Is the eventual victory of libertarianism inevitable?

Question

Libertarians have morality, reality, the laws of economics, and now even momentum on their side (thanks to a certain doctor from Texas who is running for president). They offer the obvious answers to each and every problem that we face. All competing ideological systems have been discredited (70% of America has rejected the Neo-Con argument for aggressive war and the Soviet Union collapsed, fulfilling the predictions of Ludwig von Mises that socialism was doomed to collapse because it cannot perform economic calculation due to not having a price system). When the liberals were supporting the march to war with Iraq and repeating the president's propaganda and talking points, the libertarians were opposed to the war and fighting to keep it from beginning and to end it once it started.

Is it now inevitable that libertarianism will eventually achieve a total victory?

The most absurd thing anybody can do is to bring up GDP or other fatally flawed government statistics to attack laissez-faire. The Republican Party is not laissez-faire, but merely has hijacked the rhetoric.

Libertarians are anti-Federal Reserve and pro-sound money, and therefore you get deflation, not inflation under libertarianism. Historical evidence proves that the "War on Poverty" made poverty worse and that welfare policies do the opposite of what they are supposed to do (everybody except the socialist true believers admitted that by the 90s). GDP includes government spending as income and therefore is useless as a statistic because all government spending hurts, not helps, the economy. Inflation-Adjusted incomes are the exact same after a century of Keynesian Socialism, but the (mostly) laissez-faire 19th Century was an era of unprecedented growth.

Besides that, sound economics are theoretical, not empirical and based upon praxeology, not unrealistic models.

Answer 1

Libertarianism is, and will always be, on the fringe, and "on the verge" of victory. The latter keeps the faithful faithful, decade after decade, but the theory is too doctrinaire, too inflexible, to work in the real world. It is to politics what Scientology is to religion.

At the other end of the political spectrum, Marxism has the same problem. Neither system appeals to the average citizen, any more than Scientology does, probably because they're so "out there" that people don't see a smooth path to getting to these proposed alternate universes. The transition to Marxism, certainly, hasn't gone smoothly for anyone. Becoming a Scientologist is less lethal to bystanders, but still pretty disruptive to one's personal and financial affairs. Nobody's even tried libertarianism yet, at least not on a large scale. Maybe some libertarian communes (or is that an oxymoron?) have been attempted, but success, if any, has not been widely noted.

Answer 2

By keeping the Internet free we have the mechanism to spread the truth. Ron is not saying anything new that he didn't say 20 years ago, the difference is that enough people got to hear a little, and had the tool to find out a lot more. Then they start talking to other people and the movement grows.

People know subconsciously we are on the wrong path as a country, they just bury it as a defense mechanism.and try to go on with their lives, occasionally pausing to quickly choose the lesser of two evils in an election.

Our fellow citizens have been so conditioned and so repressed for so long that the treatment will have to be very much like treating mental illness. When someone was abused as a child you can't fix that overnight. First it has to be diagnosed and someone has to gain the person's trust to do that. Then the person can take the patient through clinical exercises to try to unlearn what they have learned. With practice and some trust, over time, if the treatment method is sound and applied competently, the patient has a chance to recover.

Answer 3

No, never a total victory, because our political future is constantly changing. Even if Libertarian ideals take root, there are many individuals, and groups, who would be unable to promote their beliefs in the arenas of free thought and economic cooperation. This country started out as a haven for Libertarian ideals, and now look at us. It took 226 years of chipping away at our liberties, but they got what they wanted. These people will resort to coercion, misinformation, and innuendo to effect the changes that they seek.

On one side, the 'left' (Communists, Socialists, Greens, Democrats, etc.) will continuously work to keep power in the hands of the State, i.e. their hands, because they feel that only they are qualified to determine what is "good" for the whole. They desire to subjugate individuals to the collective. "Of course we need welfare, because unless we take money from you and give it to those less fortunate, you'll just selfishly spend it on yourself," they say.

