what do you guys think about being libertarian ? what do you think of there views? pros cons?

Question

im thinking about being libertarian but i want some peoples opinions .......

Answer 1

Libertarians believe that the government has no business meddling in your affairs as long as you are not infringing upon anyone else's rights. Democrats and Republicans may SAY they believe the same thing, but neither are consistent.

Democrats say they are for liberty, but then they advocate state ownership of most of the means of production in our society. They want to own the health care system, the education system, and retirement accounts. They want to control unions, businesses and industries. The good part is that they don't want to control your morals or what you do with your own body.

Republicans say they are for liberty, but they advocate state control of morality, abortion, religion (to a limited extent), marriage, etc. The good part is that they advocate leaving private citizens alone in their private economic affairs. Private ownership means freedom.

Libertarians want freedom in both realms: economic and social. They are pro-capitalism, anti-welfare, pro-choice, against drug laws, for the separation of church and state, and for the separation of economics and state. That is why they are the only alternative to Democrats and Republicans that truly advocate personal freedom. Democrats disagree with Libertarians because they think people are too stupid to handle their own financial affairs. Republicans disagree with Libertarians because they think people are too immoral to decide for themselves how to behave personally.

If you agree that people should be free to govern their own lives up to the point where they infringe on others' rights, there is a caveat: The Libertarian Party is not entirely consistent with these principles. For example, they have opposed going back to the Gold Standard, which is the only way to separate the value of money from the edicts of government bureaucrats. But they are as close as we can get to a party that advocates the smallest, least obtrusive and least invasive government possible.

Answer 2

You say "libertarian" with a small 'L'. That means you're referring to the general ideology rather than the party. I think almost all Americans are basically "libertarian", and I think its a great thing that unites us with many other free countries around the world. We all believe in a limited government that generally stays out of our business unless absolutely neccessary.

You have to be careful though. Like any good idea, libertarianism has many phony "supporters". People who are eager to give your money or political power to some corporation or special interest, will often do so in the name of libertarian ideals.

As far as the Libertarian party goes, keep in mind you can support a party without towing the party line. I generally support Libertarian candidates, but I don't believe in open borders or abolishing public schools. The important thing is that I generally support their goals: shrinking the government and moving it away from interventionism. Voting Libertarian doesn't make me a big Ted Nugent fan, just like voting Democratic doesn't automatically mean you're a big fan of Obama, or voting Republican doesn't mean you have to love Bush.

Answer 3

Pam, I've been a Libertarian for 30 years, and we're working hard at changing some of the platform planks that drive people away.
Go to www.lp.org and check out what we beleive in, then check out the reform section of the LP..
I think you'll find that there is more to the LP than just the mainstream.
Regardless of all that, when I look at the candidates that the republicrats are fielding for president, there is no way I could vote anything but Libertarian... If I did, I would be unable to sleep at night thinking I had help elect Billary or Obama, or any of those other idiots.

Answer 4

Good, I like diversity. I've been flirting with the Libertarian Party and might vote for them in 08. I'm still a moderate Democrat but I feel that the Democrats are either left or right, no center. I'm socially liberal and fiscally moderate and I feel that the Libertarians are a good option. Besides, we need to stop focusing on the duopoly and look for other parties that could use our support. Usually, the Libertarians are fiscally and socially liberal (I meant fiscally conservative sorry). But you have the Libertarians (from the Libertarian Party) and libertarians. Thanks!

Answer 5

Being a libertarian is like following in the founding fathers of America footsteps. People like Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, & Madison. They weren't called libertarians because that term wasn't created until the 20th Century but they had many libertarians traits.

Small Govt., low taxes, civil liberties, the Constitution, free markets, using the US military for Defense only, individual freedoms, & as little Govt interference as possible in the lives of US citizens.

Libertarians take the best of parts of Republicans ideology and the best parts of Democrats ideology to form their own unique ideology. Check out www.LP.org if you want to learn more.

Answer 6

Libertarian is a term that can be applied to a broad range of views. I'll assume by libertarian you mean, "As long as I'm not harming anyone else, than I can basically do whatever I want." Doesn't that sound great?

It's my view that a lot of people become liberatarians because it's stylish. They don't really understand economics, but heard about Adam Smith and laissez faire, and think the free market can solve all problems. Well, it can't.

There are four general kinds of market failures: market power (I.E. monopolies, unions) , incomplete information (I.E. Consumers buy something without knowing its actual quality) , externalities (production activity indirectly benefits or harms stuff outside the market. Such as pollution) , and public goods (market doesn't supply goods that many consumers value. People have no incentive for inventions that can be easily copied without patents.) Although I think most libertarians recognize these failures, a lot seem to think the free market can do anything. Just wanted to clear that up.

Just a short while ago, Republicans used to known as the libertarian party. Recently, they have unbalanced the budget, started unchecked spying programs, suspended habeas corpus for enemy combatants, and decided that they need to legislate moral values on people. Whatever you're opinion on these issues, they aren't liberatarian positions. The democrats opposition to these issues recently led to a column by a prominent liberatarian calling for liberals and liberatarians to unite. It's a real interesting piece.
Here: http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20061211&s=lindsey121106

As the article suggest, there is already a lot of fusion between liberatarians and liberals. Liberatarian is just a label.

