Posted on 05/07/2016 7:57:55 AM PDT by Brookhaven
This site had a number of users vote libertarian the last two times for senators and representatives.
Nothing wrong with voting for damage control.
Keeping ideals in clarity is good, but back in reality a person still has to eat and live.
I often get into disputes w/ other Libertarians who can’t seem to comprehend that open borders shouldn’t coincide with open welfarism.
I’d actually be fine with the former were it not for the coexistence of the latter. Skilled migrants with the means for self-sufficiency would always be welcome. But instead we largely import and subsidize the mediocre and worse to come here.
Tell that to the millions of framers, roofers, and general laborers in the construction industry. And that’s just for starters. It’s not a question of how productive or self supporting an “economic refugee” may be. The fact is they will be willing to work for much less, and as good little Libertarians we can’t fault the employer, or the “migrant” as they contribute to dragging the country to the same status the “economic refugees” escaped.
The primary and overwhelming reason illegals are willing to work for much less is that they are subsidized enormously and in practice exempt from a wide range of regulations, whereas US labor is not. If they had all the same costs of a US worker, they’d need to work for a similar price.
“If they had all the same costs of a US worker, they’d need to work for a similar price.”
Obviously. But that does not happen now and would not happen under a Libertarian model either for the simple reason Mexico provides a constant stream of bodies willing to work for an ever decreasing wage.
I just love the libertarian nonsense that gets spouted about illegals. It must be a great mystery why remittances are the second largest source of income to Mexico.
Mexicans have a much lower cost of living back home. So they save or send home what they earn up here and buy a hacienda back in the home village. American laborers can’t do the same because this is their home, or at least it used to be before the illegal alien invasion. They can’t “go home” to a cheaper place to live.
Mexico provides a constant stream of bodies looking to suck the government teat. Betcha not one in ten would come here if they had to pay their own way. It’s the lure of free stuff which is the primary magnet to the third world.
The greatest failure of the Libertarian Party was after 9/11 a deep schism built between those in the Libertarian Party that saw attacks by Islam as wanton initiation of force (thus requiring a principled retaliation response), and those that believed the use of force by Islam was justified retaliation for initial transgressions by the the US (Paulists, etc.).
This fiasco illustrates that the Libertarian Party has skimmed members from Liberals and Conservatives with cleverly worded statements such as, "let peaceful people cross borders freely." The Libertarian that came from a Conservative background will wake up and realize that peaceful individuals can become a stampede, destabilizing the economy, and a peaceful person can turn violent without any warning.
“It’s the lure of free stuff which is the primary magnet to the third world.”
Today there’s no question that welfare does play some roll, but it is not the “primary magnet”. No welfare in the 20s - 60s for legal or illegal immigrants, but they still came.
The open borders concept would be fine if all nations were roughly equivalent but at the moment, open borders equates to an open invitation for hostile forces to invade and conquer simply by demographic superiority.
Even in Canada where the open border issue is not quite as evident a threat, this is the main reason why I can’t fully support the libertarian alternative.
I don’t mind the idea of no laws against marijuana although I don’t use it myself. Laws against stronger drugs need to be retained though. The main challenge about open use of marijuana (which is more or less a social reality in British Columbia even though our laws are not the same yet as in WA or CO) is to develop effective means of roadside testing for impairment equivalent to the alcohol breathalyzer test. Once that was in place, I see no real distinction to be made between alcohol and marijuana as legal choices. Heroin, cocaine or meth etc should remain illegal though.
If we could “do it all again” then probably the war in Iraq should have been pursued either more aggressively or not at all. But I tend to think we were right to go in there and remove Saddam Hussein. What we’ve chosen to do in Libya and Syria are worse mistakes and non-intervention or backing of a reasonably reliable alternative in place would have been the better options.
The best part of any libertarian platform relates to free speech and internet freedom. We had a good thing going in the first phase of the internet and now elites want to take all that away, too dangerous to let the average guy or gal have a place to discuss truth behind the backs of the schoolteacher class. Why, we might come to different conclusions. We might equate communism with Nazism, that’s what they fear the most. And they should, because that implies that communists should be driven out of any positions of influence and authority that they might hold today.
Yeah, they still came... from Europe. Very few from third world crap holes. And we got a lot of good people that way.
same here; I want —my— money
This is THE ONLY one that is a problem. ALL of the other sound like heaven to John Golt and me
It is worth considering what the actual Libertarian Party Platform says instead of Brookhaven's interpretation of it.
"Recognizing that abortion is a sensitive issue and that people can hold good-faith views on all sides, we believe that government should be kept out of the matter, leaving the question to each person for their conscientious consideration."
It is also important to understand that the platform of the Libertarian Party is intended to explain what would be the implications of their philosophy. In many ways, striving for a society where behaviors are controlled more by people's beliefs and less by the government is a good thing. Ultimately the best way to reduce the number of abortions is to change people's attitudes regarding the value of human life.
Agreed.
Gary Johnson has reached out to Bill Kristol for his support. That didn’t take long.
They hate government so much they have become anarchists.
...
Libertarians are Anarchists who own property.
Betcha that had DR. Ron Paul going eh? Snicker
Ping
For your interest
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