Americas third-largest party, the Libertarian Party (LP), will be on the ballot in Alabama in Novembers election. The Libertarian Partys website lists over 60 candidates running for positions across the state.
But what does the word libertarian mean?
Libertarianism is a political philosophy. It is not inherently connected to the Libertarian Party. Some self-professed Libertarians are Republicans. Others do not engage in the political system at all.
Wikipedia defines libertarianism simply as a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value.
According to Libertarianism.org, Libertarians believe that, in politics, liberty is the most important value. Almost everyone wants freedom for themselves, but a libertarian also seeks to protect and expand the freedom of others.
1819 News asked self-professed libertarians in Alabama what they believe a Libertarian is.
I would define a Libertarian as anybody that wants to limit government from what it currently is, and that could mean somebody that wants more states rights or rights at the municipal level or somebody that wants to cut back greatly in what the federal government does, said Joey Clark.
Clark is the host of News and Views on Talk 93.1. He describes himself as a Libertarian.
Then you would get to the more hardcore answer that a Libertarian is somebody who believes that liberty is the most important value in politics, Clark said. Liberty is something we must use as a cornerstone for building whatever we call a free society. That could mean different things to different people, and the cultural divide certainly comes up, but I would put anybody who wants to limit the government and decentralize power in the Libertarian camp.
Jonathan Realz is a Libertarian Party candidate running for Congress in Alabamas Second Congressional District. Realz said that a Libertarian is somebody that believes that the individual owns themselves.
Your rights do not come from a government, Realz said. Sure, a government can help you secure your rights, but at the end of the day, your rights come from humanity, and the government does not have or should not have the power to infringe on your rights.
Gavin Goodman is the chair of the Libertarian Party of Alabama.
Libertarianism is the belief in individual liberty and not forcing ones views on others, Goodman said.
Where does libertarianism come from?
What it means to be human is to be anarchic, Clark said. It doesnt mean everybody has to be an anarchist and railing against authority, the government or the church, but I think everybody has an inherent freedom and if you think back to those early times that probably arent documented, people are fundamentally doing what they think they need to do.
Clark said libertarianism in the West comes out of a fusion of the best of the Greek and the best of the Judeo-Christian tradition that at least recognizes the sovereign individual.
Though libertarianism in the United States is a distinct movement, its roots lie in classical philosophy and Natural Law Theory.
The Ten Commandments, both in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21, say Thou shalt not murder and Thou shalt not steal.
The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was one of the first to hold that what is just by nature is not always equivalent to what is just by law.
St. Augustine of Hippo, a late 4th and early 5th-century bishop and theologian, is famous for saying, an unjust law is no law at all.
This laid the groundwork for medieval Catholic theologian St. Thomas Aquinas to formulate a complete theory of Natural Law in the 13th century, which suggested that man is bound to abide by objective moral principles before he is bound to abide by the laws of manmade government.
Though not all Libertarians arrive at libertarianism through Natural Law, and Natural Law can be taken in many different ways, the theory influenced many modern libertarian thinkers such as Rothbard and Judge Andrew Napolitano.
Both Aristotle and Aquinas were also influential to Ayn Rand, who is largely considered an important figure in the modern libertarian movement.
According to The Objective Standard, a website dedicated to Rands philosophy, Rand recommended her followers read only three philosophers, which she called the three As. They were Aristotle, Aquinas and Ayn Rand.
Rand included Aquinas despite her staunch commitment to atheism.
Some say America was founded on Libertarian principles, and the War for Independence was a Libertarian political movement.
In the United States, I think it [libertarianism] really blossomed, Clark said. It was already there. Elements of it were in Greece, elements of it in Rome and there are even elements of it throughout the so-called Dark Ages and medieval Europe and the British experience and the British common law, but I think libertarianism really takes its footing in the world stage in the American Revolution.
... In the Constitution we have, there is throughout, especially in the Bill of Rights, this sense of the sovereign individual who is made in the image and likeness of God."
[The founding fathers] struggled with giving as many Americans as much liberty as possible, Goodman said. And then the balance of what is the role of the government in protecting liberty as well as defending the vital functions of government.
Libertarian principles have kind of always been an underlying basis for the United States, Realz said. Thats what this country was founded on. It was supposed to be a limited government, not a lot of interaction in your personal life. We fought an entire war over way fewer taxes than what we have now, but here we are, for some reason, very very far away from what this country was founded on.
