Ask a Libertarian! Declaration of Independents Authors Matt Welch & Nick Gillespie Answer All Your Questions
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GoogleJune 15, 7.20pm ET: Final Question - Why is it different this time?
Welcome to Ask a Libertarian with Reason's Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch. They are the authors of the new book The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America.
Go to http://declaration2011.com to purchase, read reviews, find event dates, and more.
On June 15, 2011 Gillespie and Welch used short, rapid-fire videos to answer dozens of reader questions submitted via email, Twitter, Facebook, and Reason.com. In this episode, they answer the questions:
What does it mean to say "libertarian" is an adjective, not a noun,
and
Why is it different this time?
For the complete series, go to http://reason.com/archives/2011/06/10/ask-a-libertarian and Reason.tv's YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/reasontv
Produced by Meredith Bragg, Jim Epstein, Josh Swain, with help from Katie Hooks, Kyle Blaine and Jack Gillespie.
June 15, 7.17pm ET: What's a liberaltarian and how is it different from a libertarian?
Welcome to Ask a Libertarian with Reason's Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch. They are the authors of the new book The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America.
Go to http://declaration2011.com to purchase, read reviews, find event dates, and more.
On June 15, 2011 Gillespie and Welch used short, rapid-fire videos to answer dozens of reader questions submitted via email, Twitter, Facebook, and Reason.com. In this episode, they answer the question:
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.
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In all seriousness, what ought to be the first concrete policy priority of a libertarian-leaning administration (were that even possible), given the present political circumstances and considerable restraints?
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When scrolling through Instapundit today, he had a blurb about reigning in federal gov't with a third branch of congress, the sole function would be repealing federal statues?
Discuss.
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Ignore that question mark. My comment was meant to be a statement, not a question?
Dammit, did it again
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The left tell us that climate is going to kill us the right tells us terrorists are going to kill us and libertarians tell us that the Dollar is going to be worthless.
Is it ok for libertarians to use scare tactics? and if not then why should libertarians act differently?
Is there something innately wrong with scaring poeple into believing in small government when big government advocates use this tactic everyday?
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All fiat currencies crash just as sure as all people die. It is not a scare tactic.
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Libertarianism is a political nightmare. Objectivism is a cult.
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Good thing Barrack Obama came along - according to Chris Matthews, he's a political wet dream. And the slavish following he inspired - and keeps, in spite of breaking every single promise he made - is noooothing like a cult of personality.
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Libertarianism, in its "pure" form is anarchism. Therefore, there are no politics associated with it. Libertarianism is "anti-politics". Politics imply control.
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For more than a decade now, I have considered myself a Libertarian because it is the only U.S. political party that comes close to representing my views and vision for the future.
However, I have yet to hear any talk from (outspoken, and thus, representative) libertarians on several fronts—one of which, I’ll raise here.
For more than 5 decades (I would argue about a century) politicians and big business have supported feminarcissism to the detriment of nearly all aspects of quality of life for most members of our (Western) society (including most women). I have not heard libertarian spokespersons speak against this abomination while, for example, 25 to 30 million (mostly) good parents (mostly fathers) have had their families destroyed by the family-abandoning parent (for profit) and their immoral lawyers and sub-moral politicians. These 25 to 30 million have had numerous Constitutional rights denied and have had to endure years of slavery.
This removal of choice from the majority of the population for the dishonest benefit of the immoral minority is unconscionable.
This removal of choice (often called “choice” by the feminarcissists) has allowed U.S. women to rival Mao Zedong for the crown of who has murdered the most humans (Mao murdered about 70 million, U.S. women have now murdered about 50 million). Worse than Mao—whose victims were adult humans, however, women have murdered helpless babies.
What’s nearly as disappointing (to me) as libertarians not speaking out against these atrocities, is that they regularly go on and on about the plight of perverts who are a small minority of the population, on such issues as “gay” rights. (I mean, really? 50 million murders vs. the “rights” of a very few to foist their private issues on the rest of us—including children in public schools… Really?)
Democrats (Barry being a typical example) support feminarcissists because it increases their political power; Republicans (like Reagan et al.) support feminarcissists because it increases their political power.
Why the silence from libertarians?
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Because as a movement we're divided on whether a fetus is a real person with rights or not, and we're too smart to let divisive single-issue trolls hijack our debates.
