I consider myself a small-L libertarian. My short list right now consists of Paul, Obama and Romney. I'm not thrilled about any of them. I might find myself voting for Obama because I am afraid of the fringe aspects of the far right gaining any more power or sense of "mandate."

Lone Libertarian, not interested in discussing how to define "libertarian"?

Anonymous wrote:And, FWIW, I love debating with people who don't agree with me - no great idea came from people agreeing with each other.

A great question we could discuss is how to decide what "counts" as libertarian. Progressives have a similar problem.

A few obvious options:

1) The core basic beliefs of those who call themselves libertarian, as taken by a majority poll. We can't do the poll but it would move the definition closer to my side (the OP).
2) The core beliefs as chosen by the purists who think others are unnecessarily compromising their principals. This would come out closer to you, I assume.


Then there is the related question of what to call and how to treat those who think of themselves as somewhat libertarian, moderate libertarians, regular libertarians (but whom you reject and MWAUN calls glibertarains), etc. I'd like to make a plea for not excluding those people but it will have to wait.

And, FWIW, I love debating with people who don't agree with me - no great idea came from people agreeing with each other.

Anonymous wrote:There are many people who are libertarian leaning. I wouldn't call them glibertarians just because they aren't the anarcho-capitalists they were in high school and now have higher priorities than privatizing roads.

OP here.

I'm surprised the first responder doesn't think there are many libs here in DC. There are many in the legal community.

True libertarians? I think there are many people with libertarian ideals, but don't truely believe that you have the ability to let people follow their own ideals in their own way. True libertarians defend the right of the individual over all. Most people defend the right of the collective over all. Most lawyers I've met fight the rights of "big business" not the individual.

If you follow wikipedia of media version of libertarianism, that's great, it's a step in the right direction - read the party platform http://www.lp.org/platform we'd love to have you! I've lived here 20 years and I've only one met one other libertarian that I did not meet at a party meeting.

Oh, I've met people who "called" themselves libertarians but when you ask them if they believe for example that the government should stop ALL welfare programs. They back away. If you ask if they believe that there should be no social security, they suddenly call themselves "independants." When you ask if the government should completely be kept out of schools...

You get the point.

The federal government has been taking your rights for a long time. Yesterday was a big event for the LP and something that we libertarians celebrate. It's sad that it gets no coverage at all.

Again, I understand what type of discourse you were trying to start and that makes me even more sad for you as a "so called libertarian"

There are many people who are libertarian leaning. I wouldn't call them glibertarians just because they aren't the anarcho-capitalists they were in high school and now have higher priorities than privatizing roads.

OP here.

I'm surprised the first responder doesn't think there are many libs here in DC. There are many in the legal community.

Anonymous wrote:

TheManWithAUsername wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MWAUN, you are so far from lib. I can't even imagine what you will bring to this thread but I can assure you that non-Party libertarians do not find this question to be fluff.

I brought a point that you have failed to address. You didn't say anything to the other posters' points either.

Yeah, because you're discussing issues other than the questions I asked and being rude jerks in the process. You two discuss amongst yourselves and I'll start a new thread another day for anyone who is interested in my questions.

This has served one useful purpose for me. It suggests there are few libertarians on here.

In my experience there are many, many "glibertarians", but very, very few "libertarians". It's like Nietzsche said about Christians: "There was only one, and he died on the Cross."

Anonymous wrote:

TheManWithAUsername wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MWAUN is the worst poster on this board, by far.

You don't realize what a ridiculous statement that is about an almost entirely anonymous board?

Anonymous wrote:No, there's panty sniffer.

Maybe I'll make that my motto: "Marginally better than the panty sniffer." It'll be like the Democrats.

Sorry dude, I didn't mean that to be an underwhelming endorsement.

I just hate his debating style and use of quotes. Hate the obsession with Fox News. Just annoying. Personally, I don't even watch tv news and get MY conservative propaganda from the national review and american spectator and weekly standard .... maybe WSJ.

TheManWithAUsername wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MWAUN is the worst poster on this board, by far.

You don't realize what a ridiculous statement that is about an almost entirely anonymous board?

Anonymous wrote:No, there's panty sniffer.

Maybe I'll make that my motto: "Marginally better than the panty sniffer." It'll be like the Democrats.

Sorry dude, I didn't mean that to be an underwhelming endorsement.