How is the libertarian party not more popular?

I'm 24, and 90% of the people my age seem to share my point of view about social and economic issues.

This being;

socially liberal (pro-choice, anti-drug laws, pro-stem cell research, moderate on gun laws, indifferent on death penalty),

but also very economically conservative (anti-govt over spending and over regulation, limited social programs, favor lower taxes)

The only party that really seems to fit this profile is the libertarians. Yet, the libertarian party is a joke in mainstream politics. Whats the deal here? Are people my age just not making their voice heard over the indignant libs and conservatives? Or maybe we're just too lazy and indifferent?

lets talk Hfers, I know you fags aren't doing any work today.

 

not everyone is as selfish as you think . . .

 

They are not into government

 

A truly and authentically FREE society is a scary thing to contemplate. It's particularly unfriendly to children and requires a HUGE amount of personal responsiblity from adults, in particular parents, to continue itself. . .

Have you ever read the comic "Transmetropolitan?"

 

One thing I've found that works pretty quickly among the 18-25 crowd is when you remind most of your friends that they go to school with the help of subsidized federal loans, subsidized state schools and grants and PELL grants.

 

Your 90% figure might be true for rural Tenn, but not for the nation as a whole.

Could be their crappy ideas and Neanderthal "every man for himself" attitude.

Libertarians are speaking out, but nobody is listening, could be due to statements like this:

.

 

I don't really have an answer, but I think it could be attributed to several things.

One, a lot of people view voting for a third party as a waste of a vote. This is how I felt in the last presidential election. I live in a conservative state and I thought that a vote for a democrat would hold more significance than a vote for a third party candidate. I'll never make this mistake again, however. I'm always voting third party from now on...if I vote at all. I dont think anything short of a revolution could save this country.

Two, I think most people in that age group (myself included) grew up in a very strange and significant time, politically. Most of my friends are very cynical about politics. They choose to ignore it because they feel no matter what happens, our leaders are going to be corrupt and make horrible choices. So they don't vote, period. I don't blame them.

Three, our two party system holds a lot of power. Democrats and Republicans hold all the wealth, therefore they hold all the power. They are the ones that can afford to campaign like crazy. Most libertarian candidates don't make headlines because they don't get a lot of campaign money. Therefore they don't receive a lot of votes.

Our whole political system is fucked. excuse my language and my cynicism.

 

Gravity


What you are describing is not libertarianism but a sub-branch of it – right, or right wing libertarianism.

And the problem is that a lot of people that lean toward right wing libertarianism don’t seem to have thought through its ideas and so seem unable to defend them from criticism.

Basically right wing libertarianism is built on and motivated by free market principles (sometimes extreme free market principles).

The problem is that there never has been and never will be a ‘free market’ as such the only way a market can work is if it is managed in some way and to some degree. So from the start the underlying principles are flawed if not defunct.

As to social issues indifferent seems to be the main feeling of right wing libertarians, rather than trying to understand the issues and other peoples situations it seems to be a rather self centred (if not selfish) attitude, if it doesn’t concern them then they’re not concerned.

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Maybe the reason that you and your friends have embraced these ideas is because you haven’t actually understood them?