[Texasforever]

The United States as it was founded, and as the founders envisioned it.

You need to do some research on the laws of that time before you make those kinds of assertions. The original 13 states were NOT libertarian in any way. Nor was the Federal Government. The only change from then to now is the country has 100 times the population and most of the laws the original states had in place are long gone.

[tpaine]

I see libertarianism as the first step in the political evolution of any democratic structure. The original colonies were far from libertarian in their governance but those that were libertarian in their nature were the ones that actually went into the rest of what we now call the United States. They were the individualists that settled the west and did it on their own terms and in many cases quite violently. However; once it was settled then that "social Darwinist" point of view was not conducive to the requirements for families to move there and actually develop the frontier. Libertarianism is the starting point for democracy but it is never the end point. - 288 -

You need to do some research on the laws of that time before you make those kinds of assertions. The original 13 states were NOT libertarian in any way. Nor was the Federal Government. The only change from then to now is the country has 100 times the population and most of the laws the original states had in place are long gone. - 289 -

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You contradict yourself in the underlined quotes.

The federal constitution was quite libertarian, as you infer in 288, then you reverse yourself at 289.

In any case the constitution became a much more libertarian document with the ratification of the 14th amendment in 1868. -- And, - as you note, many of the western states admitted in that era were also libertarian in spirit, & still are.

There is in fact, -- a resurgence of libertariansm in this republic, not a 'fall', -- and that is exactly why so many Rinos on this thread are going ape.

[xdem]

Try some research on libertarians.