Types of Libertarians

I never really thought too much about "types" of libertarians. Really, until recently. I consider more of a pragmatic libertarian. For the most part I take those issues quizzes and I almost always side on the "liberty" side of things (with a few exceptions; e.g. the death penalty, three strike sentencing), but just barely. I'm pro expanding immigration, but I take the cultural issues seriously. I'm pro choice, but probably take the pro life arguments more seriously, I just choose liberty in the final say. I didn't really think there were enough differences amongst libertarians to be "types", but there clearly are.

I don't find the arguments made in the body of the blog post convincing, at all. It's not dishonest, and does start from values I share with the author. And yet, it's not convincing to me.

I saved an article from the Orange County register, from earlier this year to keep me intellectually "honest" as an libertarian, as opposed to a registered Republican. Basically, the article is about a discussion at the OC Register between members there. And one of them makes the argument, from a libertarian perspective, for voting for Obama.

The four reasons given were 1) Iraqi withdrawal, 2) restoring the separation of church and state, 3) easing off victimless crimes such as drug use; 4) curtailing the Patriot Act.

The thing is for me, I don't want us to get out of Iraq until things are "finished". I admit that's a vague term that could mean forever being there. And yes, that worries me. But, I don't think there is political will in either party, or in this country for forever. After all George "stubborn" Bush, has just called for pulling out 8,000 troops recently (although with the typical, reasonable in my opinion , caveats). I don't see any real church/state issues, right now. I don't mind us not having silly discussions about religion in politics, but that goes both ways. I agree on the drug war. And I don't really know the details involved in the Patriot Act, to think it's the end of the world. From what I understand, we already apply most of the Patriot Act, to organized crime. But, that could where I got my information from. Although, apparently even the ACLU approves of around 90% of the Patriot Act.

This is all a long way of me pointing to a comment on the original (Marginal Revolution) blog post. The comment is by Chris Spangle at September 9, 2008 7:57 A.M. It all depends what "type" of libertarian you are.