Voting Libertarian is a Fool's Errand

Posted by rbroberg 7 years, 5 months ago to Politics
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There is a fundamental flaw in Libertarianism: subjectivism. This leads to other errors, about which I expound upon below.

First, non-Aggression is NOT equal to Non-Initiation-of-Force. Non-aggression implies that political structures (i.e. governments) are the cause of force. Libertarianism assumes human beings, left to their own devices, inevitably seek peace and prosperity and not violence, turmoil, or theft. In fact, the Libertarian ideal goes so far as to equate violence with politics. That is anarchism.

Second, non-Aggression does not work because it cannot work. It is the affirmation of might makes right, not the other way around. A simple thought experiment where we remove or reduce the military shows that foreign powers would have easy access to the homeland.

Third, competing governments do not work due to competing police forces. I would go so far as to say that if competition in a particular aspect of government (e.g. roads, education, postal service), then most likely it is not a legitimate form of government!

For each of these reasons, Libertarianism is not compatible with Objectivism. As a side note, most people on the fence about Rand’s atheism tend to defect to the Libertarian view. I am not sure about why that would be.


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  • Posted by 7 years, 5 months ago
    As a side note, Gary Johnson does not necessarily represent these views. However, these are typically Libertarian views. To believe that the Libertarian candidate would be unaffected by such leanings is naïve. (I use "leanings" because, by many Libertarians own admission, Libertarianism does not represent a philosophy, but a host of disparate policy positions.) While the Libertarian ticket does use some Objectivist vocabulary, I still will not eat from the Johnson smorgasbord just because some terms from Rand are sprinkled on top of the otherwise unidentifiable menu.
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