Libertarians’ aim is to maximize personal and inter-personal liberty. Nationally. Globally.
Freedom is the great coagulant- the way water molecules hold together drops of rain. Ironically, libertarianist philosophy is arguably the oldest of all American currents of thought: originating during the colonial Enlightenment Generation, when the old was still new enough to be considered current, but the United States was forming itself; becoming one in thought and deed.
Libertarianism existed in the minds of our colonial forefathers even before the ideas of a nation were enumerated, before they were disclaimed. Despite regional differences, colonists belonged to a place, a town maybe or an intersection. No matter what, each first and foremost belonged to himself.
The Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican ‘party’ was afflicted by and proposed along the lines of British, French, German and colonial thinking. What resulted was libertarianism. A sense of freedom given to the individual, by each own’s God. Without mediation, without government, without boundaries. Unique unto each.
Three centuries into the newly formed United States, citizens vote on the basis of who will win elections. Examples of voting extend to such extremes, that we are left with no alternative than to chose between an awful and a terrible party. While many in media and political networks might well believe that third parties are superfluous, and dangerous philosophically, it is the true patriot; who must see through the distortions and blatant lies- three centuries in the making.
Sometimes untangling libertarian politicians seems difficult, as the answers they explain do not fit the institutionally drafted, taught, inculcated, passed-on and extrapolated thinking to this point. The way colonial forefathers needed to learn to be free, Americans at the dawn of this millennia need to come to terms with their situation, their history, their teachings and their nation’s most precious construct: the most devine set of laws and regulations governing any society.
Since beginning of time.
Government is a necessary evil in the world of men. Those familiar even slightly with the ruminatory writings of Plato and Aristotle can say, that almost as long as human genius has been alive, it has been coupled with human erroneousness. Needfully, governments only exist to do the few things that indivduals can not do for themselves: draft armies in wartime, protect borders in peactime, offer a method of payment and more generally take care of a nation’s most elemental needs.
Nothing more.
Libertarianist thinkers want free trade, surplus not debt, less foreign interventions, less spending, much smaller governments and voluntary associations as much as possible.
The ultimate key element to libertarianism: a mind made up freely- individuality of thought.
Most libertarians would agree that inequalities exist, but that these are modular outcomes of people’s free will and a mind unobstructed by groups, governments and factions. As far as these go: our colonial founders were wary of these. Jefferson and Madison believed that our country was so big that factions would inevitably become happenstance, but that none could usurp as a tyranny because diversity of mind was preferred and seemed to pour from the mountains and regions of a new land. Like beckoning whispers of Gods to distant Athenians or Spartans. Faction was considered devious and sinister.
Minds of colonial gentlemen, were those of freethinkers not absolutists. Therefore: being opinionated and free thinking similarly, is the spirit of any real American.
Which brings us to the elections of 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012: the ‘magic’ four which have unwaveringly broadened and expanded the scope and political interception of libertarianism. Libertarianism has drawn adherents like wildfire.
Politicos and social ‘commentors’ consider this first decade, another lost or ‘silent’ generation, the way it was during the end of the roaring twenties and the Great Depression. Libertarianism is gaining a voice previously silenced and marginalized by special interests, conglomerates and monopolies in the political sphere.
Since the (un-) Civil War of 1861-1865, there has been a serious fractious shift in what exists today as a two-party system. In the Reconstruction Era the Confederacy was Democratic, today it is the Northern states. What has changed is not so much philosophy, but rather specific planks- election issues. Qeues, cheering calls and verbal redundancies to appeal to certain voters.
Traditional conservative thought now crosses with libertarian ideals in the upcoming election. It will be an election that pits a conservative liberal (Mitt Romney) against his counterpoising twin, the liberal conservative (Rick Perry) for the Republican ticket.
Questions remain: like why anyone other than the libertarian paleoconservative stalwart, Ron Paul, should be electable. Libertarianism’s spokesman in Congress for over thiry years, is it not high time that ‘republicans’ voted the real PALEOconservative into office?
The congressman who stood close with Reagan when all others failed him? Perhaps, what is needed is a reconstruction, and reconstitution of our minds. Individual to individual.
To remind ourselves who we truly are as Americans. What it means to be conservative.
When did voting become an issue about winning or losing? Did southern freedmen after the Civil War vote, because they believed they could change the institutional structures aligned against them? Or, did they vote as an act of defiance, an act of liberty, an assertion to a person’s right to freedom of mind, an inclusion of spirit- and declaratory excellence of such? Voting is about the feeling you have, leaving the poll.
Not who wins.
Because for the rest of history your mind will be set. Reversion is impossible.
For once, Americans should neglect their sense of grandeur and invincibility, for it is when the great believe themselves untouchable that calamity happens. Americans fear no one. Let us share this sentiment globally.
Economists like F.A. Hayek and Milton Friedman believed that maxiumm liberty and less government intervention were the key to the most prosperous of nations. In fact, Friedman states that political freedom is necessary for liberty in economics and vice versa. Free markets consitute free individuals, and the same may hold true when switched. “The preservation of freedom is the protective reason for limiting and decentralising governmental power.”, so Friedman says.
The absolute inversion of government power is the mind of the individual made up freely, not upon dictate.
In the coming election of 2012- which this nation needs desperately politically- every citizen may freely choose to draft up his mind. The way the founders drafted our documents that were passed out as broadsides on the frontier. America awake! Once more, let your shining brilliance of American philosophy be the guarantor of upheld freedom against a government held of, for, and by the weak-willed and insipid.
Certainly, it is not possible that we all can revert and go back to the days of colonialism in the thirteen colonies; be cobblers and saddle makers and brewers- but that is not the point. Instead let us keep and hold as bearing the fruits of genius that stemmed from the founders’ and revolutionaries’ combined exertions!
The ideas of our forefathers and foremothers are stronger than at any point hence. Like Patrick Henry we believe today, that there is only one direction to move towards.
Cumulatively becoming once again a nation of principle on the stage of the world. The place all others envy and wish to emulate. Libertarianism was welded- so it could be wielded- by sweat, stealth and bayonet: it will take no less for us, if we wish to take back what is rightfully ours by doctrine: individual freedom and the adage:
“WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS, IT BECOMES NECESSARY FOR ONE PEOPLE TO DISSOLVE THE POLITICAL BANDS…”