Libertarianism

2007-03-18T06:26:15Z

Paleo:

'''Libertarianism''' is a political philosophy emphasizing ''liberty'' and ''property''. A libertarian believes in minimizing or entirely eliminating government interventionism in all aspects of life; including economic, personal and in foreign policy matters.

Libertarians support an expansive view of liberty as the proper basis for organizing civil society. They tend to define liberty as the freedom to do whatever one wishes up to the point that one's behavior begins to interfere with another's person or property through coercive means. At the point of interference, each party would become subject to certain principled rules for adjudicating disputes, generally accepting that one who has demonstrated a proven lack of respect for the rights of others should be subject to sanctions, including possible constraints on their freedom. They believe that liberty is the right of every individual.

Libertarians generally defend the ideal of freedom from the perspective of how little one is constrained by authority, i.e., how much one is allowed to do (also referred to as negative liberty). This ideal is distinguished from a view of freedom focused on how much one is able to do (also called positive liberty).

There are more libertarians than members of the [[Libertarian Party]]. Libertarians tend to use the word "libertarian" (small "l") to refer to the philosophy, and "Libertarian" (capital "L") to refer to the party. Two general factions exist in the libertarian movement. The first are those libertarians who apply the principles of right to person and property to an absolute. They believe that no person, group, or government is above the right to violate these two things. They thus believe that government itself is illegitimate because it violates person and property. These libertarians subscribe to [[anarcho-capitalism]], as first named by [[Murray N. Rothbard]]. They believe that law and security can be handled by private means in the free market. The other faction believes in a very limited government. They are often referred to as [[minarchists]]. Libertarian minarchists want the state to only enforce law and order but generally nothing else.

Libertarianism is not the same as conservatism, although some conservatives have adopted libertarian financial rhetoric. Libertarians tend to view liberalism as a philosophy advocating less government interference in private morality and more government control of business, and view conservatism as a philosophy advocating more government interference in private morality and less government control of business, while they view libertarianism as advocating less government control in all areas. However, there have been fusionist attempts to mix libertarianism and with social conservatism. This is noted in particular by [[paleolibertarians]]. They believe that social conservatism is a natural entity in a free society, but do not believe that it can be enforced by state interventionism.

Neither the [[Democrat]] or the [[Republican]] [[parties]] are particularly well aligned with libertarian thought. While the Republican Party sometimes adopts libertarian-sounding rhetoric of small government in economic affairs, many libertarians see it as being a force that has increased government interventionism in these affairs. Libertarians generally, for example, are opposed to the [[USA PATRIOT Act]], which they believe increases government power and removes protections on the liberty and privacy of the public. Most conservatives, on the other hand, view it as a necessary government program and believe security to be more important than personal liberty and privacy. They are generally also opposed to the [[Iraq War]], unlike the vast majority of conservatives.

While all libertarians agree in general on the principles of the desirability of maximizing individual liberty and avoiding excessive government interference with the operation of the free market, individual libertarians have opinions that differ wildly within these general principles.

The libertarian movement generally gives praise on the [[United States Constitution]], regarding it as the proper scope of the national government. They believe that the Democrat and Republican parties have overstep the limits that are in placed in the constitution. Anarcho-capitalist libertarians, on the other hand, view the implementation of the constitution as the very means in which the national government is the size it is today.

== Notable Libertarians ==

The novelist [[Ayn Rand]] advocated a philosophy of ''Objectivism'', embodying some libertarian thought, although differing from libertarianism in many ways. Some of her novels, such as ''Atlas Shrugged'', have become icons of the libertarian movement.

[[Murray N. Rothbard]] was nicknamed “Mr. Libertarian.” He brought life to the anarcho-capitalist movement. Rothbard was a economist of the [[Austrian School]].

[[Robert A. Heinlein]], Science fiction author.

[[Penn & Teller]], stage magicians turned libertarian evangelicals preaching atheism and promoting irresponsible behavior such as prostitution and drug abuse in their Showtime series, which sports a name that cannot for reasons of good taste be expressed here.

[[Category:Politics]]

Paleoconservative

2007-03-12T04:36:26Z

Paleo:

'''Paleoconservative''' is a "ideological" term that describes a academic or scholarly [[conservative]] who emphasizes religious heritage, national identity and sovereignty, opposition to illegal immigration, criticism of entitlement programs, the importance of demographics, and a anti-interventionist policy of [[Robert Taft]].

Unlike most conservatives today, paleoconservatives are against the [[Iraq War]]. They are highly critical of the [[George W. Bush|Bush administration]] and the mainstream conservative movement. Paleoconservatism vocally distinguishes itself in its opposition to [[neoconservative|neoconservatism]].

[[Paul Gottfried]] was the first to use the term "paleoconservative." He writes in his entry to ''American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia'' (p 651):

<blockquote>''Paleoconservative'' becomes a conceptual and political counterpoint to ''neoconservative'' in ''The Conservative Movement'' by Thomas Fleming and Paul Gottfried (1988). Here the term no longer refers merely to conservative traditionalists of the 1950s and 1960s, e.g., Souther Agrarians, Catholic anticommunists associated with ''National Review'', and Taft Republicans who rallied to the Cold War. Instead, the term is now applied to embattled conservatives who opposed the growing influence of anticommunist New Deal Democrats on the Reagan presidency and on the conservative movement on the 1980s.</blockquote>

The leading publications of the paleoconservatives includes ''[[The American Conservative]]'' and ''[[Chronicles]]'' magazine.

Perhaps the most well know paleoconservative is [[Patrick J. Buchanan]]. Other paleoconservatives include [[Peter Brimelow]], [[Thomas Fleming]], the late [[Samuel Francis]], [[William S. Lind]], [[Scott McConnell]], [[Charley Reese]], [[Paul Craig Roberts]], [[Steve Sailer]], and [[Clyde Wilson]]. The term has also been applied to the three key intellectuals in post-war conservatism: [[Russell Kirk]], [[Richard Weaver]], and [[Robert Nisbet]].

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Libertarianism

Paleoconservative