Talk:Libertarian Party
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Glibfidget 21:48, 29 May 2004 (PDT)I would have liked to start from scratch, but here is my edit to the current entry. I didn't want to just put it in without throwing it up here first. I left in much of the original entry and largely worked around it; a compromise of sorts.
Believe in extremely limited government. Laissez Faire capitalists and socially liberal, the libertarian party attracts both far right extremists and fiscally conservative liberals.
While many individuals identify themselves as lower-case libertarians and many of their ideas find support in the mainstream, the Libertarian Party itself advocates across the board changes, some of which are considered decidedly fringe, such as a complete abolition of the income tax, repealing most federal agencies including the Dept of Education and FDA, legalization of prostitution and an end to the prohibition of drug use, among other things.
The Libertarian Party is one facet of a larger libertarian movement - a quasi-utopian vision analogous to anarchistic socialism in the 19th century. For years the libertarian movement was used as a virtual front organization for Republican Party elements seeking to pump rabid attacks on Democrats and Liberal Policies into the political discourse - books calling FDR a "fraud", and accusing liberals of being proto-stalinists were standard fare. "Libertarian" think tanks such as the Cato Institute and the Hoover Institute being funded and run by individuals prominently connected with the Republican Party.
In the wake of the rise of the neo-conservative movement, a radical shift has occurred, with many libertarians breaking with the image of being Republican attack dogs, and standing on principle on such topics as the growth of government. In 2002 libertarian style challenges cost the Republicans the governor's race in Wisconsin, Oklahoma and, nearly, Alabama.
The Libertarian Party fields candidates across a broad range of offices, and regularly scores a visible percentage of the vote in Presidential Contests, as well as being able to reach double digits in many otherwise uncontested districts. Libertarian style third parties are influential in Alaskan politics, where the Republicans are often considered too prone to raise taxes or restrict individual liberties. On a grassroots level, the Libertarians are perhaps the most organized and most pervasive of all the third parties, and while most people balk at actually voting for them, they find people sympathetic to their cause all over--from Clint Eastwood to Howard Stern.
While the Libertarian Party has often been, in effect, more sympathetic to Republicans and count more in their membership than Democrats, they differ to a large degree with basic conservative ideas, instead pushing for increased social freedom and a vastly scaled down military. And, one of the core principles on which Libertarians and Republicans agree--a vastly scaled down federal government--is something that has become increasingly contentious between the two under the Bush administration. Such things as deficit spending, preemptive war, the Patriot Act, the gay marriage amendment, and others, have led many Libertarians to break off their alliances with the Republicans and to give the Democratic party another look.
Despite the libertarian leanings of such prominent Republican politicians as Bob Barr, Dick Armey, Ron Paul and others, the Libertarians are not another face of the Republican party, and Democrats and them can find common ground on many progressive ideas.
external links, yadda yadda yadda
Edit boldly. Dare to be wrong.
Just make the changes and let the gradual accumulation of consensus take its course - and leave here your reasons for making the changes, so that the dialog on what the bones of contention actually are comes forward.
I took your advice, and made a pretty bold and comprehensive edit. I kept some of the original entry, and left a section that can be edited whichever way (outlook), but cut out entirely the openly antagonistic sections, much of which were factually incorrect anyway.
Could still use some cleaning up, to be sure, but I think it provides a lot more comprehensive and fair picture, while still staying inline with a progressive opinion and outlook.
Glibfidget 15:10, 30 May 2004 (PDT)
- Your edits were good. I made a few changes under Ideology just because I wasn't crazy about the term "hodgepodge" (as a Libertarian, I believe our positions to be at least as internally consistent as the Big Two if not moreso!). Someone please look my edits over to make sure I haven't injected too much of a pro-Lib slant. EqualOpportunityCynic 09:19, 21 May 2005 (PDT)
One prominent libertarian figure who I'd like to add is the late Boston radio personality David Brudnoy. I'll write up a page if I find time; meanwhile, see http://www.theadvocates.org/celebrities/david-brudnoy.html .
Serendipitously, that site seems to list more libertarian celebs at: http://www.theadvocates.org/celebrities.html . Wow, some interesting names on there, like Art Bell, Milton Friedman, Penn & Teller, Drew Carey.... Also Ayn Rand should feature prominently, I don't think she was on there.
In general this page looks really excellent. Who would have thought that we'd get a fair shake here? :-)
EqualOpportunityCynic 2005-05-11
"policy recommendations with little relevance to the problems faced by most Americans. Only on social issues like gay marriage and drug prohibition does the party find a large measure of public support amogn ordinary Americans, and only then from liberals."
This statement is absurdly biased. For one, it assumes that all "ordinary Americans" are on the left. Clearly, the economic resonates with most of the right (though it is in many ways different than Republican economics), which, considering it is about half the country, must include some ordinary Americans. Cowpunkrva 12:15, 26 May 2009 (EDT)
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