I need ya'll to clear this up for me cuz Im mightily confused. The self proclaimed 'libertarians' I'm running into seem to be actually no more than Christian bashing, progressive-secularist, gun toting liberals who want nothing to do with other political parties or beliefs and even dislike conservatives independent or otherwise, believe it or not. And most of them are under the age of 25. So I have to ask myself, when I was in school the definition of a libertarian was very clear: a more "extreme" version of Conservative only usually found without ties to religion, much smaller government, personal rights and even states rights far above national, and an almost do as you feel attitude towards most things as long as it neither hurts nor effects your brother and the legislation to back it. But either thats changing or a bunch of kiddies are sleeping through classes.

Can those of you who are above the age of 25 and consider yourself a pure Libertarian please clear this up for me. Thanks.

I'm 34 and have been a Libertarian since 1992.  I have the same political beliefs that you stated.

There have always been extreme elements, and they seem to get the press.  And a lot of people on this site only see Libertarians as people who want pot to be legal.  Not sure of this younger crowd you're speaking of, but I'm sure they're the liberal side of the disenfranchised youth that see no relief in either one of the dominant political parties.

If anything, the "real" Libertarian Party has taken a more conservative shift in platform as of late, albeit, while trying to retain hold of the left of center membership.

Quoted: I'm 34 and have been a Libertarian since 1992.  I have the same political beliefs that you stated. There have always been extreme elements, and they seem to get the press.  And a lot of people on this site only see Libertarians as people who want pot to be legal.  Not sure of this younger crowd you're speaking of, but I'm sure they're the liberal side of the disenfranchised youth that see no relief in either one of the dominant political parties. If anything, the "real" Libertarian Party has taken a more conservative shift in platform as of late, albeit, while trying to retain hold of the left of center membership.

Ahh ok thank you for that post. And yes the younger crowd Ive run into is mainly on the "legalized pot" kick.

tag

Conservative libertarian here.  I just want less government, but I also think that having a strong standing military and having a secure boarder is also important.  I do believe that the war on drugs infringes on individual liberties (no knock raids for example).  There does seem to be a liberal "hate Bush" movement within the Libertarian party that has turned me off as of late.

I'm 37, and I consider myself Libertarian....and could really care less about "getting the drugs legalized"...I do agree that some of the illegal substances are illegal for the wrong reasons...and I've never done any of them.

I do firmly believe that you have the right in your life to do anything you want to yourself...but your rights end when they infringe upon another person's right to enjoy their life.

Get high, drunk, fuck goats, I don't care. But if you are drunk or high and it causes you to commit a crime (to feed your "addiction") or you drive under the influence and kill/injure someone, or it's not your goat.....your ass is toast.

What I do that doesn't affect anyone else....doesn't affect anyone else.

No Expert

Quoted: Nope, you about have it.  The Libertarian Party actually started with some real support and fast growth until the focus became the Liberaltarian Party. The party years back actually use to take from both the right and the left equally.  Now it only seems to dilute the left and extreme left at that.   Tj

Interesting. And correct me if Im wrong but it seems that those of the original view have mingled with the crowd of growing Independent Conservatives which are fed up with the Republicans not representing the people in issues like ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION!!! idiots...anyways....

I am a libertarian,,and in the last few years, the left has moved into the fold much too willingly..
seemingly more and more pot smokers are leading the pack//
but in not having a viable candidate for 40 years, kind of make us impotant in the eyes of the country..
so..where do we find one?
where do we get the money to match the "2" current major parties..
where do we find a HOPE?
Maybe time to resurect the BULLMOOSE party of T. Roosevelt and get the country back on track

Quoted: I am a libertarian,,and in the last few years, the left has moved into the fold much too willingly.. seemingly more and more pot smokers are leading the pack// but in not having a viable candidate for 40 years, kind of make us impotant in the eyes of the country.. so..where do we find one? where do we get the money to match the "2" current major parties.. where do we find a HOPE? Maybe time to resurect the BULLMOOSE party of T. Roosevelt and get the country back on track

 In the words of Starsky & Hutch: "Do it........do it.......................do it"

so how is it done?

as a conservative-leaning Libertarian who is well under 25 I understand what you're saying about the party being overly influenced by the leftists.  the LP's soft stance on illegal immigration is something which i strongly disagree with.

and there are damn good reasons for wanting to end the WoD.  the prohibitionists are just a big a threat to our civil liberties as the brady bunch gun-grabbers.  the WoD is largely what is responsible for the militarization of the civilian police force.  it will make it much easier for them to kick in your door and confiscate your weapons if the order ever comes down: "Mr and Mrs America, turn them all in."

Quoted: So I have to ask myself, when I was in school the definition of a libertarian was very clear: a more "extreme" version of Conservative only usually found without ties to religion, much smaller government, personal rights and even states rights far above national, and an almost do as you feel attitude towards most things as long as it neither hurts nor effects your brother and the legislation to back it.

Those are my views.

Those used to be the views of (small c) conservative Republicans until the word "Conservative" was hijacked to stand for quite the opposite.

The legalization of recreational drugs is the one issue that other parties (conservative/liberal) use to marginalize Libertarianism. No one who looks at objective facts and can make a strictly logical (versus emotional) decision would deny that the war on drugs is ridiculous in every way, shape and form.

Libs and Cons understand that many people make decisions based purely on emotion and they realize that controlling the populance becomes easier by fighting semsationalized non-issues (assault weapons, cop killer rounds etc...) than by doing what they should be doing- doing an effective job of running the country.