I'd recommend that you look for practical solutions to problems. Sometimes market-based solutions are the best for problems, while other times government-based solution are the best for problems.

From the article, "Libertarians worry primarily about constraints imposed by government, while liberals worry most about constraints imposed by birth and the play of economic forces." It's easy to get sucked into an ideology. You should worry about what you value. And support whoever matches your values.

I'd especially avoid the liberatarian label because, in my experience, it's associated with people who think everything should be solved by the free market, it's survival of the fittest, and don't care about anybody else. And the U.S is run by a two party system.

Even if you agree with liberatarian views, I think you'd be a lot more productive if you labeled yourself a liberal and worked to fuse liberalism with libertarianism as suggested in the article. The liberal ideology can lead to pretty similar outcomes and if people within the Democractic party started pushing for liberatarian views, it would more productive than people pushing outside the party. What I mean by pushing is supporting liberal candidates, who seem to look for practical solutions for problems and understand the strengths and limits of government. There are a lot of liberal candidates like this.

Answer 7

I don't like them. I used to buy into their party. Heck I voted for their presidential candidate a few times and started to become active in the local group. However, I discovered that they are really a bunch of communists who want to skip the socialism stage and go right to anarchy. They are enemies of what our country actually stands for.

"All kinds of people today call themselves “libertarians,” especially something calling itself the New Right, which consists of hippies, except that they’re anarchists instead of collectivists. But of course, anarchists are collectivists. Capitalism is the one system that requires absolute objective law, yet they want to combine capitalism and anarchism. That is worse than anything the New Left has proposed. It’s a mockery of philosophy and ideology. They sling slogans and try to ride on two bandwagons. They want to be hippies, but don’t want to preach collectivism, because those jobs are already taken. But anarchism is a logical outgrowth of the anti-intellectual side of collectivism. I could deal with a Marxist with a greater chance of reaching some kind of understanding, and with much greater respect. The anarchist is the scum of the intellectual world of the left, which has given them up. So the right picks up another leftist discard. That’s the Libertarian movement.

Q: What do you think of the Libertarian Party? [FHF: “A Nation’s Unity,” 1972]

AR: I’d rather vote for Bob Hope, the Marx Brothers, or Jerry Lewis. I don’t think they’re as funny as Professor Hospers and the Libertarian Party. If, at a time like this, John Hospers takes ten votes away from Nixon (which I doubt he’ll do), it would be a moral crime. I don’t care about Nixon, and I care even less about Hospers. But this is no time to engage in publicity seeking, which all these crank political parties are doing. If you want to spread your ideas, do it through education. But don’t run for President—or even dogcatcher—if you’re going to help McGovern."

Answer 8

I'm a libertarian, I agree with almost everything they say.
The only thing I don't like is that they are against gun control.

If you want to know more about the libertarians ideas, you can read the book "Give me a Break" from John Stossel; very interersting.

I think Rudolph Giuliani's ideas are very close to the libertarian's (except for gun control but that is a good thing :-) ).
So to me, I'd say Rudolph Giuliani is the perfect candidate :-)

Answer 9

I became a libertarian after watching Cathy Young, a columnist for the libertarian magazine Reason, speaking on Cspan a few years back and I couldn't believe my ears, finally I found someone in the political arena discussing the hypocrisy of the left and right.

The magazine is a great way to get a taste of libertarianism. Since a libertarian has never held a high political office, though many politians have admittedly leaned towards libertarian, the magazine has no reason not to shine the light of "reason" and truth on the subjects they tackle.

I've learned so much, though I don't take everything they say as gospel, I do alot of research on my own (thanks internet) and as a result, I have solidified my opinion that most of us are sheep.

Fun facts I learned...
In the newest James Bond movie, the character was not allowed to smoke, lest he warp the sensibilites of childen, yet murder and mayhem was ok.

According to a study conductted by harvard professors, republicians give substancley more to charity and are much more likely to do good deeds than democrats.

The war on drugs has cost more in tax dollars than any military war we've fought, yet while herion and coke use has decreased slightly, the use of manufactured drugs like meth, ev=ctasy, and prescription drugs have increased.

The jail time for some growers of hyproponic pot is typically longer than those convicted of rape and child abuse.

Hemp, which pot is related to but which you would have to smoke a s*hitload of to get high , would be a fantastic source for biofuel. It has a much higer celloses level than corn, grows much faster and requires little by way of water and pesticides, but because of our war on drugs and our love of corn subsidies, hemp won't even been considered.

We are not the biggest user of the worlds resources, actually that honor goes to Australia. When the UN figured those numbers out that the energy produced within the country itself is deducted from the figure. For instance lets say that the citizens of france use just as much energy as we do, but because 70% of their power comes from their own Nuclear reactors they are not raping the world as we are. Norway gets most of their energy from their own oil rigs in the baltic sea. Yet we do little to produce our own energy due to asthectic and enviromental reasons, thereby shooting ourselves in the foot.

I could go on and on, check it out for yourselves.

Answer 10

Let's put it this way.... I think Thomas Jefferson would have been a good libertarian. I like many of their views, but some of their ideas are a little far out. I certainly like them better than dems and a little better than GOPs.