Skip to main content

Comment assassination: the relevance of Libertarians (with "Libertarian" vaguely defined)

I run into this about once per year, with self-appointed "purist" Libertarians, and it bears repeating here, with updates.

Recently I wrote a post critical of the Delaware General Assembly for wasting tens of millions in corporate welfare while blanching at the cost of transporting homeless children to school.

This was the response from one JDL:
I kept looking for Mr. Newton to clarify with something like "As a libertarian, I of course oppose any government involvement in any of these activities, including busing children to school." But I looked in vain (or did I miss it somewhere?). 
Conclusion: Steve Newton, you're no libertarian. You're just another socialist, but with different priorities from some other socialists. 
As a libertarian, I oppose government involvement in such mis-labeling. But I have to ask: Mr. Newton, have you no shame?
Shorter JDL:  I am the keeper of the faith and the decider of all things Libertarian.

There is, and long has been, a split in the Libertarian Party between "purists" and "pragmatists," and--truth in advertising--I have always identified myself as a pragmatic Libertarian.

I want to expand freedom one step at a time, taking what I can get in increments, and stopping those who would stamp it out, one step at a time.

This requires actual political engagement.  It requires becoming aware of the issues.  And it involves a recognition that every self-proclaimed Libertarian needs to have tolerance for other Libertarians who think differently.

That said, I think the pragmatists are gaining, because the rest of the country seems to be listening more closely than usual.


Take the post by the guy who wonders if he is the only Libertarian Democrat in America:

On the other hand, I could be a rare cross between Libertarian and Democrat because I'm convinced that self government flourishes when fewer laws restrict personal choices, from the right to ingest any inebriating substance, to a woman's right to an abortion, and the rights of gay people to marry. Logically, private citizens must become politically active to achieve these freedoms and it won't happen by talking about it over a beer at the local hang out. 
As I think about it a little more, I'm probably a Libertarian Democrat because I oppose any governmental body that interferes with my life in any way. I am particularly offended when my property rights are challenged under the guise of protecting them, from nosey neighborhood associations to any agency of the State or federal government.
I must be a Libertarian Democrat because I oppose oppressive police, elective wars and puppet dictators.
 
I must be a Libertarian Democrat because I oppose mandatory seat belts, Interstate Highway speed limits in rural areas, speed traps, and their hidden cameras.
I must be a Libertarian Democrat because I welcome everyone to America who is willing to work and does not want to bomb the hell out of our cities or turn America into the same type of failed theocracy they fled.
 
I must be a Libertarian Democrat because I believe in legalized industrial hemp, legalized gambling. legalized drugs, and legalized prostitution. I say, let's tax all of it enough to eliminate payroll withholdings. 
I must be a Libertarian Democrat because I demand the right to ignore your religion or even make fun of it while I demand your right to worship as you please.
When I look into my philosophical grab bag, I'm not sure if I see a Libertarian Democrat or just a typical red-blooded American.
Or consider the writer who (like former LPD Convention keynote speaker Dr. Michael Munger and former LPD VP Candidate Judge Jim Gray) actually talks about a libertarian case for government involvement in health care. 

Or even the columnist who warns the GOP (for about the 10,000th time they've been warned) that rejecting the Libertarians in its ranks won't work as a longterm strategy, and who implicitly reminds the rest of us why conservatives are not only not Libertarians, but not really very good allies for Libertarians.

Standing in the way of a relevant political party actually doing something to roll back the State and function as actual American citizens, are idiots like JDL who cannot accept any argument more nuanced than "Anybody who doesn't agree with me is a socialist."

That's OK--he's probably such a "pure" Libertarian that he doesn't even vote.

And with profound apologies to many of my true friends who happen to be "purists" and put up with me by not judging me:  thanks.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Comment Rescue (?) and child-related gun violence in Delaware

In my post about the idiotic over-reaction to a New Jersey 10-year-old posing with his new squirrel rifle , Dana Garrett left me this response: One waits, apparently in vain, for you to post the annual rates of children who either shoot themselves or someone else with a gun. But then you Libertarians are notoriously ambivalent to and silent about data and facts and would rather talk abstract principles and fear monger (like the government will confiscate your guns). It doesn't require any degree of subtlety to see why you are data and fact adverse. The facts indicate we have a crisis with gun violence and accidents in the USA, and Libertarians offer nothing credible to address it. Lives, even the lives of children, get sacrificed to the fetishism of liberty. That's intellectual cowardice. OK, Dana, let's talk facts. According to the Children's Defense Fund , which is itself only querying the CDCP data base, fewer than 10 children/teens were killed per year in Delaw

With apologies to Hube: dopey WNJ comments of the week

(Well, Hube, at least I'm pulling out Facebook comments and not poaching on your preserve in the Letters.) You will all remember the case this week of the photo of the young man posing with the .22LR squirrel rifle that his Dad got him for his birthday with resulted in Family Services and the local police attempting to search his house.  The story itself is a travesty since neither the father nor the boy had done anything remotely illegal (and check out the picture for how careful the son is being not to have his finger inside the trigger guard when the photo was taken). But the incident is chiefly important for revealing in the Comments Section--within Delaware--the fact that many backers of "common sense gun laws" really do have the elimination of 2nd Amendment rights and eventual outright confiscation of all privately held firearms as their objective: Let's run that by again: Elliot Jacobson says, This instance is not a case of a father bonding with h

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?