Libertarian

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Description

You like your government very, very small—or none at all. You are a real libertarian. Want to run for Congress? State legislature? You might want to join the Libertarian Party and they'll put you on the ballot. Put in some effort and you could be state chair in a couple of years. Whether this effort is worthwhile is debatable. Back when I was a party member I wrote these Essays on World Liberation in the hope of turning the LP into a real political party. Though I have mellowed out since those days, and focus on higher-probability strategies, I still find I cannot resist the temptation to write on libertarian strategy, but be forewarned: some of the lessons I have learned are rather hard.

Actually, now is a great time to be an active libertarian. Ron Paul is running a truly visible campaign this year, and there is a small chance of him winning -- if you and other can recruit enough anti-war people into the Republican Party to vote in the primaries. Or, on the off chance you want someone a bit less dogmatic with more executive experience in the Oval Office, have a look at Gary Johnson. If he gets enough support this time around, he might run again in 2016 with are more significant chance of winning.

Approximately 9% of the takers of this quiz scored in this area, 31% for all libertarians outside the centrist circle.

Political Parties and Related Organizations

Libertarian Sites

Individual Liberty, Limited Government, Free Markets, and Peace. Good research site.

A Subterranean Perspective

A new libertarian-themed news source aimed at a younger audience.

Political Strategy

The Leadership Institute. Provides quality training in "political technology" for conservatives and libertarians.

Essays on World Liberation. Once upon a time, I was a hardcore activist in the Libertarian Party, going so far to sit on the National Committee and be on the Strategic Planning Team (SPT). These essays are an outgrowth of said experiences and my experiments in the field. Since then, I have concluded that the Libertarian Party is not the optimical vehicle for liberty; it is too radical to win many elections. Furthermore, I have mellowed over time and have become more sensitive to issues other than liberty and the size of government. So I am no longer an LP member, but if you are (or become one) some of these essays may prove useful.

Take Back Your Government, by Robert A. Heinlein. A handbook for grassroots political activism from the days before professional consultants and television. Dated, but still useful.

Dedication and Leadership by Douglass Hyde. An inside look at how the Communist movement was so successful in advancing its radical agenda. Many of the ideas are apropos for building up the political movements in general. Must reading for anyone doing third party politics.

The Hard Questions

Many members of the axiomatic school of libertarianism often overlook certain hard questions/edge conditions, and thereby lose debates. Here are some readings (including a couple by an anarchist) that should prove helpful.

The Machinery of Freedom, by David Friedman. This book looks at the economics of government itself. What are the incentives of those who govern? To what degree are they motivated to promote the general welfare?
The answer: not very much. For this reason Dr. Friedman is an anarchist. But you don't have to be in order to benefit from this book. Indeed, knowing the inherent difficulties in making government behave is more important for those who like government big than for those who like it small.

Law's Order, by David Friedman. OK, so you believe in property rights, right? So where does your property begin and mine end? Do I have the right to turn on the lights or do the photons that hit your property constitute tresspass? What if those photons come from a high powered laser?
OK, that was an extreme example, but there are many real world examples where the simplistic view of property rights fails. Dr. Friedman gives them a hard look. People will take your ideas more seriously if you do too.

Simple Rules for a Complex World, by Richard Epstein. It would be nice to simply say that private property is good and that initiation of force is bad and build a legal system based on this dictum. Alas, the real world is not so simple. Legal scholar Richard Epstein points out the holes and suggests additional axioms to make a complete legal system for a free society.

Fuzzy Thinking, by Bart Kosko. Fuzzy Logic is one of the biggest advancements in philosophy to come around in a long time. It deals with the imperfect mapping between words and reality. Must reading for the philosophically inclined, especially followers of Ayn Rand or Murray Rothbard.

A Perfect Mess by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman. Does your office have a clean desk policy? Does it try to document all processes in the name of efficiency? Are planners trying to remake your home city? Do you think that the laws should be based upon a clean axiomatic framework? This book provides a powerful antidote to such thinking. Reality is multi-dimensional, and the results can be...messy.

Freedom, equality, morality, nature,...these are all good things. All to often, political debate rages over which is more important. Synergies get overlooked. There is a better way, holistic politics. By looking at multiple values at the same time, it is possible to come up with creative solutions for the world's problems, solutions that make all the factions more happy.

Would you like to fire a hundred thousand bureaucrats? Would you like to restore federalism and bring most domestic government back down to the state level? Then replace the federal welfare state with free money for all U.S. citizens.

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