One of the earliest figures in the modern libertarian movement was economist Ludwig von Mises. Mises fled from Nazi-occupied Austria to the United States in 1940 and brought with him an economic tradition known as the Austrian school.
The Austrian school of economics originated in Vienna, Austria, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with Carl Menger and Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk. It relies on a theoretical methodology known as praxiology, which is opposed to mainstream schools of economics that rely on purely empirical methods.
Mises used Austrian economics to argue that government intervention in the economy impedes the accuracy of profit and loss measurements, which entrepreneurs use as signals to direct resources toward their most efficient uses.
Mises believed in classical liberalism, which emphasizes limited government, economic and political freedom and self-determination.
SEE ALSO: Mises Institute welcomes students to Auburn for Mises University, Institute marks 40 years
[Mises] was such a great man, such an important figure, said Lew Rockwell, founder of the Mises Institute in Auburn.
Rockwell was Misess publisher at Arlington Publishing and was significantly influenced by his political and economic theories.
Rand, too, fled an authoritarian government. She left the Soviet Union as a girl after the Bolshevik revolution reduced her family to poverty. She published her first novel, We the Living, in 1936, a novella, Anthem, in 1937 and The Fountainhead in 1942.
In 1957, Rand wrote Atlas Shrugged, an over 500,000-word dystopian novel about wealthy capitalists escaping socialist bureaucrats and academics to form a society of their own.
Rand believed that free-market capitalism was not only the most efficient economic system but the only moral one as opposed to socialism, communism and cronyism. This was one of the core tenets of her philosophy, which she called objectivism.
Rand was a minarchist, meaning she believed in a night-watchman state, a term popularized by another influential Libertarian figure, Robert Nozick. A night-watchmen state is limited to essential functions such as police and courts.
Though Rand espoused similar beliefs and was influential in the movement's growth, she did not consider herself a Libertarian. In 1971, she referred to Libertarians as hippies of the right and, in later years, was highly critical of the Libertarian Party.
The Austrian school is not the only economic tradition to influence the larger Libertarian movement. Nobel Prize-winning Chicago school economist Milton Friedman brought a Libertarian message to the masses through his books Capitalism and Freedom and Free to Choose.
The Chicago school is a more mainstream classification of economic thought, though it still largely rejects the economics of John Maynard Keynes, who influenced many of the spendthrift welfare programs in the West during and after the Great Depression.
Free to Choose, which Friedman co-wrote with his wife, Rose, was the bestselling nonfiction book of 1980. They produced a 10-part television series of the same name that was broadcasted by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) that year.
Free to Choose emphasized the interdependent relationship between political and economic freedom and argued that the free market serves all people in society for the better.
At the University of Chicago, Friedman was the teacher of other influential Libertarian thinkers, including Thomas Sowell. An economist, political commentator and sociologist, Sowell is the author of over 45 books, including Basic Economics.
Mises, Rand, Friedman and Sowell were all inspirations to conservative-libertarian economist and commentator Walter E. Williams, according to his autobiography.
An acolyte of Mises, Rothbard furthered the development of the Austrian school of economics in the United States.
Rothbard coined the term anarcho-capitalism to describe a political philosophy that seeks to abolish involuntary central governments in favor of stateless societies run by private property rules.
In his popular essay, Anatomy of the State, Rothbard argues that the phrase we are the government is incorrect because majority rule always means the minority is dominated. The minority, then, cant accurately say that they are the government, even in a democracy. He suggests that the State, i.e., any institution which imposes a monopoly on violence over a given territory, is rooted in predation.
Since production must always precede predation, the free market is anterior to the State, Rothbard wrote. The State has never been created by a social contract; it has always been born in conquest and exploitation.
In 1982, Rothbard helped Rockwell start the Mises Institue, which came to Alabama and is now across the street from Auburn University on West Magnolia Avenue.
Rothbard worked with the left-wing anti-war movement in the mid-20th century but became more friendly to the right before his death in 1995.
Rothbard began calling himself a paleolibertarian in 1989 and supported paleoconservative candidate Pat Buchanan for president in 1992. Paleolibertarains are typically culturally conservative libertarians who seek to reduce the power of the State through right-wing populism.
Murray, of course, was extremely important, Rockwell said. ...He was so brilliant, so funny, so charming. What a great man to work with Ill say, I miss him every day As far as I could tell, he knew everything.
