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Why Are So Many Libertarians Republicans?

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Filed: Country: Philippines
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Libertarians’ views on social policy and national defense make them sympathetic to the Democrats, while their views on economic policy tend to align them with the Republicans. If one views social, defense and economic policy as having roughly equal weight, it would seem, therefore, that most libertarians should be Democrats. In fact, almost none are. Those that don’t belong to the dysfunctional Libertarian Party are, by and large, Republicans.

The reason for this is that most self-described libertarians are primarily motivated by economics. In particular, they don’t like paying taxes. They also tend to have an obsession with gold and a distrust of paper money. As a philosophy, their libertarianism doesn’t extent much beyond not wanting to pay taxes, being paid in gold and being able to keep all the guns they want. Many are survivalists at heart and would be perfectly content to live in complete isolation on a mountain somewhere, neither taking anything from society nor giving anything.

An example of this type of libertarian thinking can be found on the Web site of a group called
. It pays lip service to the libertarian philosophy on foreign and social policy, but says little about them. The discussion of economic policy, however, is much greater. But its only major proposal is abolition of the income tax. No ideas on how government spending would be cut to make this possible are put forward except to eliminate the congressional pay raise. Perhaps this group really believes that will be enough to abolish the income tax, but I suspect not.

how_libertarians_vote.png

Bartlett points out that the libertarians you meet in Washington, D.C., aren’t goldbugs or survivalists, but they still seem focused on economics above all else.
that it comes down to who pays the bills:

But if the country’s libertarianism is a reaction to taxes, D.C.’s libertarianism is a response to subsidies. And it turns out there are rather a lot of folks interested in subsidizing libertarian arguments against regulation and progressive taxation and not a lot of folks interested in subsidizing libertarian arguments against abortion restrictions. And that’s because libertarianism in D.C. is more of a tool than a movement. It can’t command votes and so can’t wield broad power. But it can summon funds to apply direct pressure to discrete issues of interest to, well, funders.

and
both argue that Bartlett unfairly ignores those libertarians who do, in fact, argue quite a lot about foreign policy and civil liberties — although Long concedes that the Libertarian Party has pretty much the focus Bartlett describes. I also think that Bartlett’s case about CATO is fair. Since CATO and the Libertarian Party are hardly small and irrelevant parts of American libertarianism, I don’t think it’s true that Bartlett’s argument is, as Rad Geek says, a “ridiculous strawman.” But it’s true that there are some kick-#### libertarians (like Rad Geek and Long) who aren’t all about how paying taxes is just! like! being! mugged!, and those folks deserve more notice and acknowledgment.

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Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Isle of Man
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Libertarians' views on social policy and national defense make them sympathetic to the Democrats,

I disagree. Libertarians' views on social policy makes them Republicans.

On the issues that don't matter they are democrats: gay marriage, abortions

On the issues that do matter they are Republicans: no government housing aid, no food stamps, no national health care, no welfare, etc.. They are deeply against the government helping the poorest of citizens.

India, gun buyback and steamroll.

qVVjt.jpg?3qVHRo.jpg?1

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Country: Vietnam
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I disagree. Libertarians' views on social policy makes them Republicans.

On the issues that don't matter they are democrats: gay marriage, abortions

On the issues that do matter they are Republicans: no government housing aid, no food stamps, no national health care, no welfare, etc.. They are deeply against the government helping the poorest of citizens.

They are against the Federal government doing so but have no problem at the state or local level.

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Ukraine
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We are Libertarians, there are no Libertarian Republicans. :wacko: I vote for Libertarians, including President, most of the time (Reagan was the last Republican I voted for) I voted for Leahy and Sanders and he is a a stated Socialist!

However Leahy is an extremely powerful Senator. He has brought thousands of jobs to our state with his influence. Vermont has influence completely out of proportion with its "small city size" population. The population of the state is 600,000 probably less than the city you live in and how many jobs has YOUR Senator delivered for your city? You guys send your I-129fs to Vermont BECAUSE of Leahy and they employ more than 400 people here. Not to mention all the DHS offices here that could just as easily be in New York or New Hampshire but are HERE. Front line aircraft for the Green Mountian Boys, not rattling old Viet Nam jets like most state air guards, state of the art airport. The list goes on, not to mention millions in grants he gets for UVM, Champlain College etc and a huge medical facility which we would otherwise have to drive to Boston to get.

