Re:Anti-Politics: Libertarianism

From: mlorrey@datamann.com
Date: Mon Sep 23 2002 - 17:56:15 MDT


From: "Mike Lorrey" <mlorrey@datamann.com>
X-Mailer: YaBB

[quote from: S. on 2002-09-22 at 10:26:11]
Ok, so most of you are Libertarian,
how has that been working out for you?
How big is your Libertarian audience?
How many Libertarians are in office?
Stand up for your views and convert me.
Not one single person has told me I'm wrong to be Republican.
They are all too busy giving me the silent treatment
and closing their ears.
Why?
It seems like you have 0 political power.
Am I wrong?

Questions for you: Do you think it is ok to take a smorgasbord / buffet style
attitude to the Bill of Rights, picking and choosing what rights you think
are important and what don't exist?
If you say 'no', then you are a libertarian. If you say 'yes', then you are
wrong and a hypocrit.

Do you think that the Bill of Rights is the be-all and end-all of definitions
of individual liberty?
If you say no, you are a libertarian. If you say yes, you are wrong and
should go back and read the 9th and 10th amendments.

Do you think that individuals are endowed by Nature (your 'creator')with
their individual sovereignty, and that government is simply a mechanism of
delegation, and not a sovereign power in and of itself? If you say 'yes',
then you are a libertarian. If you say 'no', then you are some flavor of
totalitarian or fascist (and by definition wrong).

While I continue to vote for Republican candidates under a policy of voting
for the lesser evil, that does not make them inherently good, nor does that
make me a Republican. Many republicans, I have found, want to be libertarians
in their hearts but are poorly educated in constitutional law. Many are
outright libertarians but have zero confidence in the possibility of a
successful 3rd party (which is its own style of disenfranchizement and
disempowerment). The rest of the republicans are simply wrong because they put
their bibles ahead of their brains.

Many democrats claim to be libertarians but cling to outmoded zero-sum notions
of economics, primarily because they put their hearts ahead of their brains.

I would suspect that you would not be here in this forum if you did not have
libertarian tendencies, unless you are actually a troll for some anti-tech
fundie group. SInce this list has a post limit per day, many of us don't want
to waste our time on those who are simply trolling for reactions.

----
This message was posted by Mike Lorrey to the Extropians 2002 board on ExI BBS.
<http://www.extropy.org/bbs/index.php?board=61;action=display;threadid=53275>


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