Not all of these figures got along, however. Though Rothbard praised Atlas Shrugged after its publication, he conflicted with Rands circle over his defense of libertarian anarchism, among other disagreements. He later satirized Rand in an unpublished play, Mozart Was Red and an essay titled The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult.
[Rand] liked Murray at first, then she felt that he was being a crazy guy and a bad person because his wife was Christian, Rockwell said.
Rothbard and Friedman maintained a friendly relationship until the early 1960s. Friedman recommended Rothbard for a post at the University of Chicago in 1956 but later clashed with Rothbard over his book, Americas Great Depression. Rothbard wrote an essay in 1971 titled Milton Friedman Unraveled, describing Friedman as the Establishments Court Libertarian.
Ron Paul ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988 and as a Republican in 2008 and 2012. Though he failed to receive the Republican nomination twice, Pauls campaign and his participation in the GOP debates sparked a grassroots movement that introduced millennials to libertarianism.
The movement is often referred to as the Ron Paul Revolution.
Chances are, any young libertarian you meet today will tell you that their chief influence in becoming a libertarian was Ron Paul, Dan Sanchez wrote in the Mises Wire in 2012. Ron Paul has swelled the ranks of the liberty movement to a greater extent than perhaps any other individual in history. If that's not success, I don't know what is.
Paul served as a U.S. Representative from Texas from 1976 to 1977, 1979 to 1985 and from 1997 to 2013. He is a self-described constitutionalist and was an outspoken critic throughout his political career of the Federal Reserve, the USA PATRIOT Act, the war on drugs and the war on terror.
Today, Paul lives in Lake Jackson, Texas, where he maintains The Ron Paul Liberty Report podcast with co-host Daniel McAdams. His son, Rand, has been serving as a U.S. Senator from Kentucky since 2011 as a Republican.
[Paul] is so important, Rockwell said. ... He started reading Austrian economics when he was in medical school He ran three times for president, each time bringing a [much] more massive group of people on his side. Hes a great speaker. Hes a very great man.
The LP first convened in August 1971 at the home of David F. Nolan in Westminster, Colorado. It was officially created that December in Colorado Springs. The party founders were inspired by Rothbards writings and formed in part due to concerns about President Richard Nixon, the Vietnam War and the end of the gold standard.
Goodman said the first motto of the LP was There aint no such thing as a free lunch or TANSTAAFL, which comes from Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, a science fiction novel about a libertarian rebellion on the moon.
The LPs first presidential candidate was John Hospers. Hospers was once a friend of Rand, but she broke ties with him after he criticized her epistemological beliefs.
According to Rockwell, Rothbard initially opposed the LP, but eventually joined.
Rothbard was active in the LP in the 70s and 80s but left in 1989 after allying with Rockwell and Paul for Pauls failed 1988 run for president as a Libertarian.
Today, the LP has 320 Libertarians holding elected office nationwide, according to its website. It remains the third largest political party in the United States by voter registration.
In 2020, Justin Amash became the first and only Libertarian candidate in U.S. Congress after he left the Republican Party in the middle of his term. He did not run for reelection in 2021.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email will.blakely@1819news.com or find him on Twitter and Facebook.
Dont miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.