On the other, the 'right' (Fascists, Neo-cons, religious fanatics, Nazi's, Republicans, et.al.) who try to gain power to be able to dictate their beliefs to others. "We have a duty to 'police the world' and bring democracy to the four corners of the world. And if they don't want our form of democracy, well, we have the First Marine Amphibious Group just off shore."

No, there will never be a 'total' victory. The lovers of Liberty must be constantly vigilant against those who would take those liberties from you.

The biggest problem that I see is complacency. You see, in a free society, we would be so busy creating our lives as we see fit, that we don't notice the little losses of freedom that occur. Well tell ourselves that a little income tax is a small price to pay, if the money is used for a "good cause."

Or, as in the Great Depression or more recently during the aftermath of 9-11, we were so desperate for quick solutions, that we were willing to give away freedom for safety, either economic or personal. However, there are good arguments for the belief that our governments actions helped to cause both of those tragedies.

So, stay vigilant! Support the Libertarian Party.Work towards a day when Libertarians are the majority, and once that happens, don't let our freedoms slip away ever again.

Answer 4

No. Liberalism puts sovereignty where it belongs: vested in the people. Do not confuse the entrenched two-party monopoly on power, or the stated opinions of either of those two parties with the ideals of liberalism. As Gore Vidal said many years ago,

"The United States has only one party - the property party. It's the party of big corporations, the party of money. It has two right wings; one is Democrat and the other is Republican."

What America does not have, therefore, is a party that represents the people.

Libertarianism is the natural consequence of a people schooled in the ideas of liberalism and self-determination and personal responsibility, in response to a government that professes to be democratic, but is instead run by and for an oligarchy of bankers and the needs of predatory capitalism.

I must correct you on one thing. Getting rid of the Fed and instituting hard money will not bring about deflation, but WILL succeed in getting rid of inflation, and more importantly, will remove from the bankers' grip what has been unconstitutionally ceded from where that power rightfully and lawfully belongs, and where it is then subject to public view and debate, the US Treasury. As long as private for-profit banks such as the Fed are allowed to lend money to the US at interest, the borrowing that is necessary for nations to go to war, and therefore war itself, end-less war, will continue to be a profitable business to those who do the lending, and the public will forever be made to pay in blood and money for the personal fortunes and continued mis-rule by and for the over-privileged.
Socialism is doing quite well, thank you very much, providing very popular and effective social programs that enrich the whole society, but it has gotten the bad end of decades of a very concerted big-business-financed, pro-capital, anti-everything else propaganda blitz in the US business-owned media, so that your rejection of it, while quite irrational and contrary to facts, is understandable.

Answer 5

LOL Now it incredibly is humorous. the final public of Republicans do unlike Rand Paul, exceptionally the conservative base. the final public of the US would not like Rand Paul. So how precisely could he lead everyone to any election victories? As a Libertarian he gets 6% possibly 8% in a countrywide election tops.

Answer 6

It's going to be nearly impossible to buck this two-party system. Third party candidates, like Libertarians, have what is referred to as "suicide mechanism." Every time they have a good issue, one of the two major parties absorbs it and with it the Libertarian's support and credit.

Answer 7

You do not have reality on your side.

Go ahead and come up with the percent increase in economic categories like real GDP, poverty rates, inflation adjusted incomes.

Keynesian Democrats do better then laisez faire Republicans.

Answer 8

I HOPE SO!

Republicans and Democrats are all alike...wasting tax dollars while they fight amongst themselves. Get rid of them all and start with a fresh batch of politicians who remember what our founding fathers established.

While we are at it, get rid of special interests groups, especially those connect to the corporate american scheme and oil.

Answer 9

No, because libertarians are wishy-washy* and continue to support their favorit parties, just claim that they don't, because they don't want to deal with the political fallout associated with them.

* not wishy-washy as individuals, but as a group, since they contain all of the elements of both sides.

Answer 10

another Ron Paul junkie???? it ain't gonna happen...sorry!