Reply #53: I am a libertarian, and I am, most certainly, NOT an "idiot"

[Cats Against Frist]

Libertarianism is one of the most intelligent -- and nuanced -- political positions that exist. There are both left-wing and right-wing libertarians, both anarchists and minarchists, and classical liberals and pre-modern idealists. This is much more than "college kids, who want to take drugs, and anti-tax warriors."

I consider myself to be a left-wing libertarian federalist minarchist, MEANING that my personal beliefs are secular, (somewhat)egalitarian, communal and that my values are largely liberal, in nature. I believe in the philosophies of the Enlightenment, modernity and the democratic movement born of it, therefore, I recognize the U.S. Constitution, as the law of the land, BUT, I am a federalist -- MEANING -- that the federal government should only exist for defense, interstate law, and other, very minimal things.

Things that I do not believe in, that many leftists do: I am not Marxist, and I don't believe in saving 280 million people from themselves, and their poor choices. I believe in personal responsibility, as well as community help, rather than a broad welfare state -- though, on a state, county or municipal level, I am more comfortable with it. I am elitist, segregationist (meaning not RACIST, but that I believe in the right of free association, meaning that ALL people should be able to seek out those who share their values, culture, religion, philosophies, etc., and establish community on behalf of shared goals and vision), and I believe that "community" is subjective, as well as a construct, and that we should be left to arbitrarily decide who our peers are.

I believe in a TOTALLY unhindered free market, except for pollution, because I believe, as geolibertarians, that land and resources belong to everyone (within an agreed-upon community -- most likely state), and that people should be free to be ENLIGHTENED CONSUMERS and DISCRIMINATING LABORERS. I believe and vehemently support the labor union, born of solidarity -- but not that which relies on bargaining rights to function.

Now, these are things that I believe -- and, if you get me drunk enough, I'll tell you that some of these things are impossible. I'd also tell you that it's no more impossible than some of the goals Democrats or Republicans have in mind, BUT that libertarianism exists in an alternate universe, before the creation of the Federal Reserve, and The Patriot Act -- the two most, in my opinion, liberty-stripping pieces of shite to ever come down the pike.

When I come to the table, I come as a libertarian. When I vote, I vote Dem, because I WAS a Democrat, and a state socialist, until April of 2004. And, I will vote Dem because I fucking cannot stand the Religious Right, whose quasi-Dark Ages agenda of patriarchy, mysticism, anti-reason, anti-Enlightenment, ideas of order, delusion, self-hatred and bodily shame is the biggest threat to the human spirit of liberty that there is.