Recently a friend of mine, a real asshole, told me that he’s not a “republican,” he’s more of a “libertarian.”
I imagine he said this, because the American political system is rife with people who are abandoning their parties left and right. If you’re a democrat, who wants to be associated with Reid, Pelosi or Obama? If you’re Republican, who wants to be associated with … well, where do I start?
Or maybe my friend said this, because he’s addicted to cocaine, and he wants it legalized like a good libertarian. I mean, he’s a high-strung, Washington D.C. lawyer who drives a Porsche and plays golf a few times a week. He snorts a line or two to keep his edge sharp, his mind steady and his teeth grinding.
So when this douchebag told me he considers himself more libertarian, it was as if he was choosing a political position that seemed less offensive than admitting he’s a republican.
Hell, check out the movement of Christians to say they aren’t Christians now. The word “Christian” has developed into a pejorative. What, with all the bad public relations it’s gotten for 2,000 years. The trend lately is to say, “I’m not a Christian … I’m a Christ follower.” They’ll even explain what that means.
Sweet, luscious ignorance! Don’t they know that the word “Christian” literally means “follower of Christ.”
Idiots.
Anyway, I thought that this quick explanation provided on NPR yesterday was a great primer on what Libertarianism is. Among their views:
Adult individuals have the right and the responsibility to make the important decisions about their own lives. And our government, today, interferes with that right in a whole variety of ways. It tells us where to send our kids to school, how we have to save for retirement. It tells us what we can smoke and who we can marry.
Well, yeah, it’s mostly Democrats who want to raise our taxes and tell us how to save for retirement and how to give to charity. But it’s mostly Republicans that tell us what we can smoke and who we can marry. So, there are ways that both liberals and conservatives interfere with individual freedom and the pursuit of happiness.
As for my “libertarian” friend who snorts coke speeding down Pennsylvania Avenue rocking out to the one song on the album that the media told him to like, I hope he actually took time to learn about the party he thinks he associates himself with.
Related Articles
- ‘What We Can Smoke And Who We Can Marry’: Libertarianism Explained (npr.org)
- What kind of libertarian are you? (geneveith.com)
The third message from heaven…
If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Libertarians vary quite a bit… you have the Republicans who “lean”… usually to rationalize/explain parts of the GOP platform they disagree with in some way.
You have the Constitution nerds of various stripes and education making some good arguments and some fairly outlandish ones.
You have the Libertarian Party guys who can be either pragmatic or come off as moon bats, while loyal followers will endlessly defend their correctness in a society that has turned the Constitution into guidelines free to interpret loosely as desired to give government more authority and power.
Some are just conspiracy nutters… some don’t get much further than liking their drug policy for personal reasons… and there are even some pretty vulgar hate groups out there who feel they could benefit from having the gov’t butt out of certain policy areas.
Libertarian arguments were fairly common within some the anti-authority angsty teenagers I knew growing up. But that had less to do with coherent political philosophy than feeling like a prisoner in the public school systems, and of course some folks with real problems with trusting any authority, for good and bad reasons.
My main issue with the LP is that I find many of their Constitutional arguments to be flawed and long destroyed by the Supreme Court early in our nation’s history. Some of their arguments sometimes hark back to the Articles of Confederation more than the Constitution (sometimes intentionally, but usually not). They often argue for severe restrictions on all or nearly all levels of government as a Constitutional argument, as opposed to just the central government.
The other stuff that usually bugs me is that they’ll make appeals to tradition, culture, etc beyond any Constitutional text to imply some sort of unwritten limitation on gov’t. A classical example is with foreign policy… an issue the Constitution leaves wide open for future governments to decide on given the situation at hand. They’ll argue we weren’t meant to meddle in the affairs of other nations just because that was the wisest policy at the time (given we were a runt nation too weak to directly challenge the great world powers at the time).
As a life-long independent, one who appreciates classical liberalism and the revolutionary view of liberty and inalienable rights of men, I can agree with them on some arguments, some of the time, and sometimes even for the same reasons. But like every group they have their weirdos and nutters and even LINOs like the other parties.
I really hope Patmos Pete is as appreciative as I am that you explained that.
I find that I agree with Libertarians, and when I first met Ron Paul on Colbert Report, I probably would have voted for him if there was an election the following day.
In the post above, I was hoping to rant about my douchebag friend.
Cheers,
Patmos Pete seems like the sheep that got lost, ate the magic mushrooms, and decided to wander the earth to tell the others what he learned.
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