We have grown up in a country divided by two loosely defined parties. While some Americans can demonstrate their loyalty to their respective partisan core beliefs, any American government class will show you partisan inconsistency throughout our nation’s history.
Due to these inconsistencies, the line between the Democrats and the GOP is fuzzy in areas. The end result has pushed American politics to two extremes: Either each side is vehemently attacking the other, or taking turns in the stagnating incumbent circle jerk.
Like South Park, I tend to see most of the mainstream political debates as typical contests between giant douches and turd sandwiches. It doesn’t matter who wins, I don’t want either one of them.
Nevertheless, one of those candidates will win every time. But we shouldn’t assume that will always be the case.
As of late, many third parties are enjoying a rare increase in media coverage. My affiliated organization, the Libertarian Party, has had perhaps the largest increase in popularity. Although some of this stems from unfortunate comparisons with the “Tea Party” faction, the Libertarian Party was growing strong before the election of President Obama.
Despite this increased exposure, the usual attitude toward non-major parties is still preventing the election of many libertarian candidates. While many continue the struggle against negative third party sentiments, some have given in to the system.
The outspoken father and son duo of Ron and Rand Paul is the most popular of many third party candidates to run under major parties. Although not the first, they have both successfully used the GOP flag to disguise their fresh ideas. This tactic has been tricking the American people into doing the egregious: voting for candidates (within the major party system) based on the issues.
Despite the momentum libertarians are gaining, few people actually know what it means to be a libertarian. In my experience, it is common to find a few people who have looked it up on Wikipedia, but they still dismiss minor points without understanding the whole concept. Some of my ideas will look crazy in the wrong context, so I feel obligated to share my perspective of libertarianism.
Appropriately, libertarianism is the support for personal liberty. There is some debate among libertarians over the extent to which this applies and therefore there are divisions within libertarianism.
I personally believe we should have the freedom to do whatever we want as long as we don’t inhibit the liberty of others. This means we would have the freedom to buy or sell whatever we want, marry whomever we want, and do whatever we want on our own property. This also implies the legalization of victimless crimes, such as most traffic tickets, drug usage, gambling and prostitution.
Sex, drugs and rock n’ roll are great, but the most important aspect of libertarianism is limiting the power of government and increasing the potential of more efficient private sector equivalents.
On a political spectrum, I would be at the very corner of complete economic and personal freedom. I’ll save you from my platform speech, but this approach to politics is strongly rooted in economics and some psychology.
In combination with personal liberty, I believe the law of demand and the support of a free market is the only way to improve everyone’s standard of living. While you may not agree with me, I hope some of you will learn more about libertarianism. Who knows, maybe I’ll convert somebody? It sure smells better than being a turd sandwich.