Libertarians are relatively useless in the political world today. There just ain't a lot of us out there. Most people who say they are libertarian really mean that they aren't republican or democrat, and don't have a clue what libertarian means. Recently and much to my happiness, the republican party has embraced the "big tent" philosophy and allowed Rand Paul and others like him to stay in the party. The biggest detriment to the political life of the republican party is the liberty wing of the GOP, which is my political home.
Libertarianism has great respect for the individual. The philosophy allows individuals to live their own lives, for good or bad as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. Libertarians are often accused of being personal libertines or having no personal morality, but that's nonsense. Libertarians can live highly moral lives, and often times very traditional ones, but unlike the modern day left and right they have no desire to make everyone else live the same way they choose to live theirs.
Libertarianism means "you leave me alone, I leave you alone. You don't run my life, I don't run your life. I don't hurt you, you don't hurt me." That's scary to some people, and the fundamental flaw of both the right and the left is that they do think you are too stupid to make your own decisions and run your life as you see fit. The right wants to tell you who to marry, that you can't read certain books or watch movies, while the left forbids you from owning a gun for protection and who you can or can't bake that cake for. Libertarianism stays out of your bedroom. Libertarianism lets you read the bible or Penthouse or nothing at all. Libertarianism allows you to own a gun and doesn't care who your business serves.
Libertarianism isn't naive. We know someone will make bad choices, we know there will always be crime. We accept that war is an inevitability in certain cases. We believe that allowing people to be individuals and letting them have free minds and free markets, while scary, is the best
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