When Libertarians Come Down from the Fence

For Ushanka's three loyal readers, this is just another therapeutic post to share my frustration with Libertarians.

For those who haven't enjoyed my unhinged rants, just click the label down below, "Libertarians," to see my previous remarks.  You'll learn why I show more respect to Liberals Progressives Communists.

I want to take you through some items in a recent article: Why I fled libertarianism — and became a liberal, by Edwin Lyngar.

This article is a candid look from the inside of the Ron Paul/Libertarian movement, albeit from a liberal's point of view.  He and I share many frustrations and opinions about the movement.  But I'll also show below where the "Liberal" in Edwin Lyngar steers him the wrong way.  In short, the failure of Libertarianism - moral nihilism - was what pulled Lyngar into the Democrat Party.  Not to fault him, his values predetermined his move to the Democrats much like a chronic smoker sets himself up for major health issues later in life.  No doubt that the author and I would agree, in hindsight, his move to the Democrat Party was inevitable.

From his time in the Libertarian movement - Nevada 2008:

Many members of the group were obsessed with the gold standard, the Kennedy assassination and the Fed. 

We're fully on-board with the motivations behind a gold standard and "ending the fed."  We regret that in our chats with Libertarians we haven't heard the Kennedy stuff.  Two shooters?  The CIA?  Has anyone asked where Ron Paul was on November 22, 1963?  He's from Texas, you know....

...most of our supporters were totally fucking nuts.

This is the author being honest.  Read how he and the others were told to present themselves in public!

After leaving my small town upbringing, I learned that libertarians are made for lots of reasons, like reading the bad fiction of Ayn Rand...

 Bite your tongue. "Atlas Shrugged" is our favorite book. It is the only fiction book that has morphed into non-fiction (except Part III).  It is about character, passion in business, and resolve.  Did he really read it, or "The Fountainhead?"  CLICK HERE to see what Ayn Rand thought of Libertarians.

In the movement no one will ever call you an asshole, but rather, say you believe in radical individualism.

Who can be against "radical individualism?" This is the biggest hook Libertarians use to pull people into their 'third way' fold.  A little critical thought here by new Libertarians would force them to follow the Libertarian policies to their logical conclusions, including: starving old people in the streets, acts of war that go unanswered, and legal prostitutes consuming legal narcotics on their way to the abortion clinic for a late-term abortion.  They'll tell you that is what the founders wanted.

Yet I don’t want to gloss over the good things about libertarians. They are generally supportive of the gay community, completely behind marijuana legalization and are often against ill-considered foreign wars...

 Here is where the author's rejection of family and religious values - moral nihilism - takes hold.  Here is where he shows his hand - a true Liberal Progressive Communist who dabbled in Libertarian third-wayism.

Moral Nihilism is a core Ushanka topic.  The Liberals Progressives Communists CANNOT succeed if they are unable to dilute religious and family values.  One MUST be morally flexible to vote for, and allow, death panels, forcing Catholic organizations to pay for abortions, reparations, redistribution, etc. 

Our opinions may be direct here, but we're not judging here.  We believe people naturally fall into two camps and that the Libertarian movement is an aboration that exists to capture confused liberals and conservatives who want to be big fish in a little sea.  Like we alluded to above, the conservative-minded Libertarian would have listed the gold standard and "end the fed" as the "good things about libertarians." 

Their [Libertarians'] 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.

I'm getting tired of people telling me 1) how smart they are, 2) how their way is better, and 3) that they failed because of "X".  How many tiimes have we heard losing Democrats say on election night,  "we didn't get our message out."  Granted, we don't hear that as much as we did in the past decade...

I'd agree that the Republicans' organization is attractive, but I'd argue there are two reasons Libertarians ride the Republican wave: 1) Ron Paul, and 2) most are closet conservatives.

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.

Does that sound like an open-minded patriot determined to restore the Republic?

As someone who has attended every Tea Party since Cincinnati led the movement on March 15, 2009, I'll remind the author that the Tea Party stood for three things: 1) Limited Government, 2) Strong Defense, and 3) Reduced Spending.

He says his Tea Party exposure led to him hearing the N word "more than I care to admit."  I never heard it, but won't argue.  I would suggest the author adopt a more inclusive opinion and not paint a massive group of patriots with the rantings of a few.

My libertarian friends might call me a fucking commie (they have) or a pussy, but extreme selfishness is just so isolating and cruel.

We are offended by the author's use of the "C" word and the "P" word here.  It appears he looks at skin color as the sole determining factor in deciding to use the full word, or just the first letter.  I learned in public school that doing so is racist.

Libertarianism is unnatural...

 Agree.  Pick a side and defend your positions.

...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?

Disagree.

A month before the 2012 election, I changed my party affiliation to Democrat. I am a very late bloomer, that it took me so many decades to develop my own values. I was thirty-nine.

Thank you Edwin Lyngar for the double insurance premiums, stagnant economy, laughable foreign policy, and overall low standards.

The sad thing: when Edwin stepped down, another poor sap stepped up.  We bitterly cling to the historic trend that shows the Libertarian movement will continue to top-out at 2% of the electorate.