My commentary on Alternet's/Salon's "Why I fled libertarianism - and became a liberal"

I have recently read a Salon article that made a jab at libertarianism. A while ago, I did commentary on "11 questions to see if libertarians are hypocrites," and now I will do the same thing with "Why I fled libertarianism - and became a liberal."

I saw several Facebook pages and some of my online friends share this article. When I finally got around to reading it (took me a while to find it again on my news feed...and I had forgotten every page and every friend that had posted it), it turns out it was not as anti-libertarian and pro-Obama as a bunch of people were making it out to be.

Let's take a look at it...

The author of this article was a follower (hinting to be a delegate) of Ron Paul. He had to say this about the delegates:

Many members of the group were obsessed with the gold standard, the Kennedy assassination and the Fed. Although Libertarians believe government is incompetent, many of them subscribe to the most fringe conspiracy theories imaginable. Airplanes are poisoning America with chemicals (chemtrails) or the moon landings were faked. Nothing was too far out. A great many of them really think that 9-11 was an inside job. Even while basking in the electoral mainstream, the movement was overflowing with obvious hokum.

I think most libertarians can relate to this...especially online.

“Dress normal,” she [the Ron Paul staffer] said. “Wear suits, and don’t bring signs or flags. Don’t talk about conspiracy theories. Just fit in.” Her advice was the kind you might hear given to an insane uncle at Thanksgiving.

Thanks to this I realized that if I am going to get more involved with the Libertarian Party (or just libertarians in general), then I just might have to act like a parent of a bunch of socially-inept kids.

“Bring in the clowns,” she said, and smiled before I lost her in the mass of people.

I will never forget that moment: Bring in the clowns. At the time, I considered myself a thoughtful person, yet I could hardly claim to be one if you judged me by the company I kept. The young lady knew something I had not yet learned: most of our supporters were totally fucking nuts.

I am hoping by the time I am placed in a big leadership role amongst my fellow Libertarians that they, the nuts, will have (mostly) ceased to exist.

I came by my own libertarian sensibilities honestly. I grew up in a mining town that produced gold, silver and copper; but above all, Battle Mountain, Nev. made libertarians. Raised on 40-acre square of brown sage brush and dead earth, we burned our own garbage and fired guns in the back yard.

Like every libertarian ever.

I learned that libertarians are made for lots of reasons, like reading the bad fiction of Ayn Rand...

I will admit - I lol'd at this part.

In my experience, most seemed to be poor, white and undereducated.

Of course he admits that this is in his own experience, but this article says that libertarians are better-educated, younger, and wealthier than the average person. In my experience, most libertarians I have known are well-educated, either early-to-mid twenties or over fifty, and a mix of male/female and ethnicities (it is hard to say because there is not a label on everyone's forehead telling of their political ideology, but it does seem that most libertarians are white).

If you think that selfishness and cruelty are fantastic personal traits, you might be a libertarian. In the movement no one will ever call you an asshole, but rather, say you believe in radical individualism.

Maybe there can be a case made for how and why selfishness can be made so that it helps out the rest of society, but I am not so sure about cruelty. I really do not like how he makes absolutes - "in the movement no one will ever call you an asshole"- bite my ass. Whether or not it is the popular opinion of other libertarians or not, I will call them out if their views show them off to be a jerk or just plain naive.

[Libertarians] are generally supportive of the gay community, completely behind marijuana legalization and are often against ill-considered foreign wars...

I have seen a lot of nonlibertarians comment on how libertarians are great vocal supporters over issues like these. If only they stuck to rational topics like these and stayed away from chemtrails...

Their saving grace is a complete lack of organizational ability, which is why they are always trying to take over the Republican Party, rather than create a party of their own.

Uhh...Libertarian Party?? Although, that is not saying much, to be completely honest. People who have worked for the Libertarian Party have told me some things on how they lack good structure. I say just give it time - not to mention good leadership. I will get to this later, but I feel that it is a good idea for libertarians to infiltrate the Republicans, as well as the Democrats. 

The Ron Paul delegates were able to take over the Nevada convention in 2008, howling, screeching and grinding it to a painful halt. I was part of the mob, and once we took over, we were unable to get anything done.

This is why you need to think plans through. 

Don't be a Zuko.

Or a Sokka...

Libertarians were (rightly) furious when our government bailed out the banks, but they fought hardest against help for ordinary Americans. They hated unemployment insurance and reduced school lunches. I used to say similar things, but in such a catastrophic recession isn’t the government supposed to help? Isn’t that the lesson of the Great Depression?

You would think that a former libertarian would have doubts on whether or not the government actually helped lift the country up from that. I do agree with the author that libertarians fighting hard (and especially -er) against unemployment insurance and reduced school lunches is a bit ridiculous, especially when they could be focusing their energy on the bigger problem - corporate welfare.

Although I didn’t vote for him, I wept when Barack Obama took the oath of office in early 2009. They were tears of bewilderment, joy, pride and hope, despite the fact that I did everything within my own limited power to keep the moment from ever happening.

Um. Okay.

The Tea Party monster forever tainted the words freedom and libertarian for me. The rise of the Tea Party made me want to puke, and my nausea is now a chronic condition. There are a lot of libertarians in the Tea Party, but there are also a lot of repugnant, religious nuts and intolerant racists. “Birthers” found a comfy home among 9-11 conspiracy people and other crackpots. After only a few months, I had absolutely no desire to ever be linked to this group of people.

