Sadly, having a consisitent rationale for one’s beliefs is out of style.

James Joyner:

Indeed, the divide between the laissez faire economic (low taxes, limited regulation of the economy) wing and social anarchy (drug legalization, gay marriage, cops are evil) wing of the libertarian movement is far greater than that between the social and economic conservatives within the GOP.

Sad if true; one would hope that there are a significant number of folks in the Libertarian Party who are there because they believe in staying out of your wallet and your bedroom.  Still, if they really wanted to leave you alone, they wouldn’t be participating in any political party, would they?  That goes double for the folks Joyner describes here, who are likely to belong to one of the two major parties, I think.

Of course, you very quickly run into a problem of definitions here.  I would argue that anyone who wanted to free up the markets while telling you who you can have sex with is not a libertatian, big or little l, at all.  Same goes for the pot smoking socialist types.

You either think you should leave other people the hell alone, or you don’t. 

<< Back to main