Are Libertarians and Conservatives Different?

After reading this diatribe by Kevin McCullough, I felt prompted to share my own thoughts. Particularly in regards to this statement:

“Libertarians and Conservatives are as different as Libertarians and Liberals. The truth is libertarians are the worst form of political affiliation in the nation. Combining the desire of economic greed, with the amoral desire to promote any behavior regardless of its cost to our culture is a stark departure from the intent of the Founding Fathers.”

Mr. McCullough and those who agree with him couldn’t be more wrong about us (and the Founding Fathers, for that matter).

It’s obvious that people like me who want to reduce the size and influence of government back to its constitutional limits are growing in number and that those who want to use the government to force everyone to live a certain way are threatened by us.

I’m surprised to hear the phrase “economic greed” used by a conservative to attack anyone, let alone Libertarians. Libertarians strongly believe in free markets. Apparently conservatives don’t? Or at least not to the degree Libertarians do? There’s another movement that is opposed to free markets. It’s called socialism.

As Milton Friedman said:

“Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.”

McCullough also claimed Libertarians have an “amoral desire to promote any behavior regardless of its cost to our culture” and that this is “a stark departure from the intent of the Founding Fathers.”

That is a bizarre statement, indeed. What was the intent of the Founding Fathers? I tend to side with Thomas Jefferson over McCullough on this one:

“A wise and frugal government … shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”

It is not the government’s responsibility to instill or promote a sense of morality in the people. It is the government’s responsibility to uphold the Constitution and protect property.

Libertarians as a whole don’t promote or endorse any behavior. We promote freedom and personal responsibility. You are responsible for what you put into your body and mind – not the government. You are responsible for your own actions – not the government. That is freedom.

Of course, some will choose to use that freedom in negative or self-destructive ways. But in another favorite Jefferson quote of mine he says:

“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”

I am a Mormon (like Mitt Romney and Harry Reid, although I disagree with both of them on many political issues). If you are familiar with Mormons and our theology and culture you know that we have what many consider to be a “strict” moral code. I believe my personal adherence to that moral code has greatly improved and blessed my life and that I am a happier and better man because of it. Contrary to McCullough’s claims, I don’t promote smoking pot nor do I promote homosexual behavior or same-sex marriage.

And I am a Libertarian.

Why?

Because I don’t believe it is the role of government to impose that moral code on others by force or compulsion – only to protect my right to live it, to share my beliefs openly with other others, and to vote my conscience. A government that imposes a certain religion or a moral code on the people is the kind of government our Founding Fathers declared independence from and fought against.

That being said, our Founding Fathers repeatedly wrote about and spoke of the need for virtue among the people.

“We ought to consider what is the end of government before we determine which is the best form. Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all divines and moral philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man….All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.”

John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776

“As riches increase and accumulate in few hands, as luxury prevails in society, virtue will be in a greater degree considered as only a graceful appendage of wealth, and the tendency of things will be to depart from the republican standard. This is the real disposition of human nature; it is what neither the honorable member nor myself can correct. It is a common misfortunate that awaits our State constitution, as well as all others.”

Alexander Hamilton, speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, June, 1788

“As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust: So there are other qualities in human nature, which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. Republican government presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form. Were the pictures which have been drawn by the political jealousy of some among us, faithful likenesses of the human character, the inference would be that there is not sufficient virtue among men for self-government; and that nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another.”

James Madison, Federalist No. 55, February 15, 1788

So it is clearly not the government’s responsibility or duty to force the people to be virtuous, but the Founding Fathers knew that the form of government they were setting up would only work if the people at large were virtuous. That responsibility lies with the people, not the government.

I close with yet another Jefferson quote, (the last of this post, I promise):

“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”

That is TRUE conservatism. That is what Libertarianism is all about. That’s why the libertarian movement is growing and why people are so enthusiastic about it.

If the Republican Party or self-proclaimed conservatives feel threatened by that, then maybe they’re not as conservative as they think they are.