What is a libertarian and what are you?

[ss4699]

http://www.lp.org/
PREAMBLE

As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.

We believe that respect for individual rights is the essential precondition for a free and prosperous world, that force and fraud must be banished from human relationships, and that only through freedom can peace and prosperity be realized.

Consequently, we defend each person's right to engage in any activity that is peaceful and honest, and welcome the diversity that freedom brings. The world we seek to build is one where individuals are free to follow their own dreams in their own ways, without interference from government or any authoritarian power.

In the following pages we have set forth our basic principles and enumerated various policy stands derived from those principles.

These specific policies are not our goal, however. Our goal is nothing more nor less than a world set free in our lifetime, and it is to this end that we take these stands.

STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES

We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual.

We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.



Governments throughout history have regularly operated on the opposite principle, that the State has the right to dispose of the lives of individuals and the fruits of their labor. Even within the United States, all political parties other than our own grant to government the right to regulate the lives of individuals and seize the fruits of their labor without their consent.

We, on the contrary, deny the right of any government to do these things, and hold that where governments exist, they must not violate the rights of any individual: namely, (1) the right to life -- accordingly we support the prohibition of the initiation of physical force against others; (2) the right to liberty of speech and action -- accordingly we oppose all attempts by government to abridge the freedom of speech and press, as well as government censorship in any form; and (3) the right to property -- accordingly we oppose all government interference with private property, such as confiscation, nationalization, and eminent domain, and support the prohibition of robbery, trespass, fraud, and misrepresentation.

Since governments, when instituted, must not violate individual rights, we oppose all interference by government in the areas of voluntary and contractual relations among individuals. People should not be forced to sacrifice their lives and property for the benefit of others. They should be left free by government to deal with one another as free traders; and the resultant economic system, the only one compatible with the protection of individual rights, is the free market.

Personal Liberty
Economic Liberty
Securing Liberty
http://www.lp.org/platform for a full read.
Omissions

Our silence about any other particular government law, regulation, ordinance, directive, edict, control, regulatory agency, activity, or machination should not be construed to imply approval.

So what are you? Take the quiz
http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz
if you dare and then tell us in the poll above.

[CuteOldGuy]

Top corner Libertarian. Surprised?

[ss4699]

not really. similar poll on ASPD long ago.

[JD Barleycorn]

I object to your organization of the terms. You put statism next to conservativism when it should be all rights be next to liberalism. Liberals and statists share many of the same goals.
Your thinking is muddled and this is partly to blame on education and the parties. A classic liberal circa 1776 sounds very much like a conservative today. The liberals started calling themselves progressives in the last century and by liberal I don't mean a classic liberal. Today we have moderates who don't know what they really believe. I guess it depends on the situaion.
To the right we have republicans who believe in a republican form of government. Individual rights and group representation by elected representatives. For many republicans this allows for government to have substancial input in how we live our lives.
Further right are the modern conservatives who want the constitution to be recognized as the ultimate law of the land. Individual rights are preserved and government will be reduced to limit its ability to interfere with our lives.
To the left we have the democrats who think individuals have rights but that government has some serious say so in how we live our lives.
Further left we have progressives (modern liberals) who think that we have group rights based upon your indentifying characteristic (sex, race, creed, etc). Government has a major role in deciding who wins and who loses. Government is the overall decider of what is fair.
On the fringe we have both fascists and libertarians. No, I am not saying their goals are comparable but they are both fringe groups. Libertarians believe in almost no government and no personal freedoms are infringed upon irregardless of the impact on society.
The fascists think that government is the only arbiter of what is right and wrong. If people accede to government authority then they will be much happier.
Fascism sounds a lot like socialism but socialism is an economic term whereas communism is a political concept.

[ss4699]

Originally Posted by JD Barleycorn

I object to your organization of the terms.....political concept.

I agree with your arguement JD. Not my concept on the actual quiz device. The one that was used 4 years ago was longer and more specific. But it is no longer available. And the concepts do need to be well defined. This was a "half hour instead of an overnighter" on the concepts end. Thanks for sharing. All important thoughts. Libs do put a "Tilt" on things like other parties and groups. No one and no party is prefect, atleast I have not found one yet.

There are some concepts I would like to discuss in a seperate thread too. The real polls will be open before long and we will all be frustrated again I am sure!

SO FAR:
Statists (Big Government) 00%
Right (Conservative) 5 28%
Centrist 3 17%
Left (Liberal) 2 11%
Libertarian 8 44%
Prefer not to say 0 0

I am considering to a nation level, any thoughts guys?

[BigMikeinKC]

Next time just list the choices alpha/numeric and nobody gets their panties in a wad.

I can't answer your poll as I refuse to be a part of any political group. I was a Republican and then my party was hijacked by some nut jobs after RR left office. Then I started leaning Democrat, but they went off into lala land. So now, I consider myself a true Patriotic American as I refuse to tow any party line and cast my vote based on what I think is best for this country and not best for the party.

If you think one side is right all the time and the other side is wrong all the time, then you really aren't thinking.

[lawyerinjeans]

Libertarianism, quite frankly, is an antiquated political philosophy. It has at its core the accepted assumption that the only source of tyranny in our lives is the government. The preamble above says that we should all be able to live our lives without the "interference from government or any authoritarian power". However, all Libertarian efforts and all its dogma are aimed at the tyranny of the government. What about the tyranny of other "authoritarian power" that is mentioned in the preamble? Attacking the government is an easy and simplistic way of dealing with very complicated and nuanced problems we have as a society. What about the tryanny of corporations? We have (at least in theory) a limitations of government power. The Constitutions guarantees us certain rights against the government. For instance we have the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, the right to a trial by a jury of our peers, the right to be free of unreasonable searches, the freedom to contract, etc. We may feel that these rights against the tyranny of government are more theory than reality, but at least they are there. What guarantees do we have against these liberties being taken by corporations? Sure you can say whatever you want at work, but you damn well better be prepared to be fired if it goes against the corporate policy. You can carry a gun, but not on General Electric's property if it says you can't. If your employer wrongfully charges you with theft and fires you, what is your remedy? If your employer wants to go thru your emails it will do so and you won't know it and can't do anything about it. Try calling AT&T and negotiate a cell phone contract. The fact is, you stand a better chance of having a corporation ruin your life than the government doing so.
We are fond of calling ourselves a great nation, or the best country in the world. Anyone that does so would justify the claim by pointing, not to the acts of individuals, but to the acts of our government and the things that we have done collectively through our government. I am not saying that our govenment is not without problems. Far from it. I am just saying a political philosophy based on the fear of our government is like a child crying about the boogey man under his/her bed while ignoring the monster standing in the middle of the room.
(Just my two cents).

[ss4699]

Originally Posted by lawyerinjeans

Libertarianism, quite frankly, is an antiquated political philosophy.

Probably the only thing we might disagree with. But each of your arguements below is well stated and inciteful.

Originally Posted by lawyerinjeans

It has at its core the accepted assumption that the only source of tyranny in our lives is the government....

• What about the tyranny of other "authoritarian power"...
• We have (at least in theory) a limitations of government power....
• What guarantees do we have against these liberties being taken by corporations?...
• We are fond of calling ourselves a great nation, or the best country in the world. Anyone that does so would justify the claim by pointing, not to the acts of individuals, but to the acts of our government and the things that we have done collectively through our government....
• I am just saying a political philosophy based on the fear of our government is like a child crying about the boogey man under his/her bed while ignoring the monster standing in the middle of the room.

(Just my two cents).

Well stated LIJ. And pretty convincing arguements. Thank your sharing. This and JD's comments are worth more discussion and considertion, in an election year.