Why am I a Libertarian?

[Virtual Bison]

Of course I support academic freedom. Especially when it comes to non-traditional colleges and universities. But it goes way beyond this.

The Government of the United States, the land where I reside is extremely repressive towards anyone who opposes conformity. The issue of academic freedom is only the tip of the iceberg. If you investigage the restrictions of freedom, beginning with Freedom of expression, sexual abuse hysteria, the stupid and counterproductive drug laws, the expansion of the prison-industrial complex and so on and so forth than you will know what I am talking about.

I personally refuse to call myself a Republican or a Democrat. They are both two sides of the same coin. I think that Neo-Cons and Neo-Liberals are all working towards the same goal and that is control of individual freedom.

For more info on the US Police State see...

http://www.infowars.com/

[Armando Ramos]

I personally refuse to call myself a Republican or a Democrat. They are both two sides of the same coin.

You are correct.  Until recently, just Socialist and Socialist Lite.  

But now things are changing.  People are waking up and realizing how our freedoms have been taken, and are being taken.  The notion that government is going to solve everybody's problems is beginning to ring hollow.  Reagan's statement that the government is the problem is ringing true for more and more.

When people get tossed in the slammer simply for competing with wealthy special interests you know that the political system and the criminal justice system in this country are one and the same.   Time to stand up against the tyrants and fight back.

[Martin Eisenstadt]

Until recently, just Socialist and Socialist Lite.  

Because of the current close resemblance between mainstream Republicans and traditional Democrats, a lot of people are claiming to be "Libertarian" when they are actually just "Conservative."  Now that Conservatives are reclaiming the Republican party it is becoming the default choice again for free market anti-statists who had felt they had no where else to go but outside the party.  

But economic issues are only half the picture.  When it comes to social issues, many people have trouble making the distinction.

Ann Coulter had this in a recent column and it seemed to focus on some key differences between the two.

...Ironically, the elites also compared Reagan to Goldwater and predicted a devastating defeat for him in 1980. But Reagan didn't lose. He not only never lost an election, he never won by less than a landslide. (You might say Reagan's opponents suffered Goldwater-style defeats.)

So what was the difference between Goldwater and Reagan? Had the country changed that much in 16 years?

The social issues were the difference. Reagan agreed with Goldwater on fiscal and national defense issues, but by 1980, social issues loomed large and Reagan came down mightily on one side -- the opposite side as Goldwater, as it turned out.

Unlike abortion-loving Goldwater, Reagan said, "We cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide."

And unlike gay-marriage-loving Goldwater, Reagan said: "Society has always regarded marital love as a sacred expression of the bond between a man and a woman. It is the means by which families are created and society itself is extended into the future. ... We will resist the efforts of some to obtain government endorsement of homosexuality."

Goldwater may have been a thorough-going right-winger on national defense, but -- unless L. Brent Bozell Jr. was writing it for him -- he never would have said this of the Soviets, as President Reagan did: "There is sin and evil in the world and we are enjoined by Scripture and the Lord Jesus to oppose it with all our might."

CNN's Borger contrasted Goldwater with Ronald Reagan by precisely reversing their differences, claiming Reagan "was probably the most secular president we've known in our lifetime."

Yes, the man who called the Soviet Union an "Evil Empire," who wrote a book against abortion as a sitting president, and who said that our government's founding documents "speak of man being created, of a creator, that we are a nation under God" -- that's the one Borger calls "the most secular president we've known in our lifetime."

By "most secular," I gather she means "most deeply religious."

Establishment Republicans are always telling Christian conservatives to put our issues aside because they're not popular -- and then moderate Republicans go on to lose elections, while conservative Republicans win in landslides. (It's almost as if the voters couldn't care less who David Brooks thinks they should vote for!)

As long as liberals are going to keep gleefully citing Goldwater's love of gay marriage and abortion, his contempt for Christian conservatives, and his statement that "every good Christian should line up and kick Jerry Falwell's ass," maybe they could ease up on blaming Christian conservatives for Goldwater's historic loss.

Goldwater wasn't our guy; Reagan was.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39118

[Virtual Bison]

I happen to like Goldwater.

I can sum up my beliefs in a nutshell... Everyone should have the right to do whatever the hell they want as long as it does not hurt anyone else.

[ham]

I liked Reagan but I won't put much on anything politicians write or say. It's written by ghost writers and intended to ride whatever results of last hour's poll. Promises to land on Mars by 1975; allegations of soviet nuclear essays on the dark side of the moon and Barry 'platypus' Soetoro's promises to turn life in a perpetual weekend for whigroes, hippies and liberals...one and the same. Reagan's liberalism was more akin to Mussolini's: statism under the guise of free enterprise. Look up neo-liberalism.

[Virtual Bison]

I liked Reagan but I won't put much on anything politicians write or say. It's written by ghost writers and intended to ride whatever results of last hour's poll. Promises to land on Mars by 1975; allegations of soviet nuclear essays on the dark side of the moon and Barry 'platypus' Soetoro's promises to turn life in a perpetual weekend for whigroes, hippies and liberals...one and the same. Reagan's liberalism was more akin to Mussolini's: statism under the guise of free enterprise. Look up neo-liberalism.

True. In fact Reagan raised taxes somthing like 6 times in his term.

Pat Buchannon was one of Ronnie's speech writers btw.