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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe Btfsplk who wrote (671904)	2/10/2005 5:08:54 PM
From: Johannes Pilch	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

My, I really typed this fast and am pretty sure I have said some things I don't exactly mean. So you will have to give me an allowance here at least until I get back and am able to think a bit more deliberately on this. I think Libertarians are generally leftists because such palatable ideologies as those found in Chicagoan Libertarianism have made it possible for one to call oneself “Libertarian” while being statist under the skin. I have observed and conversed with many Libertarians, and I think in all but a few rare instances after I have gotten to know them enough to give them a little scratch, they bled “leftist.” There are too many leftist belief systems masquerading as Libertarian, and too few real Libertarians speaking cogently against them. The Libertarian Party is quite worthless in this regard. It often refuses to allow real Libertarian philosophy to lead it to true Libertarian positions on some of the most critical issues of our time, ostensibly because it wishes to be competitive with statist parties. As a result, the Libertarian Party has now become merely one of several statist parties. It talks a nice game to the uninitiated, but it does very little to get to the heart of the issues it addresses and it does even less regarding the core ideal of underscoring true human freedom. Now, I think the Austrians do this more than most, but they unfortunately are not carrying the Libertarian standard as prominently as the statist Libertarians of the Libertarian Party. They don’t have tens of thousands of little deceived minions, claiming themselves statists while being in fact hardcore Libertarians. But the Libertarians are brimming over with deceived minions, I have engaged several even here on these forums, who claim themselves Libertarians but who are in fact hardcore statists. Howard Stern is one of them, a “real” Libertarian because I think that is what Libertarianism has become. Guys like Stern have done to Libertarianism what Spong is trying to do to Christianity. Perhaps rather than become dismissed as “fundamentalist,” as Sponglike heathens attempt to do to real Christians, real Libertarians are being tolerant to the destruction of their own beliefs. Libertarianism should seek maximum freedom, damning expedience and practicality. The ideal is that humans are free and have certain rights by nature. That is the starting point. Anything that militates against it ought not be tolerated or worked around because of what some dweeb has determined are “practical considerations.” Gotta run.