REASON: Governor Reagan, you have been quoted in the press as saying that you’re doing a lot of speaking now on behalf of the philosophy of conservatism and libertarianism. Is there a difference between the two?
REAGAN: If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals–if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.
Now, I can’t say that I will agree with all the things that the present group who call themselves Libertarians in the sense of a party say, because I think that like in any political movement there are shades, and there are libertarians who are almost over at the point of wanting no government at all or anarchy. I believe there are legitimate government functions. There is a legitimate need in an orderly society for some government to maintain freedom or we will have tyranny by individuals. The strongest man on the block will run the neighborhood. We have government to insure that we don’t each one of us have to carry a club to defend ourselves. But again, I stand on my statement that I think that libertarianism and conservatism are travelling the same path.
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Reagan didn’t agree with every libertarian on every issue. Nor did he agree with every real conservative on every issue. Indeed, few libertarians agree on every issue. Only low information ideologues agree with each other on every issue.
A few libertarians are over the top and crossing into anarchy, but certainly not all are; and none are that I’ve encountered on FR. Most libertarians I’ve encountered would reject them just as Reagan did.
The fact remains, Reagan agreed more with libertarians than with establishment Republicans who call themselves conservatives. In fact, it was those establishment Republicans who were some of Reagan’s most vicious attackers.
No libertarian I’ve encountered is for homosexuals in the military. I have met libertarians who believe marriage is a church issue not a government issue and every religion should decide who can and who can’t be married and the government should stay out of it. I prefer that view of marriage to people who argue all marriage should conform to their church’s teachings.
LOL, nonsense, Reagan was no libertarian and distanced himself from them even in that 1975 interview when he was trying not to offend them.
You are seeing libertarians defend the homosexual agenda on this very thread, just as you see on every libber thread, you are doing that in that very post when you call to end marriage and just let everyone just make up there own definitions.
Actually they can already, anyone can and always could, it just wasn’t legal when it came time for divorce or death, child custody, inheritance etc, or in the military for instance, one of the countless places where the government has to decide which soldiers are legally “married”.