See the original post:
What is a Libertarian? Part I: The Libertarian Movement - 1819 News
- Why The Invincible Created New Characters Instead of Using Rohan - GameRant - November 2nd, 2023 [November 2nd, 2023]
- What is Objectivism? Ayn Rand's Philosophy - The Collector - November 2nd, 2023 [November 2nd, 2023]
- Sean Speer: The Left has a self-policing problem - The Hub - November 2nd, 2023 [November 2nd, 2023]
- It's 'Atlas Shrugged' and we're watching it live - Financial Times - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Jesse Kline: 'How to Blow Up a Pipeline' film's reprehensible attempt to mainstream terrorism - National Post - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Atlas (mythology) - Wikipedia - January 17th, 2023 [January 17th, 2023]
- Controversy King Aaron Rodgers Once Willingly F*cked Around With Everyone By Bragging About Owning Atlas Shrugged - The Sportsrush - January 4th, 2023 [January 4th, 2023]
- John Henry Kelley II: Everything you need to know about Michelle Pfeiffer's son - Yen.com.gh - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Five myths about Ayn Rand and Objectivism - Learn Liberty - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest - AynRand.org - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Mike Rowe and Ayn Rand on the Virtues of Thinking and Producing - The Objective Standard - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- The pandemic economy will outlast the outbreak of covid | Mint - Mint - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Much Of The Pandemic Economy Is Here To Stay - Financial Advisor Magazine - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Why I Think The EV Tax Credits In The Inflation Reduction Act Will Work Out - CleanTechnica - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]
- 25 And Counting - The Source Weekly - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]
- Heather Nepa: A Desire to be a Difference-Maker - UNLV NewsCenter - August 6th, 2022 [August 6th, 2022]
- The Top 10 Books Billionaires Recommend - Forbes - July 21st, 2022 [July 21st, 2022]
- Telling People About Atlas Shrugged Now? - Galt's Gulch - July 7th, 2022 [July 7th, 2022]
- Ken Griffin Spent $54 Million Fighting a Tax Increase for the Rich. Secret IRS Data Shows It Paid Off for Him. - ProPublica - July 7th, 2022 [July 7th, 2022]
- LETTER: Thank cadre deployment and BEE for the mess - BusinessLIVE - July 7th, 2022 [July 7th, 2022]
- Is American democracy already lost? Half of us think so but the future remains unwritten - Salon - June 26th, 2022 [June 26th, 2022]
- Atlas shrugged: Getting mad with maps with attitude about latitude - Times of India - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- Short Redhead Reel Reviews for the week of June 10 - ECM Publishers - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- Connecticut conservatives are wary about a misinformation officer overseeing 2022 election - Hartford Courant - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- Which Dystopian Story Does 2022 Resemble the Most? - Foundation for Economic Education - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- Free Books - AynRand.org - May 6th, 2022 [May 6th, 2022]
- Atlas Shrugged Is A Feminist Tome - datalounge.com - May 6th, 2022 [May 6th, 2022]
- Liberalism versus Reaction in Ayn Rand Liberal Currents - Liberal Currents - May 6th, 2022 [May 6th, 2022]
- Why Critics of Angry Woke College Kids Are Missing the Point - The New York Times - May 6th, 2022 [May 6th, 2022]
- Digging into the Atom Bomb's Effects on Cold War America - PopMatters - May 6th, 2022 [May 6th, 2022]
- Bong Joon-ho's Mickey7 Adaptation Has the Potential to Be a Truly Great Science Fiction Movie - tor.com - April 27th, 2022 [April 27th, 2022]
- Thomas Piketty Is Right Out of Ayn Rands Nightmare - The Wall Street Journal - April 17th, 2022 [April 17th, 2022]
- Members Outspoken on The Left's Priorities - AMAC - The Association of Mature American Citizens - AMAC - April 13th, 2022 [April 13th, 2022]
- In The Midst Of Election Night Success, There Are Concerns For November - Wisconsin Right Now - April 11th, 2022 [April 11th, 2022]
- OPINION | EDITORIAL: Gas on the fire - Arkansas Online - March 27th, 2022 [March 27th, 2022]
- The Right Is Still the Enemy of Freedom - Jacobin magazine - March 27th, 2022 [March 27th, 2022]
- Genetics and Geography Don't Make a Family - The Cut - March 13th, 2022 [March 13th, 2022]
- Adecoagro: The Most Inexpensive And Speculative Farmland One Can Buy - Seeking Alpha - March 13th, 2022 [March 13th, 2022]
- Why The Bioshock Film Adaptation Is Going To Be Huge - The Workprint - February 19th, 2022 [February 19th, 2022]
