What do Libertarians believe in?

Question

Where is the average libertarian on the political scale? Left? Right?
What are their stances on hot issues like abortion and gay marriage? How do they handle the economy? Laissez-faire attitude? or Corporate responsibility? or etc...

C B, I agree with you that those hot issues shouldn't really be an issue of the government, but the so-called "conservatives" are not with-holding their power. nonetheless, I still want to know their stances.

Osama, you are right. Third parties are not meant to get into power. They're main raison-d'etre is to get their issues heard and taken up by the two major political parties.

Answer 1

Libertarianism is the principle of self-ownership. To libertarians, an individual human being is sovereign over their body, extending to their life, liberty and property. As such, libertarians define liberty as being completely free in action, while not initiating force or fraud against the life, liberty or property of another human being. This is otherwise known as the non-aggression principle.
They are for abortion and against gay marriages.
The economy is something they talk about a lot and always trying to take our country back to the way of the Constitution. They always try to fix things that are not right.
My personal belief is they are a big improvement over Republicans and Democrats.
There is a lot of reading on the Internet.

Answer 2

What is a libertarian?
The word means approximately "believer in liberty". Libertarians believe in individual conscience and individual choice, and reject the use of force or fraud to compel others except in response to force or fraud. (This latter is called the "Non-Coercion Principle" and is the one thing all libertarians agree on.)

A2. What do libertarians want to do?
Help individuals take more control over their own lives. Take the state (and other self-appointed representatives of "society") out of private decisions. Abolish both halves of the welfare/warfare bureaucracy (privatizing real services) and liberate the 7/8ths of our wealth that's now soaked up by the costs of a bloated and ineffective government, to make us all richer and freer. Oppose tyranny everywhere, whether it's the obvious variety driven by greed and power-lust or the subtler, well-intentioned kinds that coerce people "for their own good" but against their wills.

A3. Where does libertarianism come from?
Modern libertarianism has multiple roots. Perhaps the oldest is the minimal-government republicanism of the U.S.'s founding revolutionaries, especially Thomas Jefferson and the Anti-Federalists. Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill and the "classical liberals" of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were another key influence. More recently, Ayn Rand's philosophy of "ethical egoism" and the Austrian School of free-market capitalist economics have both contributed important ideas. Libertarianism is alone among 20th-century secular radicalisms in owing virtually nothing to Marxism.

A4. How do libertarians differ from "liberals"?
Once upon a time (in the 1800s), "liberal" and "libertarian" meant the same thing; "liberals" were individualist, distrustful of state power, pro-free- market, and opposed to the entrenched privilege of the feudal and mercantilist system. After 1870, the "liberals" were gradually seduced (primarily by the Fabian socialists) into believing that the state could and should be used to guarantee "social justice". They largely forgot about individual freedom, especially economic freedom, and nowadays spend most of their time justifying higher taxes, bigger government, and more regulation. Libertarians call this socialism without the brand label and want no part of it.

A5. How do libertarians differ from "conservatives"?
For starters, by not being conservative. Most libertarians have no interest in returning to an idealized past. More generally, libertarians hold no brief for the right wing's rather overt militarist, racist, sexist, and authoritarian tendencies and reject conservative attempts to "legislate morality" with censorship, drug laws, and obnoxious Bible-thumping. Though libertarians believe in free-enterprise capitalism, we also refuse to stooge for the military-industrial complex as conservatives are wont to do.

Answer 3

Personal Freedom - States Rights

The US should be a group of independent states, able to make their own decisions on such issues, but the states arebound together by basically the Constitution and that's about it. Government programs out the window. Govt. Assistance is nothing but socialism (you see how often that works)

Libertarians have a website:
http://www.lp.org/

Answer 4

Barry Goldwater was a pretty good example. Small government is one of the keys. That being said most of the so called hot issues do not belong in the realm of government. Stay out of my wallet and my bedroom. Don't forget about state's rights too.

To the wackjob below me... Actually the only third party candidate to allow anyone to win was Perot and that left us with Clinton, twice. Clinton never received a majority.

Nader's vote count was not disproportionate to any prior tally for a green party candidate, ergo he was statistically insignificant as usual. It was not his fault the Democrats couldn't round up enough inner city votes with candy bars and free rides to the polls.

Learn how to use your keyboard.

Answer 5

Libertarians are socially liberal (less government regulation of things like abortion, speech, and marriage) and economically conservative (lower taxes, less regulation, etc. of the economy). Basically they take a lassez faire attitude to both social and economic issues. So they don't fit the normal Right/Left divide in US politics.

Answer 6

Well the reason why Libertarians won't ever win a election...they don't believe in intruding in people's personal lives...so they will never run annoying campaign commercials, thus no one ever knows that they are actually running...with the conclusion no one ever votes for them. I've been waiting for the revolution, but we're not compatible with the American political system.

Answer 7

Libertarians advocate small government in both social and economic aspects. To compare to something more prevelent, they agree with Democratic social values and [traditional] Republican economic values.

Most libertarians I've met were stuck-up holier-than-thou snobs, though.

Answer 8

Libertarians are Reagan fiscal conservatives who like to smoke pot and watch porn.

I said that to my local Libertarian leader and he said it was pretty accurate.

They also believe in reduced regulations, believing that unsafe products or other business problems should be dealt with by lawsuits. That's a problem when you're dead.

Answer 9

truth none with bush liberty well you have a little left justice lol lets not go there freedom to stay as long as you play in the rules lol so why are so many yanks in jail ?rules are fixed and hard 2 days in U K and you will understand true freedom

Answer 10

bringing the division of capital to an equal point as sustanibly possible with less govt intervention as possible.

Great ideas, just impossible to play.