This brings up my key critiques of libertarianism.
First, libertarians seem to enjoy attacking other political parties specific positions while taking only a rhetorical one themselves. This feeds into #2:
Second, until the libertarian party actually puts together a platform, they aren't a real party. The reason's simple: first, nobody can tell what they're really voting for in terms of deltas to the legal codebase, and second, without going in with a plan, I don't think we'd even get the libertarians to agree with each other for doing anything.
To sum it up, I haven't seen a political party that's taken a real stance, but would rather sit on the sidelines and throw stones. Call me when you have a platform, not rhetoric. I don't want argument, I spent 11 years in a college town -- I've done it to death, I want actual proposals that I can personally evaluate. Until then, all I hear is ideology, and that's the last thing I want in government.
The Libertarian party is a fringe party that is mostly concerned with hemp legalization. I know libertarians (small l) who vote for each major party some of the time.
The point of discussing libertarianism is to see the philosophical difference between someone who advocates personal freedom and economic freedom vs someone who doesn't.
Ron Paul, IMO, has shown there doesn't need to be a separate party. Ron Paul is a libertarian in many ways and yet he's been a Republican congressman since 1976, save for the few years in between that he went back to practicing OBGYN.
He actually ran for President as a Republican in 2008.
First, libertarians seem to enjoy attacking other political parties specific positions while taking only a rhetorical one themselves. This feeds into #2:
Second, until the libertarian party actually puts together a platform, they aren't a real party. The reason's simple: first, nobody can tell what they're really voting for in terms of deltas to the legal codebase, and second, without going in with a plan, I don't think we'd even get the libertarians to agree with each other for doing anything.
To sum it up, I haven't seen a political party that's taken a real stance, but would rather sit on the sidelines and throw stones. Call me when you have a platform, not rhetoric. I don't want argument, I spent 11 years in a college town -- I've done it to death, I want actual proposals that I can personally evaluate. Until then, all I hear is ideology, and that's the last thing I want in government.