When one hears the term Libertarian, many things probably come to mind for those who are well acquainted with the social media political scene. Most notably our dank memes, scorching irreverent sarcasm, and disdain for both parties; also the incessant peppering of conspiracy theorists, anarchists, anti-Semitic pro-Palestinian activists, and Confederate secessionists.
For those of you who take the extent of your political involvement online to re-posting Donald Trump memes and Reagan quotes, you may be wondering what on Earth a libertarian is; I can’t say I blame you really, ‘cause even those of us political nerds who watch the debates for fun are confused on the matter. I was for much of my politically active years, and the more involved I became, the more I also became unsure of what this term truly means .
I endeavor to explain to the best of my ability, hopefully with a handle on my sarcasm, what libertarianism holds to as a philosophy. I will not go into party politics, nor will I endorse any particular candidate here, as that is a dicey discussion all on its own accord that demands thorough explanation and time. For this reason I chose not to delve into the Libertarian party, rather the libertarian philosophy itself.
For starters, I’ll pull from my formal writing training that is otherwise kinda lame and irrelevant and talk about big words; I mean, who cares about Greek/Latin roots and ee cummings poetry? I have to find a use for it somewhere!
Anyway, there’s this thing called etymology that means in laymen’s speech, the literal meaning and break down of words. Etymologically, “libertarian” comes from the Latin root “liber”, which means free, so we could just say it’s the fancy word for people who really, really dig liberty and like to apply it to their politics, so much so that it makes the dems and the republicans uneasy. But as you’ll discover, the denotation of a word can diverge quite significantly from the connotation in a given society. We touched on a few libertarian connotations earlier, but I’d be pleased if you’d throw those out for the sake of hearing me out...fam? Is that what the kids say these days?
Libertarians, according to the Libertarian Party preamble, ( I know. I said I wouldn’t delve into those pesky third partiers. But I’m quoting them. Darn.) “...seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.” Pretty cool right? Yeah, I think so too. But let’s get a detailed break down from some people with a little less bias shall we? How about we get some information from a professor dude or a book like the scholarly scholar types do? A book called the Encyclopedia of Capitalism volume two tells us, “ In the modern world, political ideologies are largely defined by their attitude towards capitalism. Marxists want to overthrow it, liberals to curtail it extensively, conservatives to curtail it moderately. Those who maintain that capitalism is a excellent economic system, unfairly maligned, with little or no need for corrective government policy, are generally known as libertarians.”
Outside of economics, where do Libertarians stand? Well, it’s key to understand that the Libertarian identity does not affect one’s perspective on religion, morality or culture. This is why there are Libertarians who lean conservative such as myself, or otherwise liberal. According to a lecture by Harvard Senior Lecturer on Economics Jeffrey A. Miron, Libertarianism is concerned with “ the appropriate size and scope of government”, nothing more nothing less. Any delving into issues outside of the direct issue of the size of government is because in a roundabout way, government involvement is still a factor.
For this reason, I choose to not focus on the Libertarian Party, because it espouses particular beliefs about things other brands of libertarians may, and do, diverge from. For example, the Libertarian Party contains both pro choice and pro life individuals, but liberty Republicans like myself clearly disagree with abortion, and Libertarian liberals voting for Sanders would be gung ho for the practice, understandably so. Other than government involvement, the libertarian label tells little of a person’s ideology.
Now that we have a grip on what the heck libertarianism is, why does yours truly espouse this philosophy? Is it ‘cause I wanna burn trees without getting arrested and feel the title of Republican is too mainstream? As much as Lindsey Graham and other RNC establishment Republicans would love for you to think so, not at all! As I said before, libertarianism is solely concerned with government involvement, not my personal life or party. I espouse the libertarian label to my simultaneous Republican alignment because I believe in the God given free will (sorry Calvinists) of man, and his inalienable rights endowed by his Creator, that no one, republican or otherwise, has the privilege to override.
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