The political realm is by no means unaccustomed to pandering — it has become commonplace for politicians to scoff at the very idea of keeping their campaign promises. Taglines, slogans and labels have been co-opted to attract an ever wider base of voters. Libertarianism is one such abducted term, having been shanghaied, shaped and distorted by the Republican Party to fit their needs. Most politicians these days calling themselves Libertarian don’t live up to the name.
Libertarianism’s core philosophy can be found in its etymological root — liberty. Personal liberty is paramount to the Libertarian, protected and purchased at the cost of massive reduction of intervening power of the government. It is no surprise, then, that the conservative party, who also professes an ideology of emasculating central authority, can hide behind such a fragile veneer as claiming to subscribe to Libertarianism. Let’s pierce this delicate façade and reveal the ugly truth.
Coercion is anathema to the Libertarian. However, that section of Atlas Shrugged must have been skimmed over by Idaho state Sen. John Goedde when he tried to make it compulsory for all students to read the aforementioned book in February. When pressed on why he chose that particular novel, his telling response was, “That book made my son a Republican.” The irony, I believe, was lost on him.
Libertarianism, the bulwark ideology of absolute personal choice and small government, has picked up a strange bedfellow — social conservatism. What I talk of are people like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) who have been described as “conservative Libertarians.” This marriage is abominable enough to make one’s skin crawl. Lee hardly upholds the latter half of this title — he both supports stripping an individual of the liberty to choose whom they want to be married to and supports expansion of military capabilities.
There are three controversial key issues involving personal liberty. A rational Libertarian supporting these issues would put him inherently at odds with any self respecting conservative. These three issues are legalization of marijuana, legalization of gay marriage and support of abortion. Of course, a Libertarian wouldn’t be in support of legalization of these things per se — they would just as rather see the government say nothing on the issues and leave it to the individual. The three senators I touched upon all support removing the latter two liberties; Paul seems to be the only conservative Libertarian of the group who supports choosing whether or not to use marijuana.
Libertarianism, the bulwark ideology of absolute personal choice and small government, has picked up a strange bedfellow — social conservatism. What I talk of are people like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) who have been described as “conservative Libertarians.” This marriage is abominable enough to make one’s skin crawl. Lee hardly upholds the latter half of this title — he both supports stripping an individual of the liberty to choose whom they want to be married to and supports expansion of military capabilities.
There are three controversial key issues involving personal liberty. A rational Libertarian supporting these issues would put him inherently at odds with any self respecting conservative. These three issues are legalization of marijuana, legalization of gay marriage and support of abortion. Of course, a Libertarian wouldn’t be in support of legalization of these things per se — they would just as rather see the government say nothing on the issues and leave it to the individual. The three senators I touched upon all support removing the latter two liberties; Paul seems to be the only conservative Libertarian of the group who supports choosing whether or not to use marijuana.
Of course, as I am sure my opponents will point out, I have missed a number of Libertarians in Congress who are true to their ideology. The reason I chose those three in particular is purposeful: the tea party. The tea party, as I am known to harp on, maintains a scary amount of power. They call themselves conservative, they call themselves Libertar- ian, but in reality they’re populists, pure and simple. And they have elected populist leaders, namely Paul, Cruz and Lee, to do their bidding. Hopefully, their power is waning, and their grassroots movement will be uprooted before they have a further chance to spread their weeds to the rest of the U.S.