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"Because as a movement we're divided on whether a fetus is a real person with rights or not"
Bingo
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Tonio, jallgor,
My position has little to do with whether or not one considers a fetus a real person or not; further, children don't have constitutional rights in the same way as adults.
Consistency is important.
Women are free to kill an unborn or newly born baby, but if a man does the equivalent thing, he is charged, found guilty, and sentenced to imprisonment for murder. It is either murder or it isn’t.
Do libertarians not care about consistency?
Tonio. Your propensity to engage in name calling is indicative of your unwillingness to engage in debate.
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Sounds like the Constitution party is a better fit for you, with your social conservatism.
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Joe M,
You didn't address anything in my post and your post shows you are prone to making unfounded assumptions.
Gays and feminarcissists own the Democrat party. They own the republican party because it is riddled with "white knights."
Are you gay?
Regardless, are you trying to suggest that those who don't support the gay agenda should be further marginalized?
Why don't you address even a single point from my post?
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Read my essay on Why Libertarians are wrong.
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Let me guess: blah blah blah social contract theory. blah blah blah needs of society. blah blah blah socialist, progressive platitudes. blah blah blah freedom means living how I say to live. blah blah blah libertarianism is bad because it hurts governments ability to
controllook out for people. -
It took all of the first chart you display to see that you do not understand libertarian beliefs. Libertarians do not believe that "worker activism is evil," or that "the poor are pampered good for nothings." if you don't understand that, the rest of your response fails. Just to note on the latter, I donate to charitable organizations in my support of those who find themselves in unfortunate circumstances. That is a part of the libertarian spirit - we wish to choose the organizations that we support in these endeavors, rather than have the government do so - and invariably the government does it poorly.
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Thanks for reading the first part for me so I don't have to.
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Why do you have at least three comment sections for "ask a libertarian"?
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I can't figure out how to use twitter. Is there something wrong with me and will I miss out on the revolution?
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It's easy. Every time you do or see or think something mundane, you tweet it and the whole fuckin world will know exactly how mundane your life is.
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*Question*
How can we, as Libertarians, influence politics away from the religious & emotional hijacks of the Right or the Left and promote government that chooses to relinquish power? (Especially when that takes public benefits away from large sections of the voting public - i.e. Medicare.) -
The only way to wrestle politics away from the religious right is to point out that religious values etc should be expressed by the individual and not the government. In fact, many religious values, certainly not all of them, are very good for the health, wellbeing, and prosperity of Americans, but only when embraced and expressed by the individual and not forced from the top.
As far as the left is concerned, the core leftists are often specifically driving for some sort of centrally planned society so you just have to keep arguing with them about why central planning won't work and hope those in the middle left will see the light.
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Regarding the religious right, it helps to show respect for religious beliefs. There are a lot of atheists among libertarians and while I think they are good people, they are often very hostile towards religion. If you are a true libertarian, you should not be so concerned with somebody else's personal beliefs.
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*Question*
How can Libertarian voters count on establishment candidates to hold to the Libertarian, 'less-government' approach, once they are voted into office? (Avoiding the complete reversal that we saw with Obama.) -
Once elected, political leaders are effectively above the law and therefore can NOT be trusted any farther than you can throw them. I don't expect that to change. Just keep track, so that once your favorites have broken their word one time too many, you can dump them and let them know it. (Sites that rank politicians based on their votes, such as ntu.org and clubforgrowth.org, are good for this, and I highly recommend those two to libertarians.)
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Is gov't good for anything other than mass murder?
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Not much.
They hide in the woods making dragon noises all night an ride into town on a white horse to save the day just when you are scared out of your wits.
I'll break the windows, and you can come in to fix them. We can split the take okay?
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How do you educate people about natural rights as opposed to oppressive laws?
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My question - as a libertarian, how do I know that I'm not just a Republican who wants to smoke pot?
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Are you taking questions from here?
Why should anyone vote?
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Since there seems to be some confusion, even among self-identified libertarians, could you tell us what the difference is between a libertarian and a Libertarian?*
*I know what the difference is, and to me is a big deal, not just semantics! -
What do libertarians have to say about externalities (both positive and negative)?
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What is the libertarian position on enforcing existing law vis a vis illegal immigration and how would a libertarian change such laws given the chance?
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Why are there a bunch more videos in this series on facebook than here?
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I fired up the first video, and Matt thanked all of us for watching all the other videos.
Why are you having a problem putting them in the correct order??
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is good
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is good