Quote:
Originally posted by Dwayne
So libertarians are basically super liberals.
|
No.
Well, kinda, but I don't think most libertarians would take kindly to being described that way. They can be described as the most selfish of liberals, but I prefer the only philosophically consistent conservatives. If you think of the red and blue states that everyone talks about, Libertarians are purple. The libertarian party is not affiliated with the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), but it's an organization that shares some of the same goals. Michael Dukakis was criticized for being a member of the ACLU because it meant that he was too liberal, but I met a guy that founded a chapter of the ACLU in a small Texas town who told me that he did it because he thought it was ridiculous that you couldn't get away with saying "nigger" anymore.
Libertarians' political beliefs cannot be placed on the traditional political spectrum because it is not perceived to be circular.
Libertarian thinking is evidenced in the long-haried hippy that thinks everything ought to be legal so that everyone can smoke out or practice alternative lifestyles, and the businessman who thinks that the government should mind its own damn business and let him run his without having to worry about installing wheelchair access ramps, because he doesn't make enough money from his wheelchair-bound customers to justify the expense of installing one. Libertarians also consist of dorks like me that think about politics and political philosophy too much.
The problem is that the hippie doesn't have enough money to have economic issues affect his vote. He votes democratic. The businessman just goes with the flow and doesn't worry about the rights of people like the hippie, cause he doesn't practice an alternative lifestyle, and so it doesn't matter to him whether those people's rights are protected. He votes Republican. Then the political philosophy dorks that actually make up the libertarian party try to make a statement becuase they know they can't actually win, and therefore they adopt "principled" but impractical stances based on their philosophy and not what might appeal to pragmatic voters, and so we're stuck with the flawed two party system.
That kinda got off track and became rantish. Sorry, but hope it helps.