There are two kinds of libertarians; sincere believers in liberty, and dopers who want to shoot up legally.
Close enough...
A sincere belief in liberty presupposes that you must allow libertines who might glom on to your movement to hurt themselves without intervention. Freedom comes with costs that too few are willing to pay.
This tolerance ends when those same people start hurting others or their property in their quest for self destruction.
Capital L libertarians (nut jobs) and small l libertarians........ the small l libertarians are the true liberty strict constitutionalists...we are closer to conservatives than the mainstream republicans are..
Where is the difference?
Trick is, sincere belief in liberty includes belief in the liberty of dopers to shoot up.
Don’t neglect the third kind: sincere dopers who believe in liberty...
Nicely phrased. I consider myself a libertarian at heart. I like the benefits of a modern society; but would like to live much the same way I would if I were on a deserted island.
Drugs, never had much interst in them - I need my mind to earn a living. But, that said, I will not raise a finger to stop anyone else from using/abusing or even over-dosing on them. If they want to kill themselves, all I ask is that they do it such that they don't kill an innocent on their way to their maker.
Liberterians are vocal, but have never polled more than 1% in any national election. They pretend to be republicans to fool people into voting for them because nobody takes the libertarian party seriously.
Being pro abortion and pro drugs aren’t particularly conservative positions despite their grand claims of being conservative.
The leader of our local tea party patriots group is a Ron Paul supporter who spends his free time hanging out with the occupy wall street clowns.
There are two kinds of people in the world, those who divide things into two groups and those who don't. Besides, there are more than two kinds of Libertarians. Another is pretend libertarians who are trying to hide their liberalism, like Colbert, Maher, and some celebrities.
There are two kinds of people, those in the box and those out. I guess I could be called either a libertarian hawk or fiscal conservative, but I see more similarity in nanny state liberals and nanny state social conservatives than either could imagine of each other. I think the key issue I agree with social conservatives on is abortion because I think the baby has right to life.
That kind of statement is equivalent to suggesting that there are two kinds of "Statists" or "modern Liberals" or Socialists. Those who actually believe in Government as a personal problem solver & parasites lining up to have someone else support them.
The Founding Fathers--with all their individual differences--were virtually to a man what would be called "libertarian," even Hamilton, if you read what he had to say in the Federalist Papers. And yet, they basically defined what we would call "Conservatism." today. They had a coherent understanding of how society worked--that by maximizing individual responsibility you put people on their mettle to be the best they could be; the most productive, the best in solving their own problems; the best neighbors, citizens, etc.. That, to be sure, is the essence of a libertarian philosophy; does it vary in any material sense from what we Conservatives adhere to?
I have no idea where the silly notion that the issue is over drugs! No true Conservative or libertarian, would deny the right of a State--as opposed to the Federal Government--to exercise the Police Power, the power over the health, safety & morals of its people. Those are issues for each State; but how we handle them in our respective States, is a legitimate issue among us. It is not however, the defining issue in regard to getting Obama, Pelosi & Reid, out of a position to usurp power; out of a position to continue to increase the scope of Government at the Federal level.
William Flax
The people who I know who are Republican and lean libertarian are mainly concerned with the founders and the constitution being followed. Most feel that all of these wars on the various things are just enabling an overreaching Federal government that little by little, and day by day, destroys the free America that the founders gave us by their blood.
Liberty is the one thing that makes (or made) America unique. Social engineering, financial engineering by a powerful centralized government is what we are NOT supposed to be. Also, you want a strong centralized government to implement control over people’s lives? Well, you have it - and that centralized government is left leaning, big government is ALWAYS left leaning - because tyranny is always left leaning.
Really, stop and think what you are doing by giving unlimited power to a centralized monster government. Take the patriot act for example. Is that being used to go after islamic terrorists? It looks to me like they are starting to target conservatives - like those protesting abortion clinics - because we disagree with big government political correctness. We said rah-rah for the patriot act that denies our ability to fight against a socialized government. We’ve been had!
We are being used as dupes to build this giant socialized monster. They will lie and say it is to make us “safe.” You have to realize the endgame is not going to be what you want. The end game for these politicians is America as a federally controlled, politically correct, prison. And when you vote for a politician who says they are going to “take care of all your problems” - what they really mean is that they are going to lock it all down so that America is no longer free.
I’m not scare of any of the boogie men the govt and media shows me - I’m armed and can defend myself and my family. Even if a terrorist blows up more buildings I’m not scared - I don’t cower. I won’t give up my liberties so I can feel safe. I believe in God and am not scared of death. I am so proud that our founders gave us a free republic.
If America isn’t about liberty, if it isn’t about freedom - then we don’t stand for anything.
