
Libertarian philosophy in my opinion must have as its basis a population properly raised in morality, ethics, and responsibility.
A child is a perfect example of the failure of libertarian philosophy in the absense of enlightened humanity.
I believe it is the lack of "responsible adulthood" among much of the population that is the barrier to the adoption of the libertarian view, which otherwise is the natural heir to our founding fathers vision for limited government.
If individuals had a profound respect for the rights of others, and sought to coexist peaceably, we would not need rules governing where you can park your car on the street, for example.
That is why I related the bit about my children in my post # 3.
In a perfect world, perhaps, the Libertarian philosophy is workable. However, as long as there are those that would destroy others, it negates the very first paragraph in their preamble, which is :
"As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives, and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others."
Were that implimented the United States would be no more.
He got mine in 92 AND 96. Both times I walked in the booth and looked at the ticket and saw a right wing socialist, a left wing socialist and a fascist. For those here too young to remember, in 92 it was Clinton, GHWB, and Perot, and in 96 it was Clinton, Dole and Perot. This totals out my entire non GOP voting record.
The GOP and the country would be far better off if the members of the "cult of the omnipotent state" would get their obstructionist cans out of the Big Tent.
How about actually trying it here? God knows liberalism, socialism, reformism and "compassionate conservatism" coupled with "familiy values" have sure as heck had their chance at it over the last 100 years or so, and have led us straight to the present mess.
At least the social programs that breed irresponsibility by allowing the dregs of society to have more time and energy for copulation to breed the next generation of stumbling blocks would stop. Furthermore, even though I don't agree with their open border stance, I don't see as how a totally open border would be much different to what we have now.
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.