Okay. Based on this site’s title, I’m quite obviosly a libertarian. I’ve been publishing, writing, and blogging for nearly ten years. The assumptions people make about me are sometimes laughable, at times frustrating, and in some instances the assumptions are mind blowing. If I write anything critical of Obama, I’m a racist, greedy, heartless republican nazi who eats puppies while I watch The O’Reilly Factor. If I’m critical of past republican administrations, I’m a whiny bleeding heart bet wetting liberal communist scum bag who steals money from successful small business owners to fund abortions.
I’m just a libertarian, with a small letter L.
Why I Despise Political Parties
I find political parties to be dangerous. They breed animosity, and ask for blind loyalty. A perfect illustration of this is the Clinton Lewinsky scandal of the late 90’s. Prior to President Clinton admitting the sexual relationship with Lewinsky, democrats blindly defended Clinton stating, “He didn’t do it.” As more and more evidence surfaced, forcing the president to admit the relationship, democrats changed their argument to “it doesn’t matter.” If the fact that Clinton had a sexual relationship with Lewinsky didn’t matter, democrats should have used that argument from day one, but they didn’t. They kept changing the argument in order to defend Clinton, a fellow democrat. This type of loyalty isn’t a disease specific to the Democrat Party, republicans have also blindly defended fellow republicans.
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Through imperceptible stages, both parties have created blind loyalty from supporters by teaching that the other side is always wrong. This is idiotic. Politicians who run as a D or an R do not have to go through a party test or party approval to do so. ANyone can run as a republican and anyone can run as a democrat. Why then, do so many people blindly vote for the R’s or blindly vote for the D’s? When people do this, they are ignoring their responsibilities as citizens of a republic. Citizens are not supposed to vote for the party, they are supposed to vote for the individual based on principles.
I can see some of the reader comments already, “Oh yeah, well, I vote republican because the party is for (fill in standard reason here) and against (fill in standard reason here). Take that you closeted liberal bed wetter!” Remember, anyone can run as a democrat and anyone can run as a republican. Therefore any party can be hijacked by any group at any time. It is my opinion that the republican party has been hijacked by progressives.
In 2004, I asked several of my republican friends why they identified themselves as a republican. The common answer was “I’m for small government, less spending, and less taxes for everyone.” But these same people supported George W. Bush, a man who repeatedly increased spending and increased the size of the federal government. Why did they support this man? He didn’t match what my friends described as a republican.
Principles: Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Politicians, especially those devoted to the party, are famous for saying one thing and doing another. This infuriates me. Do these career politicians know how stupid and hypocritical they appear? They show loyalty to their party, but show little loyalty, and no respect, to the country. I don’t ever consider voting for such men and women. Politicians who display such hypocrisy and party loyalty do not fit with my own principles. What are my principles?
The Constitution: An Eternal Document
It isn’t hard to tell if a politician understands The Constitution and if he or she is following it. I’ve lost count as to how many times President Obama has ignored restrictions placed by The Constitution. And he knows he is doing so. But he doesn’t care. This shows me that President Obama does not care about the law, nor has principles that are compatible with our free republic. If a politician has no respect for The Constitution, the supreme law of the land, he or she has their own agenda — freedoms, liberties, history, and rights be damned. Such people think they are above the law, and believe they know better than the rest.
If a politician ignores The Constitution whenever it becomes a roadblock, what is the point of having a constitution in the first place? Why should they even take an oath to preserve, protect, and defend The Constitution? The Constitution is there to designate the duties and the limits of the federal government. It also establishes individual rights. The Constitution is an eternal document. It cannot be ignored without consequences. Those politicians who repeatedly ignore it in order to fulfill their own agenda have no respect for history, no respect for freedoms, no respect for citizens, and have no honor.
Truth Matters, Parties Don’t
Career politicians frequently ignore facts which are right in front of them. Their devotion to their own agendas and to their own parties cause intellectual blindness. An historical figure who I greatly respect is John Adams. He was devoted to truth and believed that law was paramount. Before the colonies declared independence and the Revolutionary War was well underway, John Adams was asked to defend British soldiers who were charged with the killing of three civilians. British soldiers were largely despised by the colonies, and most wanted the soldiers put to death after the Boston Massacre — most believed them to be guilty.
Although many disapproved, John Adams headed the defense and the court found the soldiers to be not guilty. During the case, John Adams had pointed out that most of the men present in the court room had already made up their minds. They were ignoring the truths that were right in front of them, all because their hatred of the soldiers was blinding them. John Adams said during the trial:
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
Truth has no agenda. Democrats and republicans who ignorer facts and truthss for the good of the party are not worthy of being in office. Citizens who do not seek out truth but blindly support parties are at risk of losing freedoms.
