"Libertarians support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties." This is the definition I found when I Googled the word ‘libertarian’. It wasn’t Wikipedia, it was the first listing called Libertarian Party (www.lp.org, an organization, I can tell because of its use of .org at the end.) It’s the official homepage of the national Libertarian Party. From clicking on that link, I was taken to the homepage, where I could take yet another political compass test. There was all this information on the side for Advocates of Self Government. Location, phone numbers, orders and donations. The big header at the top of the page says, “World’s Smallest Political Test”. There were 10 questions: 5 Economic Issues and 5 Personal Issues. Your options to answer were Agree, Maybe, or Disagree. At least on the first political compass test I took gave me the choice to strongly agree or strongly disagree. Anyways, off topic. They also had a counter at the bottom of the page that said, “THAT’S HOW MANY TIMES THE QUIZ HAS BEEN TAKEN SO FAR SINCE 1995” The number was 18,956,456.
After doing some reading from Wikipedia and other websites, I’ve found I’m not too sure what being Left Libertarian even means. I don’t feel like I actually associate with the descriptions I’ve found online and just because I’m next to Gandhi doesn’t make me feel all the more ‘libertarian’ either. There is no sure-win definition, no list of characteristics that makes you 100% libertarian. You practice liberty, free will, yadda yadda. I’m just me.
