These are nine issues, with two different positions. With the first position being a 1, and the second being a 7, try to gauge where you stand on the issue with a whole number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), with 4 being split in the middle between the two options. For example, I shall give my response. Domestic Spying: 2 International Aid: 2 Military Force: 3 Economic Growth and Taxes: 2 Jobs and Economic Welfare: 3 Paternalism: 1 Gun Control: 2 Marijuana: 1 Pornography: 2 Total: 18 here is the scoring Libertarian: 9-25 lean Libertarian: 26-31 mixed: 32-43 lean communalist: 43-48 communalist: 49-63 The results of the study are indicated in this image What I find most interesting about this is the difference between those self-identifying as libertarian and those who are actually libertarian based on this scale. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to consider themselves libertarian, 31-24. However, Republicans are far more likely to actually be libertarian (based on this orientation scale, 45-5! You can look at the report yourself if you would like here.
Isn't it odd that Democrats are about 30% more likely to think of themselves as libertarian, but Republicans are 9x as likely to actually be libertarian (based on the orientation scale)?
Personally I hate labels because nobody is one thing. Just because I'm libertarian on one topic doesn't make me a libertarian on all aspects of life. I definitely am one when it comes to foreign policy. On the economy though, I'm not. Though I would probably lean toward something that wasn't on that list which is that the money we save from not being so aggressive in our foreign policy would help pay for a lot of things without having to do much else. But I am ok with raising taxes for the right reasons. On personal liberty, I'm mixed. This is why I hate labels.
I like it, but I think that it's a little skewed to the idea of a line being the political spectrum. For example, since I don't believe the government should be involved in our personal lives, I gave Paternalism a 1. But when it came to economic growth, I support funding education, but so people can make their own choices, thus putting me up there. That being said though, I was a 26. I really do think that our government has gone too far, but at the same time that we still need to swing back to the left.
Everybody fits into a label, that is why they exist. The fact that you may not understand the intricacies of those labels does not mean they do not apply. It is like someone saying they are a social liberal and fiscal conservative but the problem is that those things are not mutually exclusive. You will find this in almost all situations you look at. A person cannot say they are a libertarian on this or that but on a different issue they are something else, everything is all inter-related to some degree. Like someone claiming they are an independent, it is impossible to have absolutely no opinion on anything. EVERYONE leans either left or right.
I used to be a libertarian. Or at least i thought i was. But then i realized i am something else entirely.I am something much better.
14. Too bad they didn't add gay marriage as a question, that would have thrown many "liberty lovers" for a loop. As for the Republican party being libertarian, in any sense of the word, hell no. If they had any Libertarian leaning in them they abandoned it back in 2000 and haven't bothered to get it back since. They keep talking about how the love liberty and rights in the same speeches where they are bashing gay marriage and trying to make voting more difficult for the average citizen. Anyone who believes the Republican party and the social right they represent care about freedom is an idiot. You'd have to be to not see right through the lies. Well that and you'd have to stop getting your news from right wing media which will spin bans on gay marriage as somehow being freedom.
22. Marijuana scored me a big six. I'm just not beleiving it helps society and I used to smoke like a chimney.
This test looks a little weighted ... for example, how libertarians feel about government spying seems to change with who's in office ... but okay. I'll bite. Domestic Spying: 1 International Aid: 6 Military Force: 4 Economic Growth and Taxes: 6 Jobs and Economic Welfare: 6 Paternalism: 1 Gun Control: 2 Marijuana: 1 Pornography: 1 (is there a zero?) Total: 28 ... according to this, I lean Libertarian. Sure. That sounds about right.
The notion of freedom entails a great deal more than just homosexuality you know. That is not the center issue that drives every political ideology under the sun. Freedom, according to the libertarian, and the conservative, is something that is inherent in each human and has absolutely nothing to do with legislating something like gay marriage. That is a policy issue. Liberals do not believe in inherent human freedom, they take a couple of different routes such as utilitarianism which believes that the ultimate goal of society is to promote the greatest good for the greatest number of people or they think that people are "duty" bound to help the weakest in society.
The fact that the social right and many of those TEA party "liberarians" oppose gay marriage shows just how much they care about freedom; not at all. The simple fact that they fight so vehemently against simple, basic equality under the eyes of the law for a minority group shows they do not believe in basic freedom. That you just tried to dismiss it shows that you are not a true believer in a free society, as this is a classic example of a law that should be opposed by anyone who believes in a free society, not something to be brushed off as a "policy issue".
Those who are libertarian, and not just playing right wing cool kid, actually do care about government spying, regardless of who is in office.
The problem is there's a lot of argumentation over this, and there are a lot of different flavors of libertarians.
Ok, so with 15 it seems I am in the club. A single point on everything else, but the one that does it for me is Jobs and Economic Welfare: 7. You are welcome to call me a bleeding heart.
^^ Got his girlfriend stolen by a pot smoker. That is the only reason people get obsessed about others who smoke pot. This is true 100% of the time.
Nope, some bake brownies. Seriously though, its not about getting high for Libertarians, its a matter of personal responsibility.
Fair enough. I'll agree. But that means that a lot fewer republicans are libertarian than they think.
I don't think so - there is no objective liberty. We prefer our conception of it, naturally - but there is no "right" way to allocate resources. So there will always be people who call themselves libertarian who are on the left.
The Republican Party has never been libertarian. The closest either party has got was the Democrats in the 1830s. The closest the country ever got was under the Articles.
