Common Sense For New Hampshire

I am occasionally accused of being a libertarian, or a Libertarian (I’ll explain later) and I’ll admit that I am one.  And though the word is sometimes thrown at me like it’s some sort of pejorative, I see libertarianism as a beautiful thing – a philosophy of love and respect for the lives each one of us holds.  The use of force against anyone who peacefully coexists with you violates that love and violates that respect.  I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again:  The true measure of a society is the degree to which force is absent as a factor in the relationships between human beings.  That should be our goal.  It also happens to be the founding principle of our country.

Just to clear up some confusion that’s out there: a libertarian is someone who holds a libertarian political philosophy, just like conservatives and liberals have their philosophies.  And just like there are conservative Republicans and liberal Republicans, there are libertarian Republicans and that is what I am.

There are also Libertarians with a capital “L” and they are either members of the Libertarian Party or voters who have registered as Libertarians.  I am a libertarian by philosophy and a member of the Libertarian Party.  I was a Libertarian Party candidate for Assembly in 2011, an elector for Gary Johnson in the 2012 Electoral College and for a short time was a county rep to the Board of the state Libertarian Party.  I had to be a registered Libertarian to be a Libertarian Party candidate and later an elector, but in 2013 I changed my affiliation back to Republican.

So please, in the future, if you want to attack me for being libertarian or Libertarian, keep it straight what context you are using the word in and use the small “l” for my philosophy and the capital “L” as it relates to my membership in the party.

One more thing:

I would believe that we each own our own lives and that nobody can have a legal claim over any part of somebody else’s life even if it meant that we produced less material wealth than other belief systems would produce.  But we don’t need to make that choice.  It so happens that human freedom is the greatest economic stimulant in existence.  Where there are free markets and free people, wealth explodes.  Where there is subjugation and oppression there is poverty.  If you ever look at list of the freest nations and at a list of the wealthiest nations, they are the same countries.  And it is always the same group of unfortunate countries at the other ends of the scales.  I would also believe in the philosophy of liberty even if we had to fight overseas wars to preserve it.  But contrary to all the jingoism about fighting to defend our freedoms, none of our so-called enemies give a hoot about what sort of freedoms we have at home and just want us to stay out of their affairs.  The great geopolitical game being played, with all its dangerous, deadly and costly entanglements, actually accomplishes the opposite; it diminishes our freedom at home.

Peace brothers and sisters.