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Old 01-10-2007, 05:28 AM
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Default LIbertarian Party--Your Thoughts?

Well, in the last couple or so years, this Owl has started to wonder if the Libertarian Party may well speak to many of my values and beliefs. I consider myself largely conservative but find the GOP has become a sick joke, irrelevant, incompetent and weak at best anymore.

So, I invite y'all to comment on the Libertarian platform and vision, your experiences and opinions etc.
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Old 01-10-2007, 05:53 AM
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Default Selfishness As Virtue

Their notions of personal freedom are moral up to the point where they eschew man's collective responsibility for himself.

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Old 01-10-2007, 06:14 AM
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I'm from the opposite pole. I'm a liberal who feels that the Democrats are mostly incompetent and that liberalism itself is going down the tubes. I see the Libertarian Party as an effective tool for pressuring the two major parties into paying more attention to liberties.
My issues with the LP are with its demographics more than its platform. Too many within the party are either so idealistic as to have lost touch with reality or just basically disaffected Republicans. As a result allying with them feels much like cutting off my nose to spite my face.
If they start thinking more realistically and if conservatives start noticing the differences between themselves and the concept of libertarianism, the party would certainly suit my needs. As it is, it is just a tool for me to use to send a message to the Crats that lose my vote.
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Old 01-10-2007, 08:28 AM
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Default Mixed Feelings

I agree with the basic notion of individualism, so I often agree with the LP, but I don't think that the best possible individual is built by extreme permissiveness. To me, government exists not so much to mold society as to make a statement with its laws. There will always be evil in society and there will always be people who escape justice for their evils at least in this world, so the most that a government can do without overstepping its boundaries and itself becoming uncontrollable is use laws to set a solid ethical code and make examples of those who break the laws. I differ with conservatives in that I think that charity is one of the principles that the government should actively promote, since individual materialism is ultimately self-destructive. I also think that what happens in foreign countries is not something that we can, in most cases, effectively control and that when we attempt to engineer the world we lose our own sense of moral responsibility in the exercise of power.
Overall, I tend to combine paleoconservative morals with a left-libertarian support of negative rights that are based on equality, such as the right of non-criminals to cross borders without quotas, the right of homosexuals to marry and the right of even the worst criminals not to be executed. Neither the GOP nor the Democratic Party is anywhere near my political philosophy. The Constitution Party is to my liking on important moral issues, but it is fanatically anti-immigrant. The Libertarian Party is too extreme, but its influence could be beneficial in offsetting the destructive policies of neoconservative Republicans and Democrats who won't stand up to neocons. Overall, I am most likely to support a moderate paleocon who has managed to stay in the Republican Party despite its purge of traditional conservatives, but a Libertarian would be my second choice.
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