Are there any differences between Conservatives and Libertarians?

1/12/03 | Sparta

[Sparta]

I've been reading posts by people who use the term Conservative and others who use the term Libertarian. I have a question for all FReepers, is there a difference between the two?

[Texasforever]

I think we over-intellectualize the entire libertarian/conservative/liberal distinctions. I see it in much simpler terms. Every 12-year-old boy is a libertarian along with a few girls. They stay that way until they become responsible for someone other than themselves. Once they have others that depend on them they begin to fall into liberal or conservative depending on how much personal responsibility they take for their own family. Libertarianism is the philosophy of the single male and it has nothing at all to do with constitutional issues.

[Democrap]

And there is the rub. Someone posted a cartoon back a hundred post or so, that says it all. The only thing most you LP guys agree on is legalization of dope. And the funny thing is not one of you guys ever say you use dope LOL.

From the LP platform:

Recognizing that abortion is a very sensitive issue and that people, including libertarians, can hold good-faith views on both sides, we believe the government should be kept out of the question.

This means of course that it has to be legal.

[Bernard Marx]

That's interesting. I guess it depends on where you come from. The originals in my area were tiny little things you could read at slow speeds. You usually found them on roads that had been turned into secondaries by construction of newer ones.

[lewislynn]

To me, if God wanted cookie cutter people, he never would have given us an indivdual conscience, or ability to reason on our own. That's how I see it.

Well, sadly it seems some people, too many people including too many "freepers", have to be "cookie cutter people" because they have no "indivdual conscience, or ability to reason on their own".

If I was all the names I've been called I'd be all of the above.

I remember when the "conservatives"(?) around here would scream about "targeted tax cuts"...guess what they're all rallying around now?...Targeted tax cuts.

[Texasforever]

I found an almost identical passage in a Harvard Lampoon issue called "Bored of the Rings" I guess it was just a coincidence. The sacrilege I spoke of was against the "Lord of the Rings" FR fan club. Sorry.

[Leisler]

"Conservatives don't want to legalize drugs, either

Wrong. Conservative very, very, very much want to legalize drugs, drug use, manufacture, licensing, dispensing. Legalization by law is the method.

What you either aren't subtle enough to understand, and probably meant to say was that Conservatives don't want to DElegalize drugs. In other words, Conservatives want large, intrusive, all encompassing government in the drug problem. Just like liberals, just not housing, farm supports, welfare, foreign aid. So from one subject, anyways, Conservatives accept, if not welcome, the principals of big government in general. Big, all encompassing powers, rules, regulations, laws, bureaucracies, agencies, spies, informers, prisons and such.

Many Conservatives have the same fundamental view of drugs, law, and state power as do Leftist with gun control. Just as the leftist ascribe evil powers to inanimate objects and criminalize the possession of those weapons, so do many, but not all, Conservatives with drugs.

[A CA Guy]

For the 428th time, that is a very amoral view!

[nopardons]

I've seen them on little roads and I've seen them on not so " little " roads. They were still around well into the 1960's and in some places, after that. Yes, it all depends on what part of the country one was driving through. :-)

[Bernard Marx]

"Lord of the Rings" people are cool with me! I think Tolkien was more conservative than Libertarian (smile).

Whoops -- wifey just turned the lights out. Hint, hint!

Later.

[Leisler]

"I forgot, they are the party that has no problem with public beastality so long as the pervert in question owns both the beast and the property it's being screwed on. "

Why do you always have to bring up Hillery Clinton?

[Robert_Paulson2]

apparently "fig leaves" are also on his list of plants that need banning and EXTRA enforcement attention by the reigning social order...

"no more fig leaves..."
"no more fig leaves..."

"every time you use a fig leaf, osami manufactures a truck full of c-4"

[Diplomat]

Perhaps I give them too much credit for their desire to see us return to a Constitutional Republic. I agree with them here. I also get Larry Elder on my evening comute and he is a true libertarian.

[Leisler]

Conservatives define anarchy as anything loser than a Prussian Marching Team.

[nopardons]

Historically speaking, there were and still ARE very good reasons for not legalizing / decriminalizing narcotics, opiates, etc. and that's part of the reasons why the PURE FOOD AND DRUG ACTS were pbegun in the early part of the 20th century. The Libertarians' blindness to historical facts and usual disregard to consiquences, is why they rail against things that the " feel " is " unfair ".

[krb]

This means of course that it has to be legal.

No, it doesn't. You totally fail to understand where Libertarians and Conservatives are conflicting or overlapping on this issue.

All that statement means is that Libertarians think that abortion should never have been made a federal issue. Just like rape and murder are not a federal issue. That's all it means. Don't try to read more into it than there is, and don't start with the "dope smoking" crap. Like it or not, there are a lot of us who think of ourselves as libertarians who don't like drugs, and who are pro-life.

And all the insults in the world are not going to make us wake up and one day realize that the morality-police had it right the whole time.

[Little Bill]

I am a presumptive libertarian, which is to say I believe a very hard case has to be made before the intervention of the state, but the presumption is rebuttable. In many ways, a libertarian would say it's not rebuttable, it's absolute.

Poor choise of words on my part. The bolded phrase is the heart of Bills arguement. There are things that we as individuals cannot do, but if we allow it, the state can. Before we allow the state come in and attempt to address the problem we must seriously weigh whether the likely result is worth the loss of some freedom.

[krb]

Libertarians are anarchists who wrap themselves in the Constitution for shelter.

Actually, libertarians seem to know a lot more about that Constitution than the Republicans do, these days. I have to go back to my personal heros, Goldwater and Reagan to think of a Republican who seems to "get" the Constitution.

[tpaine]

All you drug warrior so-called 'conservatives', that is:

Connecting the War on Guns & Drugs [my title]
Address:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/820965/posts

I haven't seen a libertarian that wouldn't agree with the gun/drug war connection.
The ability to acknowlege this connection may be a sort of test of true constitutional conservatism.

[Robert_Paulson2]

yes but that was back when I was not "robert paulson", bill clintong was barely president... and the "social democrats" dressed as republicans even knew this board existed.

Back then I was a compuserve number... on a political forum that only offered about six locations... one was linked to here... no blue, no pictures, just articles and discussions.

Now we fight about how much more is too much. The new "social christian democrats" want MORE MORE MORE...as long as it promotes their agendas. I want less less less, till my wallet fattens up a bit on paydays.

They obfuscate the REAL issue, the omnipotent power of an omniscient state, vs. the freemen concept of the "evil libertarians" even "evil republican libertarian caucus" here on freerepublic, by screaming drugs and abortion over and over again..

Do they KNOW that most small "l" libertarian leaning REPUBLICANS don't want to do drugs or kill babies? YUP... but making THAT the issue, instead of our need to defund the omnipotent state in matters NOT related to state security, helps keep those tax dollars and government spending programs flowing like milk from a pigs first teat.

25 mos into the current "conservative" president's administration, and they still have not outlawed partial birth abortion... but they sure as hell put up a fight over trent lott, right?

I sometimes wonder, if we cannot win such an open and shut issue at home, HOW can we hope to win the complex issues of peace and security abroad?

I wish we could have a little of both.
stupid me.

[Robert_Paulson2]

shhh... four years almost ... and the typical freeper, still doesn't get it... for a while tyler durden was here, and even a marla, but alas, they moved on... to soap manufacturing and marketing jobs...