🚀 go-pugleaf

Libertarians are not part of the “Right.” 

By Harry Browne, the 2000 Libertarian presidential candidate
March 7, 2001 11:20 a.m.
 
  
onah Goldberg says that "libertarians…need to understand that operationally
they are still members of the capital 'R'  Printer-Friendly 
 
 
Right." 

Sorry, but we don't accept that. Choosing between "left" and "right" today is
like choosing between the Yankees and the Mets. Neither one is a carefully
defined political philosophy that stands consistently on one side on every
issue. I defy Mr. Goldberg to define conservatism in one sentence (or even one
paragraph) that can tell you, for example, which of George Bush's initiatives
conservatives should support. 

Both political movements are hypocritical. Conservatives sometimes claim to be
for economic freedom, but the people they elect consistently vote for corporate
welfare, foreign aid, government education, farm subsidies, government health
care, and $2-trillion budgets. Liberals claim to be for personal freedom, but
their leaders consistently vote to censor the Internet, put a V-chip in your TV
set, continue the insane War on Drugs, and violate the Bill of Rights in every
conceivable way. 

You Can Be Part of a Consistent Movement
Libertarians stand for something identifiable and consistent — the
superiority of your freedom over government. We don't believe an agency of
force can improve upon what individuals in pursuit of their own welfare can
achieve. Thus we oppose all attempts to substitute the force of government for
your ability to choose what is best for you. 

If you really do believe in individual freedom, we invite you to join us, the
Libertarians. You won't have to make excuses for your votes — claiming that
you're "buying time," or that you're just being "realistic." You don't have to
pretend to cheer a president who's pushing for the opposite of what you want
— who's really just Bill Clinton in drag. 

You can vote for what you really want and abstain from “Libertarians stand
for something identifiable and consistent — the superiority of your freedom
over government.” 
 
voting when no choice satisfies you. 

Sure, we Libertarians aren't winning many electoral victories yet. But neither
are you — not if you believe in individual liberty, the Constitution, the
Bill of Rights, and small government. It's no victory to elect a man who wants
to increase subsidies to the destructive education system, who wants to enlarge
the disastrous government health-care system, who wants to add religious
charities to the list of institutions hooked on government aid and control, and
who claims that government (an agency of coercion and bureaucracy) can be
"compassionate" so long as he is the one running it. 

We Libertarians have too much self-respect to pretend to cheer when someone
promotes the very things we oppose. You can have that kind of self-respect,
too. All it takes is to ask yourself what it is you really want — and then
make sure you don't support anything that's working against it. 

If you consistently want individual liberty, you're a libertarian — not a
conservative. 
 
  

                
"I have ever deemed it more honorable and more profitable,too,to set a good
example than to follow a bad one"