This is what the Libertarian (large L) said about themselves, in 2008. It's mostly reasonable - of course, with political platforms it's what is unsaid that is generally the most troubling. I personally could support some of the more controversial planks, such as their belief in the right of personal privacy, and it's extension into elimination of "consensual crimes" such as drug use.
But that raises an interesting question - who are libertarians (small l), and what do they believe? The Libertarian Party only rarely wins an election, which is the truest measure of the effectiveness of a political party. So, who would ally themselves with a group so unlikely to, you know, win elected office?
One portion of the platform, which is probably the most popular among its members, is as follows "Governments throughout history have regularly operated on the opposite principle, that the State has the right to dispose of the lives of individuals and the fruits of their labor. Even within the United States, all political parties other than our own grant to government the right to regulate the lives of individuals and seize the fruits of their labor without their consent." Sounds pretty paranoid about government to me. What sort of government action would it take to create that mindset?
For many libertarians, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged creates such a world. Atlas Shrugged introduces John Galt, who believes and espouses a set of values which are almost identical to the Libertarian Party principle above. The difference is that the fictional Galt knows how to enact his vision. His solution - let workers (especially business executives, etc.) withdraw from society. The world that requires this drastic action is a stark one - where trade associations ban competition, where workers have to beg employers for additional money solely based on their "needs", where government takes over businesses which are functioning well. This world is not like the one in which we live.
The belief that many libertarians hold appears to be right out of Atlas Shrugged. It is a pessimistic view about other people - one that assumes almost everyone is a "looter" who would forcibly take the wealth of others or a "moocher" who would force the owners to give his wealth out of compassion. It parallels Ronald Reagan's belief that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem". It assumes that there is no worthwhile objective (besides military defense, police, and courts) that requires taxes to pay for it. It assumes that many other businesses are looters and moochers who will manipulate (lobby) government to do their bidding. It assumes government is best kept small so that it can do little damage. It celebrates the individual at the expense of the group.
This belief is held by many other groups in our political discourse. Politically active religious conservatives claim many of the same beliefs, but a close examination reveals a flaw - the true libertarian views religion as a tool to cause people to stop thinking, to cause people to cease to reason, to cause people to fear. In Part III, Chapter VII, the fictional John Galt says that:
- "man's reason IS his moral faculty"
- "... the alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind - that the acceptance of a mystical invention is a wich for the annihilation of existence and, properly, annihilates one's consciousness."
No political reality works perfectly for anyone - the reality is that we must all pick and choose what we believe and ally ourselves politically as the situation requires.
