I have a friend who doesn't know the difference between Liberalism & Libertarianism...?

Question

How can I explain to her (in a polite way) the difference between the two ideologies without making her feel like a total idiot? She actually claims to be very liberal, but is trying to recruit people to the Libertarian Party (she knows nothing about it other than its promise of "equality for all")

P.S. Please, please don't take this as a sign that all Liberals are stupid. This is just one isolated case, and it's a rather young person in question.

Yes, I know the differences between the 2 ideologies. I just don't want to seem like a ***** while explaining them to her.

Answer 1

I think the best way is to keep her as a friend is to hold back on personal opinions (for now) and just give her some links to read on her own first. That way, she will have the confidence of reaching her own conclusions and won't 'resent' you for trying to influence her... Maybe these will help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservative

Next, offer her these suggestions:
-- Make a list of issues that are important to you and prioritize it. Most likely, you won't find a single candidate that you agree with on all issues, so it will help you compare candidates against your most important issues.
-- 10 question quiz; good info on political positions:
http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html
-- More in-depth quiz; world view of political positions, including US Presidential candidates:
http://www.politicalcompass.org/

~~Cheers and Good Luck to you both! :-)

Answer 2

Libertarians generally do not oppose force used in response to initiatory aggressions such as violence, fraud or trespassing. Libertarians favor an ethic of self-responsibility and strongly oppose conscription and the welfare state, because they believe coercing someone to provide charity and military service is ethically wrong, ultimately counter-productive, or both. Apart from some very basic principles favoring personal freedom and free markets, there is not a canon of "official" libertarian beliefs.


Within liberalism, there are two major currents of thought that often compete over the use of the term "liberal" and have been known to clash on many issues. Classical liberals emphasize free private enterprise, individual property rights, laissez-faire economic policy, and freedom of contract, and oppose the welfare state. Classical liberals support equality before the law, but hold that economic inequality, arising from competition in the free market, does not justify wealth redistribution by governments. [4] Social liberals advocate a greater degree of government influence to protect individual rights (in a broad sense), often in the form of anti-discrimination laws. Social liberals support universal education, and many also support the provision of welfare, including benefits for the unemployed, housing for the homeless, and medical care for the sick, all supported by progressive taxation.

Answer 3

There is some over-lap these days, because Libertarians are socially liberal. They do not believe the government should legislate morality. But the similarities end there.

Libertarians say they favor a laissez faire market place, free of governmental restrictions. They generally favor lower taxes and smaller government. They generally have more in common with Republicans except for their perspective on morality.

Liberals tend to favor greater social programs and a progressive tax structure to pay for them.

Answer 4

Liberalism and Libertarianism are a similar on social coverage (they imagine human beings ought to take care of to do what they opt for of their personal lives, and the authorities shouldn't intervene). yet they are the different on economic coverage. Liberals are socialists or communists, and Libertarians are capitalists. On overseas coverage, Liberals are cowards. They continually opt for to provide as a lot as and appease our enemies, and they blame united states for all our issues. diverse Libertarians take diverse positions on overseas coverage.

Answer 5

Tell her that the best way to describe a libertarian - is a childish naive person, who thinks that market, people etc will take care on their own.

Give her an example of Ron Paul, who is for "total" liberty and wants to abolish all gov structures like FBI, CIA etc.

Good way is to remind about libertarian roots - which is anarchism.



Liberals on the other hand are for individual freedoms and economic protection of populace at large, which would require market regulations.


I disagree with simon laissez-faire is a classic example of libertarianism not liberalism.

Answer 6

Bill Maher claims he is Libertarian but he's a regular Bush hatin' Dem in his show. I think a lot of people confuse the two although Libertarians are actually more conservative than Republicans.

Answer 7

Liberalism is akin to socialism where the government provides everything for you and watches over you.

Libertarianism is small government mentality with most of the control handed to state and local governments and allow the "will of the people" locally to dictate laws, rules, and regulations.

Answer 8

Seriously, why do you care? Most people on here don't even know what a liberal or a conservative means so why do you feel like teaching her these terms. Lots of people (90% of people on yahoo) seem to survive without really knowing about politics.

If she really wants to know then she would have already looked it up for herself.

Answer 9

I find a lot of people doing that. Lot of hippies for that matter, claiming to be libertarian.

Answer 10

You could give your friends a few links and let them read up on it themselves.