I am not thrilled at all with most of what passes for modern day liberalism or conservativism, however, libertarianism is probably the most potentially destructive political philosophy out there in my view. Libertarians have influenced the thinking of both social liberals and free market oriented economic conservatives. I have known some really nice people who are libertarians and even have a link to the Democratic libertarian-oriented caucus - Freedom Democrats on my site, but it would be a disaster if most of their views actually became public policy.
Libertarians basically want to abolish government or leave a hollow shell of a state barely strong enough to lift a spoon much less capable of providing a safety net for the less fortunate or protecting us from external threats or terrorist cells. These disciples of Ayn Rand want the greed of the marketplace to run wild basically like the Republicans if unrestrained by political considerations. As far as social policies are concerned, Libertarians want to leave our borders wide open, legalize all drugs, abolish the state regulation of marriage and create a generally libertine and chaoatic social environment. I can think of a few issues where the Libertarians are right like gun control, eminent domain law abuse by local governments and possibly decriminalizing marijuana (I would like for the pot-smoking old hippie to feel comfortable turning in the much more dangerous crackheads and meth-heads next door), but overall their philosophy would do a lot of harm if applied. If anything, we need a renewed emphasis on regulating the marketplace to protect workers, investors and consumers and a return to traditional social values which would be the opposite of libertarian dogma. I consider myself to be a fiscal conservative in that I believe that government should normally operate on a "pay as you go" basis, but otherwise favor sort of populist or left-leaning approach to economics. Americans enjoyed their greatest and broadest based prosperity not with laissez faire economics, but with the mix of capitalism and state intervention that prevailed from FDR in 1932 until the dark days of the Reagan Administration in the 1980's.
The arrogance of the Libertarians is just amazing. Libertarians have developed their own little ideological classification scheme- The World's Smallest Mind Political Quiz - which labels anyone who is a social conservative and a economic moderate to liberal as authoritarian. I do give the Libertarians credit for being consistent and willing to act on their beliefs. There is a movement among Libertarians to target one small state and move to it. A group of Libertarians, several thousand of them so far, have made a commitment to move to New Hampshire in hopes of eventually taking over the state. Some Florida Libertarians who don't want to freeze to death in New Hampshire are planning to relocate to rural Liberty County in Florida's western panhandle to turn the small county in a model of libertarianism. Anyone for a Blue Dog Democrat takeover in some small county in the South or Great Plains ? Since the World's Smallest Mind Political Quiz labeled me authoritarian, I'll gladly volunteer to be Boss Hogg.
http://www.freestateproject.org/
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
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