This was the last straw for him. Ya know, only about 20% of Tea Partiers consider themselves libertarian, or at least according to the article I referenced earlier. I have no idea how this could get someone to turn into a liberal. I think it is good that libertarians work with other groups to spread their ideas. However, I understand disgust at the kind of people he describes in the Tea Party, whether or not he is exaggerating their behavior and/or the amount of people actually like this.

I began to think about real people, like my neighbors and people less lucky than me. Did I want those people to starve to death? I care about children, even poor ones. I love the National Park system. The best parts of the America I love are our communities. My libertarian friends might call me a fucking commie (they have) or a pussy, but extreme selfishness is just so isolating and cruel. Libertarianism is unnatural, and the size of the federal government is almost irrelevant. The real question is: what does society need and how do we pay for it?

This reminds me of someone I knew who decided he was not libertarians anymore. When he told me why...it reminded me of the views I had. Just because you are not 100% libertarian does not mean you are not libertarian at all. I also love the National Park system, although I do believe there might be more viable options in maintaining them. Ya know, not all libertarians advocate for "extreme selfishness" and I bet a lot of us also think it is "isolating and cruel." So you think libertarianism is unnatural? Please share your infinite knowledge of human behavior and society with me. I would also just love to know how the size of the federal government is almost irrelevant. Like how the federal government makes it so that the drinking age is twenty-one across the board, and if any state were to change that, then goodbye to their highways! - definitely irrelevant. Starve to death? Exaggeration much?

I don’t think regular Americans have any idea just how crazy libertarians can be. The only human corollary I can offer is unquestioning religious fervor, and hell yeah, I used to be a true believer. Libertarians think they own the word “freedom,” but it’s a word that often obfuscates more than enlightens. If you believe the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quote “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free,”  then libertarians live in a prison of their own ideology.

I think that first sentence should be, "I don't think regular Americans have any idea just how logical libertarians can be." If I am not mistaken, I am pretty sure that libertarians are already stereotyped to be "evil," "racist," "crazy," "conspiracy theorists," etc. Sure, I think many of the ideas libertarians have are naive, such as the free market can cure everything, but truly listen to a rational libertarian, and you might have to question your beliefs...or refuse to acknowledge any truth in what they say and start calling them names (which is how I believe some stereotypes such as "racist" and "hate the poor" came to be).

I will have to admit, though, that I do agree, to an extent, with the last two sentences of that paragraph.

While going through my Facebook newsfeed trying to find this article again like I mentioned earlier, I found this counter-attack (first).

My favorite line is: "And if you're in the libertarian movement, someone will call you an asshole at some point. Or they will call you a statist."

So much truth.

This author delivers a lethal (yet wonderful) blow:

"I'm going to give our friend the benefit of the doubt and say, sure, okay, you met three libertarians who were most passionately opposed to school lunches. that was their number one issue, closely followed by the horrors of unemployment insurance. But there are a lot of libertarians who would prefer to tackle the bigger issues first: war, prisons, police, the drug war, financial ruin for the country, occupational licensing, zoning laws, lack of school choice, the death penalty, transportation, whatever you like. And you would know that if you spoke to more than three libertarians - that no, most of them wouldn't start cutting the lunches for shoeless Appalachian children program. They'd probably start with trimming the military, the Department of Homeland Security, or that sentimental favorite, the Drug Enforcement Administration."

People have to realize that yes, the majority of libertarians prefer a privatized education system, abolishment of the minimum wage, etc., but that there are more immediate and problematic matters to deal with. Of course there will be some libertarians whose priorities are out of order, but that can go for every human being on this planet.

While she does a pretty decent critique of the Salon article, she demonizes "liberals," an unfortunate trait quite a lot of libertarians take part of.

Another great issue brought up is that the author of the Salon article never truly mentioned why he became a libertarian in the first place...unless you sincerely count burning your own garbage. Even more, he did not provide information, not even a legitimate summary, on how his views changed from being a libertarian into a liberal...unless you count his Canadian "goddamn liberal" of a wife. I really want to know if his furiousness at the tainting of the word "freedom" has anything to do with his conversion. If it does, that is just strange. If it does not, then some of these things mentioned are just random and irrelevant ramblings.

All in all, this piece does bring up a few issues that need to be discussed amongst libertarians. In my opinion, the jerkiness of some ("STATIST!") and those conspiracy theorists have probably done the worst damage. In all truthfulness, lately, I am not sure how I feel towards libertarianism. It looks good on paper - looking at what Adam Smith to Gary Johnson have to say, but then you deal with the real-life libertarians. I sometimes feel like an outcast because I consider myself to be a libertarian. Then I also feel like an outcast with my fellow libertarians because I do believe government intervention is necessary to a degree in a capitalist society, and that causes some of them to freak out at me and attempt to insult my identity and intelligence. If the cocky attitude continues to persist, I might change allegiance to the Democratic Party...and that is saying something since this quiz determined me to be least aligned with them.

If libertarians aren't careful, I just might write a better-articulated sequel.

On an ending note, please stop using "liberal" as if it was a demeaning word.

Salon and Alternet publish so many articles that (unfairly) bash libertarianism, and I plan on responding to all of them. Please ensure me a livable income as I devote thousands of hours to completing this task.