Uniting Both Sides Of The Aisle To Decrease The Size And Power Of The State

[IsaacGage860]

Most are aware of the polarized nature of our political system. I am not writing this essay for that audience, but rather for those young people who are not yet old enough to vote. In this essay, I am going to attempt to break down the false dichotomy between the Democrat and Republican party and show why what most of us want is to just be left the heck alone. I will also attempt to explain why Libertarianism has been so mischaracterized by not just the authoritarian Left, but also the authoritarian Right and why all of us deep down are Libertarians at heart, most are just not conscious of it yet.

 

As you may have figured out by now the constant battle on Capitol Hill with the federal government and in state/local legislatures over who has the authority to infringe on whose rights continues on AD Infinitum. Let’s begin our analysis by looking at the political beliefs of the Right-Wing. In America, Republicans are the party that sits on the right side of the political spectrum. In general, Republicans, who are also called conservatives are fiscally conservative. This means that Republicans want to structure government policy in a way that promotes the highest degree of individual freedom/responsibility which in turn allows the free market to works its wonders. Republicans also tend to be socially conservative. This means that Republicans are all about traditional Christian values. Heterosexual marriage, anti-abortion, a distaste for drug, alcohol and other mind-alerting substance use and are strong critics of criminal behavior that could potentially harm other people.

 

On the other side of the spectrum, you have Democrats who constitute the Left-Wing. Those on the left tend to fiscally liberal. This means that Democrats want to use the power of government benevolently to address social or economic issues. They do this by proposing high taxes on the wealthy 1% of Americans, by borrowing the money from the Federal Reserve in order to shore up annual deficits in the budget and by requiring many, many pages of regulations in order to keep what they see as the negative effects of Capitalism in check. In other words, Democrats want to tax other people's money in order to pay for infrastructure, healthcare, education, etc. etc. Democrats are defined as being socially liberal. This means that Democrats want the government to stay away from people's personal lives. Abortion, women's rights, anti-discrimination laws, Affirmative Action, Same-Sex marriage, and decriminalized substance use are policies that Democrats campaign for.

 

In the middle of all of this conflict between opposing ideologies are your friendly neighborhood Libertarians. According to the Libertarian Party Platform for 2016, Libertarianism is defined as the belief that: 
"Individuals should be free to make choices for themselves and must accept responsibility for the consequences of the choices they make. Our support of an individual’s right to make choices in life does not mean that we necessarily approve or disapprove of those choices. No individual, group, or government may initiate force against any other individual, group, or government." In other words, Libertarians adhere to and practice the NAP (non-aggression principle) and are interested in more people adopting a model for human behavior coined by the philosopher Stefan Molyneux called "Universally Preferable Behavior" or UPB for short.

 

The NAP states that it is immoral to initiate the use of force against others. Take note of the key terminology used here, specifically the word initiate. What this means is that no group in society should be granted the authority to use coercion or force to try and foist their own personal moral/ethical code upon others with the power of the State. Laws are nothing more than opinions written on a piece of paper and enforced with disproportionate violence. This is evident with the War on Drugs, The War On Terror, The War On Poverty, and every other government programs/initiatives that are marketed as "temporary" but that end up continuing indefinitely. This is not a phenomenon exclusive to the Left, the Right is just as guilty of this.

 

Universally Preferable Behavior, the model for human interactions articulated by Stefan Molyneux, is a complement to the NAP. To cut a long story short, UPB states that if we as humans are going to have a moral/ethical system that we expect everyone in society to adhere to, we cannot simply create arbitrary exceptions and categories of people, such as government, who are exempt from the standard. This introduces an unresolvable contradiction in principles that is not assuaged by saying that it is a "necessary" evil or the cost of living in a civilized society. As I have argued before, there is nothing more uncivilized than using coercion, manipulation, and propaganda to appease one’s personal moral sensibilities.

 

So where does this leave us in terms of uniting the two sides of the aisle and why are we all really Libertarians? As I hopefully articulated above, both the Right and the Left have merits to their political beliefs. However, at the same time, both are hypocritical for wanting to use force in one context while vehemently opposing force being used in another. When all is said and done, what most of us want is to NOT have somebody else's will unjustly imposed on our lifestyles and how we spend our limited time on this planet. For this reason, I am a Libertarian and will never apologize for it. For me personally, it is tragic how misrepresented and mischaracterized Libertarians are in the usual political discourse. On the Right, we are called Lolbertarians and Cucks who have acquiesced to the establishment. On the Left, we are called Far Right extremists and radicals who want nothing more than to usurp the wonderfully benevolent government. Both of these interpretations are patently, categorically false and do nothing to gain the sympathy of Libertarians. I speak for myself when I say this is why I may come off as condescending, hyperbolic, and satirical. If you are labelled with pathetic unsubstantiated pejoratives enough times, you begin to get sick of it. The election of Donald Trump is obvious evidence of this fact. Libertarians are humans with emotions and feelings too.

 

So my fellow brothers and sisters in humanity, can we for once just stop with the relentless AD homenim, straw man arguments, non sequiturs and in general non empathetic animus against each other and just try freedom for a change? As Martin Luther King Jr. put it: "I have a dream that one day my children may be judged not by the color of their skin but on the content of their character." I believe this quote can also be extended to include religion, sexual orientation, and any other characteristic we choose to identify ourselves with. None of it matters when looking at the merits of ideas. To conclude with another quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to feedback in the comments below.