The other day I and a coworker were assigned a special assignment which basically meant we stood next to each other for two hours and talked politics. My coworker, Andrew, is a hardcore Libertarian.
I generally agree with Libertarians on fiscal issues and limited government but not on drug legalization and immigration. But we are casual friends and I’ve brought him to Tea Party meetings and we are both volunteers on a current small campaign.
Though we’ve known each other for over a year and have attended political events together, this was the first time we had a completely open discussion with no one else there or no particular subject being covered in a meeting.
I listened to him rant for over an hour about how bad Romney was and McCain was and how Romney never denounced Romneycare in Massachusetts so he would never have repealed or defunded or “waived everyone” from Obamacare. Andrew also hated Boehner, McConnell, and basically any Republican he could think of. After listening to him, I asked him to say something negative about the Democrats, or any individual Democrat for that matter. He couldn’t. Maybe he tried but as soon as his lips started moving, it was all about how Republicans are not real conservatives. He literally could not say a single bad thing about Democrats. Not one. He was so programed to hate the impurity of Republicans that he never even thought about what the Democrats are doing to this country and his future (he is 24, I think). I asked him 7 times to say something, anything, bad about the Democrats. He couldn’t. Not wouldn’t, couldn’t.
Now, I’m no fan of RINOs, but I definitely see Democrats as the greater evil. Now any good Libertarian will tell you there is no real difference, but I realized that there is one major difference between the parties– Libertarians won’t insult Democrats. If your a Libertarian and want to prove me wrong please reply to this post and start your reply with a criticism of the Democrats.
I tried to explain my point of view to Andrew with the following analogy: You are in a school yard and the school bully is punching you and rather get angry and fight him, you instead get angry at your not-so-close friend who is not fighting the bully with all his might. I remember in childhood seeing similar events take place. Rather than fight a perceived stronger opponent, young boys will attack a weaker non-combatant in an attempt to retain pride and avoid finding himself on the bottom of the social pecking order.
Rush Limbaugh refers to the “left” as the “Blame America First Crowd” because no matter what bad thing happens, it was ultimately caused by American racism, sexism, imperialism, militarism, etc… and is never the fault of the perpetrators or bad actors.
After speaking with Andrew and after reviewing discussions with other Libertarians, I’ve come to the conclusion that they constitute the “Blame Republicans First crowd”.
He is not a Libertarian if he can say nothing wrong about Dems, he is wacked! Dems are beyond redemption which is why I focus on the shortcomings of the side that may be ble to do something. Forget the dems there gone. I’m a registered Rep but I am really a Libertarian on most issues including drugs, they were legal as long or longer than they were illegal. Immigration should be legal only, enforce the laws build a fence. For every new law/reg created one should be removed. I’m a vet so I’m out of whack with Libers on defence, more subs more ships what knuklehead stopped the A-10 active use for a F-35?!
Laws are now about behavior control not actual interactions. Discipline someone for what they’ve done not for how they are behaving. McCain, Bohner and crew are the impediment to changing this country because its not going to happen with Dems. This budget deal is a great example, we gave away sequester for a future cut. Like thats going to happen. The next congress will just change it again, meanwhile spending goes up over the next two years. We should have just let everything in place and passed continuing resolutions with the sequester. No threat of shutdown, not that it was a big deal. The Prez lost as much as we did. Again he can’t be a Libertarian
There seems to be a lot of that going around today. Look at Bill Maher, who claims to be a Libertarian but clearly isn’t if you listen to his political rants.
@Ditto:
Either Maher doesn’t know what the definition of a libertarian is or he’s just a LIEbertarian.
Blowhard – I agree. Your Colleague is no Libertarian…ESPECIALLY if he cannot make one criticism about Democrats/Liberals…
We mostly have those zany right wingers, the Tea Party Tea Baggers and Conservatives here…But then again, we also have extreme “Left Wingers” that visit you know, to puff their chests out….make comments that defy common sense…of course display their “tolerance”…and let us not forget the talking points they ‘parrot’ (regurgitate) once they view and absorb the propaganda on other Liberal Media and the MSM….
…Not too sure of the Libertarians visiting though…but I am waiting…
I would by no means say that it is true of all libertarians, but during the last couple of presidential elections, I noticed a number of self proclaimed libertarians were virtually indistinguishable from liberals in criticizing Republican candidates. I tend to refer to them as Neo-liberals.
I’m a Libertarian, so let me see if I can say ten bad things about Democrats. Off the top of my head; in no particular order:
* Terrible expansion of police-state in recent years — with more to come.
* Domestic spying. It was bad under President Bush, but President Obama has taken this to new heights.
* Using the IRS and Federal law enforcement to curtail political speech.
* Using Federal regulatory agencies to promote agendas without congressional approval.
* White House illegally allocating money and illegally modifying laws.
* Massive expansion of regulation of individuals and businesses.
* Selling out the future of the country through deficit spending and printing money.
* Taxes on everything.
* Trying to limit constitutional protections on individual rights in favor of “group rights”.
* Attempting to create equal outcomes (e.g. “income inequality”) — not equal opportunity.
* Support for public employee labor unions (esp. teachers unions) over the public good.
* Undermining property rights.
* Nanny state regulations where the government is sticking their noses into adult decisions.
* Crony capitalism.
OK, it’s hard to pick a top-ten list of Democratic Party abuses.
Bottom line: Your friend isn’t a Libertarian at all.
As much as possible, I want the government to leave me alone.
Modern Republicans are mostly RINO’s. As such, they are mostly worthless.
Modern Democrats are two orders of magnitude worse. They are, essentially, fascists.
@kevino:
I lean heavily towards being a libertarian. This line says it all. I agree with kevino, your friend is no libertarian. I’ve said it before, I don’t want to be ruled by the left and I don’t want to be ruled by the right. I don’t want to be ruled at all.
As for democrats:
Obama – socialist philosophies believing the State can control outcomes in the lives of the citizens. He said once that he believes in equal opportunity, not equal outcomes, but he runs the government with the express purpose of swaying those outcomes.
Clinton’s – Center Left to Left leanings, but more importantly they are political elitists. They believe there should be one set of rules for citizens and another for the ruling class. It really doesn’t matter to them what the rules are as long as they keep getting elected.
Pelosi – straight up socialist and would love nothing more than a leftist dictator; as long as she remained in the ruling class so she could make the rules that keep her vested interests secured.
Kerry – Elitist
Reid – Contrarian socialist
Other than that, I defer to kevion’s list.
Democrats are clearly the more sinister of the two evils. However, Republicans have got to fight and win control of our own party and wrest it away from the leftists in every meaningful position of power or for all intents and purposes democrats will control both parties for the foreseeable future.
Fighting democrats is useless until such time as their sympathizers like Boehner, McConnell, Peter King, Christy, et al have been removed from power, and their cohorts at the RNC removed from party leadership positions.
I will refer you to my explanation to the nation for why the RNC fired the man who had just orchestrated the most successful election cycle in the party’s history in hopes that you’ll develop a better understanding of why we must fight and defeat the Republicans before fighting democrats would be for anything more than sentimental value: http://www.teapartytribune.com/2012/04/04/why-the-rnc-fired-michael-steele/