Libertarian Larry presents some basic purist LP ideas. Many in the LP are pragmatists. A truly libertarian society has to be a gradual movement (pragmatist) and not accomplished by abrupt dismantling of the governments in place. Members of the Party receive a membership card that has on the back, the following: There is nothing inherently wrong in this. Government is away too big. Limited government is what is needed. The purists want no government. As a matter of fact, many LP members call themselves anarchists. The Libertarian Republican Organizing Committee was formed to perpetuate pragmatic libertarian ideas. The LP began to see a real decline when the LROC was founded. The LROC is now defunct and many with libertarian learnings simply choose to work within the GOP much like members of the now defunct Citizens Party are working within the Democratic Party.
The LP is growing and growing fast! They are the third largest party in America! Libertarians are not anarchists, government only has two responsibilites: 1) Protect from foreign invasion 2)Protect people from violence! Other than that, anything else the federal government does is unconstitutional!
I am a registered Libertarian and like LL beleive the government is far too involved with our day-to-day lives. There is NO difference between the Republicans and Democrats other than what they want to control or intrude into without any real cause. The Republicans tout smaller government, yet under Nixon, Reagan, and GW Bush, government has gotten larger and more out of control. Time to cut back - time to come to our senses. Time for individual responsibility and individual freedoms (and if corporations want the same rights as the people, they also have the accept the same responsibilites and the same consequences for their actions - including the death penalty)
You're just not accurate, Larry. The LP finished fourth in the 2004 presidential election. The Green Party currently has more members than the LP. In 1996 and in 2000, the LP came in fifth! In an effort to salvage a dying Party, membership dues will be eliminated beinning January of next year. AGAIN, LARRY, As of October 2004, the Libertarians ranked fifth in voter registration nationally. The Constitution Party ranked third with 367,521 registrants, the Greens, 312,963, and the Libertarians, 258,408. You cannot argue with numbers, Larry!
I can argue with the numbers....this came from the LP website How large is the Libertarian Party? By almost every objective measure, the Libertarian Party is the third-largest political party in America. We’re active in all 50 states, have more than 200,000 registered voters and more than 600 people in office, which is more than all other third parties combined. They are growing and are strong as ever! for all that want to join here is a Q and A page about the LP http://www.lp.org/article_85.shtml
This is true...but...The Constitution Party has 367,521 registrants and the Greens have 312,963. Do you not understand that 300,000 is greater than 200,000? Don't take my word for it. Do some research and tabulate the registered voters in each state, then add them up. It will take some time, but it will be worth it to be factual instead of partisan.
I've never met a member of the Libertarian Party that wasn't a political looney-tunes in my opinion. I'm sure that pragmatic members do exist, but I haven't seen any. My feeling is that both the Republicans and the Democrats contain people devoted to liberty. The Libertarian Party seems to attract those for whom the principle of individual liberty has become some kind of philosophical absolute, the principle around which every other consideration rotates. So it comes dangerously close to being an anarchist party. That was why the French revolution failed to bring about the expected paradise on earth. There's this peculiar late-enlightenment religious faith (and it is a form of religious faith), that natural man is naturally good. So the countless imperfections that we see around us are all necessarily the result of evil social institutions. If you can just sweep all of the institutions away, if people can finally be allowed to do whatever their instincts dictate, then they will naturally and inevitably create some kind of a secular Kingdom of God. It's the opposite of the Christian idea of sin, as well as the atheist Thomas Hobbes' characterization of natural life as brutish, violent and short.
Re: Re: A Libertarian Society This is very sad. Did you live in CA when Ed Clark ran for Governor? He was a reasonable, sensible man who received nearly 400,000 votes! Also, the 1996 and 2000 LP presidential nominee, Harry Browne, is a good, sensible man. MA Libertarian and former gubernatiorial candidate Carla Howell is a decent person. You offer a good point in that the LP will never be taken seriously as long as kooks invade the party and the public impression of the LP is based on the kooks who run in various elections. Ann Norton, Secretary of the Interior, is a former Libertarian Party member who was also Attorney General of Colorado. She is by no stretch of the imagination a "looney-tunes."
Re: Re: A Libertarian Society The realization of liberty being individual was the pinnacle of political philosophy. Collectivism is atavism.