I do not agree with Leahy on gun control, for example, yet he was our Attorney General for many years and made no attempt to push for a change in our very liberal (non existent) gun laws, so it is not a major issue for him, nor even a major national issue at all any more...he gets my vote.

Your article is not even a good generalization other than to say our views on social issues are often similar to Democrats. Why would they not be?

VERMONT! I Reject Your Reality...and Substitute My Own!

Gary And Alla

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Filed: Other Country: Canada
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We are Libertarians, there are no Libertarian Republicans. :wacko: I vote for Libertarians, including President, most of the time (Reagan was the last Republican I voted for) I voted for Leahy and Sanders and he is a a stated Socialist!

So the conclussion we can draw is that you in fact support socialism. Why else vote for a socialist?

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Ukraine
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I disagree. Libertarians' views on social policy makes them Republicans.

On the issues that don't matter they are democrats: gay marriage, abortions

On the issues that do matter they are Republicans: no government housing aid, no food stamps, no national health care, no welfare, etc.. They are deeply against the government helping the poorest of citizens.

I am a Libertarian and you are wrong.

I am not against ANY of those things (except FEDERAL health care) I favor requirements for welfare which would lead to the elimination of the need for welfare.

You want welfare? You need help? OK. We will help. We will give you food stamps, we will give you housing assistance, we will give you WIC, SSI, #######-ever! BUT, YOU will go to school, YOU will get an education and YOU will get a job or you will NOT get "help". "Helping" does not mean making people lifelong dependents.

I favor state health care. We have done it here in our state, why haven't you?

VERMONT! I Reject Your Reality...and Substitute My Own!

Gary And Alla

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Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Isle of Man
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They are against the Federal government doing so but have no problem at the state or local level.

A true libertarian believes that universal health care is slavery rofl.gif

Do you think getting 45 million uninsured Americans is similar to slavery?

India, gun buyback and steamroll.

qVVjt.jpg?3qVHRo.jpg?1

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Ukraine
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So the conclussion we can draw is that you in fact support socialism. Why else vote for a socialist?

You are free to draw whatever conclusions you like.

VERMONT! I Reject Your Reality...and Substitute My Own!

Gary And Alla

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Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Isle of Man
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You want welfare? You need help? OK. We will help. We will give you food stamps, we will give you housing assistance, we will give you WIC, SSI, #######-ever! BUT, YOU will go to school, YOU will get an education and YOU will get a job or you will NOT get "help". "Helping" does not mean making people lifelong dependents.

Sounds like you want to turn welfare recipients into slaves!

India, gun buyback and steamroll.

qVVjt.jpg?3qVHRo.jpg?1

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Ukraine
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A true libertarian believes that universal health care is slavery rofl.gif

Do you think getting 45 million uninsured Americans is similar to slavery?

Universal Health Care indicates Federal Health Care, and you are correct. Why has your state not provided for health care yet?

VERMONT! I Reject Your Reality...and Substitute My Own!

Gary And Alla

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Ireland
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**** several posts removed. Discuss the topic of the OP, not other VJers. This is the second time in 24 hours that I have had to give this warning. Suspensions will follow. *****

Bye: Penguin

Me: Irish/ Swiss citizen, and now naturalised US citizen. Husband: USC; twin babies born Feb 08 in Ireland and a daughter in Feb 2010 in Arkansas who are all joint Irish/ USC. Did DCF (IR1) in 6 weeks via the Dublin, Ireland embassy and now living in Arkansas.

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Ukraine
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Sounds like you want to turn welfare recipients into slaves!

No, I want to turn them into independent citizens with educations, jobs, homes of their own. <GASP!>

Don't you?

VERMONT! I Reject Your Reality...and Substitute My Own!

Gary And Alla

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No, I want to turn them into independent citizens with educations, jobs, homes of their own. <GASP!>

But if you do that they'll stop voting democrat.

Русский форум член.

Ensure your beneficiary makes and brings with them to the States a copy of the DS-3025 (vaccination form)

If the government is going to force me to exercise my "right" to health care, then they better start requiring people to exercise their Right to Bear Arms. - "Where's my public option rifle?"

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