Submitted By: Dick Ambler
I was a registered Democrat for most of my voting life because I liked their
line better than the Republicans' line. But both parties are into big
government, just differing slightly on how to gouge the middle class and
which branches of the government and therefore eventually which citizenry
get the larger shares of the spoils.
Nineteen years ago, I discovered the Libertarian Party. Many of the people
where I had a post office box at the time were Libertarians and I liked
their view of what democracy should be like. About the same time, I got an
ad for Reason and liked the magazine.
To me, the Libertarian philosophy is that all people should have the freedom
to do what they want, as long as it doesn't mess with anybody else's person,
property, livelihood, or money. I am an atheist, and have a straight
sexual orientation, but as a Libertarian I don't really care what other people do
for food, sex, dope, or religion, as long as they don't try to push their
beliefs onto me.
Two hundred years of having a reasonable government has resulted in voter
complacency and apathy -- it doesn't seem right to be going into a police
state, so I do care what other people think politically, hoping they will
learn to free themselves. The USA is not a free society.
The same principles of non-interference should apply to groups and
organizations, ranging from your local school, teenage gangs, the police,
PTA, small and large businesses, and all levels of government -- don't
mess with individual liberty. Libertarians cherish those freedoms
mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, and want to keep them.
Various levels of government are the greatest abusers of these basic human
freedoms, with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness now being subject
to bureaucratic whim.
Submitted By: Susan Cvach
I grew up in a hotbed of Goldwater Republicans, so I came by my libertarian
ideas early on. It made great sense to me, as a child, that people should
be able to do what they want if it is not harming anyone else or their
stuff. It still makes sense to me. Most of my adult life, I was a registered
Independent. It was the early '90's when I became aware that there was
an official Libertarian Party, as I listened to talk radio in the Phoenix
area.
As I spent more time around the international libertarian crowd- through
internet exposure to libertarian parenting and education ideas at Taking
Children Seriously and beyond, and attending ISIL and other conferences- I realized that there is a label for my
ideas: libertarian. Although I do not find myself in agreement with
everything in the American Libertarian Party platform nor with every
proclamation put forth by the Libertarian Party leadership, I ask, who does
agree entirely with any political party's platform? I registered
Libertarian when I was to attend the Libertarian convention in Indianapolis
in order to spend time with a friend who was speaking there, and the Arizona
state party folks persuaded me to change my voter registration in order to
become eligible to be a delegate there.
America has been very, very good to me. I want to stand up for the
principals of freedom and liberty that have created the conditions for so
many to live good lives. I want to help create the knowledge so that more
people can benefit from the principals of freedom and liberty, from birth to
death, no matter where they live. I support the Coconino LP as a way of
doing this, believing that, to create change, each of us has to start in our
own back yard.
Submitted By: George Squyres
I was first introduced to the word "libertarian," the political philosophy
libertarianism, and the Libertarian political party by Dr. John Hospers, while
I was a graduate student in philosophy. It put a name and face on what I soon
realized was what I had believed in all of my life, namely that people have
the right to be left alone and not be told how to live their lives. The best
people I knew were the ones who just went about life on their own terms, and
they usually did something that made life better for all of us. The worst
people I knew were the ones who were trying to control the best people.
As I studied more in political philosophy, I came to the realization that all
of politics boiled down to one question: "Who controls your life, you or someone
else?" This made understanding the two main political parties and contemporary
politics more than clear- they were more like two competing organized crime
syndicates than real advocates of political ideology.
I joined the freedom movement and registered as a Libertarian and have been
working since then in any way I can, but my best talents are as a writer. I
have written many articles for publication and for specific projects, and have
ghost written political speeches for a number of people. I have found that the
best thing I can do to change the world for the better is to change the way
people see things, and make them realize what freedom truly amounts to in this
world; namely, not being controlled by government.
Government has gone from being the entity that protects our rights, to the chief
abuser of them. It really is that simple.