Individual Freedoms, Why I’m A Libertarian
At times, people are often shocked when I mention that I’m a libertarian. Although I’m not a registered libertarian, I do believe in and subscribe to many libertarian viewpoints, but not all. Several people see libertariansim as being next to anarchy, but that is hardly the case. Libertarianism is about individual rights, liberties, and freedoms, and limited government.
To understand basic libertarianism, it helps to understand liberalism, conservatism, and statism. On a basic level, liberalism is the belief that the government should have strong economic control and no control of social issues such as abortion, drugs, sex, and marriage. Conservatism is the exact opposite — the government should have little to no control of economic issues, but should step in on individual and social issues like abortion, drug control, gay marriage, etc. Statism is the belief that the government should have its hand in everything at the expense of personal freedoms. Libertarianism is the belief that the government should have very limited control of anything, which leads to personal freedoms and choice.
This does not mean that libertarians think that the government should not exist. It basically means that the government should only do what is constitutional — i.e. protecting individual rights and freedoms, defending our country from threats foreign and domestic, supply a court system, etc. Individuals should be free to make decisions for themselves and accept the consequences of their actions. For example, if a person chooses to smoke pot, that is their choice, but they have to deal with the possible negative consequences of doing so, like cumulative health affects, harm to others, loss of employment, etc.
People have the ability to make their own decisions and they have the right to decide where their money goes. Forcing others to give up their money to bailout a business, to pay for abortions, etc is plain wrong. As for others’ social and moral choices, as long as it neither picks my pocket or breaks my leg, infringes upon my liberties, or harms others, I don’t care what a person’s belief is. That being said, I do believe that we must be a moral people, and a religious people, and the government should defend religion and morality, not be hostile to them.
Because the gospel of Jesus Christ causes spiritual liberty, true libertarianism can not be without Christ. I have not and will not support a theocracy, at least not until Christ returns and establishes his government on earth. I will also promote and defend the gospel of Jesus Christ, because He ultimately causes liberty in our soul.
For those wondering, no, I am not a supporter of Ron Paul. As with all political philosophies, not all libertarians agree on everything. Ron Paul, a libertarian who has continued to run for president, has some viewpoints I strongly disagree with. He thinks that 9/11 was the result of a few crazy thugs who hijacked some airplanes. He also wants to pull all our troops home from all countries. 9/11 was due to islamic extremism, and the U.S. needs to proactively defend ourselves from this type of extremism. It is pure evil. As for pulling home all our troops, I could never support it. Although I happen to feel that the U.S. should not be the police of the world, pulling all our troops home would result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Many of our troops are placed in areas in which they are the only form of authority. The sudden absence of this authority would create a power vacuum that would likely be filled with murderous dictators.
I am not a pothead. They call marijuana dope for a reason.
Abortion in 99.99999999% of situations is murder. Nothing else. It should be very heavily regulated, and extremely rare.
I have no issue with the tax-payers providing necessities for some poor people. The current level of support that the government forces tax-payers to give is far too much. I happen to feel, and I think that most people would agree, that there are some individuals and families who need assistance. But this assistance should be minimal, only come from the state government, have an expiration, and should be under continuous review. Assist with providing adequate housing, basic food, and water. No internet, no cable TV, no junk food, no electronics, etc.
I happen to agree with Ben Franklin, the best way to get people out of poverty is to make them uncomfortable in their poverty. With the federal government providing so much for poor people, there is no incentive for them to climb out of poverty.
I am a firm believer in the power of the individual. A person has the right to succeed and to fail. What several liberals do not understand is that much can be learned from failure, hence why I don’t believe in bailouts or much of the welfare program of the federal government. I am not suggesting that we don’t help each other, but the help should come from the heart of the individual, not through the government — forced charity is not true charity.
What all libertarians agree on is that the federal government is far too big. Many of the departments are wasteful, not needed, and nearly all are unconstitutional, meaning that The Constitution does not give the federal government the right to establish certain departments, like the department of education. Much of these wasteful departments should be run, if so needed, by each state. The 10th Amendment clearly states:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
If you actually read through The Constitution, and don’t allow yourself to be blinded, but only focus on truth, you will plainly see that most of the federal government is unconstitutional, and that several administrations, including the current, has executed many orders it did not have the constitutional authority to do.
Call Me Names, Question My Parentage, Send Me Nasty Emails, I Don’t Care
Call me nasty names all you want, it won’t hurt my feelings. I’m not a politically correct guy and don’t get offended that easily. However, a question I have for you is, why hate me, why dismiss my viewpoints? I’m sure you and I disagree on some issues, but why should that prevent us from having a civil, calm, and measured debate? I love learning from people. I used to describe myself as being a republican, than as a conservative, but because I refused to be blinded, I learned from others, recognized truth, and became a libertarian.
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