“First, our institutions have been seized by ideological activists who have weaponized them against core American values; second, the left is on an evangelizing mission to impose its values across society unless resisted.”
It’s utter nonsense to believe the right would be any less activist if not resisted.
(l)ibertarianism is the bulwark against both the left and right’s control of the people via government power.
Well republicanism is doing a bang up job... of losing
Pure Libertarian ideals are not practically achievable, because it could only be done in either a fully closed society or a fully Libertarian world.
Libertarians pushing for Libertarian rules in the U.S. alone fail to recognize that leaves the U.S. economy a victim of economies that are not just not Libertarian but the furthest thing from it.
The libertarian party is a waste of humanity. I consider myself mostly small L libertarian. But I vote conservative.
When was the last time that the size and scope of the government was substantively limited?
1776?
Most of today's Americans require clear, simple guidelines to function effectively in society. Do-it-yourself morality is a disaster when applied to people who lack critical thinking skills. Our cities and universities are a living testament to that.
John Hospers was the Libertarian presidential candidate in 1972.
Libertarianism has no game-plan to deal with radical, violent marxists. Libertarianism use to appeal to me... then I grew up and began living in the real world where there are boogey men and crazies who won’t leave you alone, even if you want to be.
The problem is, society can’t force people to be virtuous. In fact, in our modern Western societies, we no longer even have a common consensus on what constitutes virtue, or how we could determine that.
So you are still putting the cart before the horse.
Libertarianism is appealing to the young...until they grow up.
It might work if everyone in the society had an IQ of 120. It’s not going to work in a multicultural society like the USA.
(l)ibertarianism is the bulwark against both the left and right’s control of the people via government power.
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I typically agree with virtually everything you post, but libertarianism has been a poor bulwark against what the US has become. If there is any one ideology that has been soundly defeated as of the 21st century it is libertarianism.
Libertarianism is simply conservatism without moral values.
It doesn't sound awful. Except for the folks that will find your "conditions" to be inadequate or torture. Then you are back to picking who wins and who loses again like any other wannabe god... aka, fascist. Once you determine that it is "good" for government to "shape" conditions, you are not too far away philosophically from gassing anyone that doesn't fit with your vision or is perceived as an impediment to it becoming reality.
The LP as a party was never really all that viable. I knew this back when I was still a member.
The philosophy is sound though.
As to the GOP... WTF is a “social conservative”? What do any kind of socialism and conservatism have to do with each other? The answer is easy... nothing. RINO’s and Morality Police like a bigger, more intrusive government than even the staunchest Marxist... they just want that control over areas THEY want to control.
Little “l”ibertarianism kinda just wants people to rise and fall under their own merits without all the guiderails, safety nets, “it’s for your own good” Nanny State regs, etc... Free market capitalism writ large.
As for morality and that much freedom... Are you “moral” because the government put a gun to your head? Are you “free” because someone else forced you to their beliefs?
We’ve discussed these issues ad nauseum while the Democrats have run this Country off a cliff with the help of some “reach across the aisle” RINO’s... We are fiddling while our modern Rome burns...
So sure... let’s hash all this shit out again...
Back during the Ford/Carter election, I was a Libertarian. That was before I realized how many people were as dishonest and amoral as they really were. Libertarianism relies on honesty and personal honor, which are in more limited supply than I knew at that time.
They used to say that Daniel Boone moved west as soon as he could see smoke from a neighbor’s fire.
There was a real libertarian.
And when we live piled up on top of each other as we do now, libertarianism doesn’t work.
“When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.” - Thomas Jefferson
If you create the mechanisms by which government can “improve” or “correct” our culture, those mechanisms will soon be employed in the cause of tyranny.
He’s correct about full-out libertaranism being inadequate to solve our problems, because you can’t fix a problem you can’t see, but we need to move in a more liberty-oriented direction.