As far as the political spectrum goes most people consider themselves some variation of either Republican or Democrat. People tend to forget that other parties do exist, the peace and freedom party, the green party, the libertarian party etc... but unfortunately since these parties haven't achieved mainstream success people tend to disregard them. I consider myself to be a Libertarian. When I tell people this, I usually hear some sort of intelligent argument against my party such as: "you guys are idiots" or "you should all die", you know really logical statements. But I've come to realize that most people, regretfully, don't even know what the Libertarian Party stands for and that people are usually so staunchly Republican or Democrat that any outside idea is automatically deemed wrong or stupid or whatever degrading term they can think of. I also see that maybe the reason people don't understand us is because we haven't been outspoken enough. So today I will attempt to play my part in spreading the Libertarian philosophy and judging by my page visits maybe two or three might be more informed.
The party itself is called the Libertarian Party because we first and foremost believe in liberty for all, as our forefathers so elegantly put it. The word "liberty" gets thrown around a lot by politicians trying to strike some chord within the public and we hear it so much it tends to lose meaning. But liberty is the backbone to our party and to us liberty is the freedom guaranteed by our constitution to every man, woman, and child in this country to live their own lives the way the choose to without government interference as long as they do not infringe upon others right to liberty. I don't see how anyone could disagree with this sentiment, doesn't everybody want to live as freely as possible? Now this is where people tend to start thinking we're anarchists and we believe in chaos and other nonsense. While we believe ensuring personal freedom to be the most important issue we also believe that you have the right to be protected from your neighbor. If you neighbor steals from you, that's wrong, if your neighbor sneaks into your backyard at night and disposes of harsh chemicals by pouring it on your flower bed, that's wrong. We believe in personal freedom as long as it does not negatively affect others.
Another key philosophy to the Libertarian Party is that we believe governmental power should be restricted as much as possible. Our current government is massively overgrown and needs to be drastically downsized. The general Libertarian philosophy on what a government should be is hugely different from what it is today. People establish governments so that they can live their lives freely and peacefully with their neighbors. If their neighbor decides to steal their potatoes there is someone there to protect the innocent man who had his potatoes stolen and there is also someone to punish the potato stealer. Now I know that is an oversimplification of government but hopefully you get the point. The reason for having a government is pretty basic but of course over the years the government has continued to put its hand on more and more and their job description keeps expanding. We simply propose we downsize the government take away their power and let the people have their freedom back.
This is a very basic, simplified version of the libertarian philosophy and there are a lot of other aspects to it that I haven't covered here. All I ask is that instead of writing us off as kooks give us a shot and do some reading of your own. You'll find that our philosophies are rooted in logic and rational thinking, you'll also find that we are the most principled party out there. There aren't moderate or progressive Libertarians, you're either a Libertarian or your not and we stand by what we believe.
If you have any questions or comments feel free to use the comment box. I enjoy intelligent debates but if you are just going to be hateful or cynical don't bother I won't respond. Also be sure to check out the Libertarian Party's website for more info. I'm sure they explain their philosophy much more elegantly than I do.
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