- The Woman Who Won't, and Wouldn't, Appear on the Quarter - New Ideal - February 17th, 2022 [February 17th, 2022]
- Letters and feedback: Feb. 13, 2021 - Florida Today - February 15th, 2022 [February 15th, 2022]
- Happy birthday to the great Ayn Rand - Press-Enterprise - February 9th, 2022 [February 9th, 2022]
- Ranking the 10 Best Manning Cast Guests During Eli and Peyton Manning's First Season - Sportscasting - January 19th, 2022 [January 19th, 2022]
- Novak Djokovic is a profile in selfishness, and sports leaders are failing us all - ESPN - January 19th, 2022 [January 19th, 2022]
- Atlas Shrugged: Part II - Wikipedia - January 11th, 2022 [January 11th, 2022]
- Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011) - Full Cast & Crew - IMDb - January 11th, 2022 [January 11th, 2022]
- Twitter Freaks After Aaron Rodgers Touts 'Atlas Shrugged' - January 9th, 2022 [January 9th, 2022]
- Leftists completely lose it after Aaron Rodgers says Ayn ... - January 9th, 2022 [January 9th, 2022]
- Who is John Galt ? | Opinion | murrayledger.com - Murray Ledger and Times - January 9th, 2022 [January 9th, 2022]
- Wall Street is looking at Fed and the virus the wrong way, analyst says - MarketWatch - January 9th, 2022 [January 9th, 2022]
- Here's Aaron Rodgers' strong response to one NFL MVP voter - Packers Wire - January 9th, 2022 [January 9th, 2022]
- Your Opinion: Doomed to live in our mess - Jefferson City News Tribune - December 23rd, 2021 [December 23rd, 2021]
- The Remnant: Bitcoins Game Of Thrones - Bitcoin Magazine - December 23rd, 2021 [December 23rd, 2021]
- The Monster of We : Throughline - NPR - December 22nd, 2021 [December 22nd, 2021]
- Whats New on Netflix & Top 10s: December 17th, 2021 - What's on Netflix - December 22nd, 2021 [December 22nd, 2021]
- John Dutton, the Future First Spite-Governor in U.S. History - The Ringer - December 22nd, 2021 [December 22nd, 2021]
- The New Luxury Vacation: Being Dumped in the Middle of Nowhere - The New Yorker - November 25th, 2021 [November 25th, 2021]
- Top 10 medical exemptions granted to unvaccinated Conservative MPs - The Beaverton - November 25th, 2021 [November 25th, 2021]
- Capitalism's over: The man who made millions by betting the economy would never recover - New Statesman - November 19th, 2021 [November 19th, 2021]
- John Galt - Wikipedia - November 9th, 2021 [November 9th, 2021]
- Review of Edward Younkins, Exploring Atlas Shrugged: Ayn ... - November 9th, 2021 [November 9th, 2021]
- 'I wasn't an activist before that day' Newly released from prison, Vladislav Mordasov wants to put his time 'on the inside' to use Meduza - Meduza - November 5th, 2021 [November 5th, 2021]
- Elon Musk is just the latest in a long line of insecure billionaires - The Irish Times - November 5th, 2021 [November 5th, 2021]
- Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike (2012) - IMDb - November 1st, 2021 [November 1st, 2021]
- Biting the bullet on structural change The Bowdoin Orient - The Bowdoin Orient - November 1st, 2021 [November 1st, 2021]
- In the studio with Lucy McKenzie - Apollo Magazine - November 1st, 2021 [November 1st, 2021]
- Atlas Shrugged: Full Book Summary | SparkNotes - October 28th, 2021 [October 28th, 2021]
- Opinion | What 'Dune' Gets Right that 'Foundation' Doesn't - The New York Times - October 28th, 2021 [October 28th, 2021]
- Romney Says Billionaires Will Just Buy Paintings if Taxes Raised - Second Nexus - October 28th, 2021 [October 28th, 2021]
- UT Austin's Liberty Institute? What's that, professors ask - Inside Higher Ed - September 26th, 2021 [September 26th, 2021]
- FROM THE OPINION PAGE My literary palate continues to expand with each passing year - Bluefield Daily Telegraph - September 26th, 2021 [September 26th, 2021]
- Brandy Melville: Behind the Scenes at the 'Evil' Fast-Fashion Empire - Business Insider - September 8th, 2021 [September 8th, 2021]
- The Truly Amazing Al Ruddy Delivers Cry Macho After All These Years - Deadline - September 8th, 2021 [September 8th, 2021]
- 14 Best Books To Read Ever On National Read A Book Day 2021 - International Business Times - September 8th, 2021 [September 8th, 2021]
- On the frontier, trains brought progress. They still do. - Kansas Reflector - August 22nd, 2021 [August 22nd, 2021]
- Forum, Aug. 3: NH government back on a right-wing leash - Valley News - August 4th, 2021 [August 4th, 2021]
- Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who Is John Galt? - Wikipedia - August 2nd, 2021 [August 2nd, 2021]
- Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt? (2014) - IMDb - August 2nd, 2021 [August 2nd, 2021]
- Of prophets, patriots, demons and the three C's - Santa Barbara News-Press - August 2nd, 2021 [August 2nd, 2021]
- Atlas Shrugged: All eyes on Jozy Altidore - Waking The Red - July 14th, 2021 [July 14th, 2021]