Libertarian Stance on Issues
Philosophy
Libertarians generally define liberty as the freedom to do whatever one wishes up to the point that one's behavior begins to interfere with or endanger another's person or property. At the point of interference, each party would become subject to certain principled rules for adjudicating disputes, which emphasize compensation to the victim rather than punishment or retribution alone. Most libertarians allow that such sanctions are properly imposed by the state in the form of criminal or civil penalties, though many dispute the degree to which such punishment is necessarily a state function.
Libertarians generally view constraints imposed by the state on persons or their property, beyond the need to penalize infringement of one's rights by another, as a violation of liberty. Anarchists favor no governmental constraints at all, based on the assumption that rulers and laws are unnecessary because in the absence of government individuals will naturally form self-governing social bonds and rules. In contrast, Big-L-Libertarians consider government necessary for the sole purpose of protecting the rights of the people. This includes protecting people and their property from the criminal acts of others, as well as providing for national defense.
On Major Issues
Abortion
Libertarians are split on the issue. On one hand the Life and Liberty of the woman is at stake and the life and Liberty of the Feotus is at stake as well. The majority of Libertarians agree that the government should stay out or that it should be a state issue, or that it should be completely legal and unrestricted, however Libertarians For Life disagree.
Immigration
Again split on the issue, some believe in strong border control, and some as well as the official party, stand for open immigration. The ideas behind both are that of strong national defense, vs. a growing economy and liberty. However some believe that to protect the liberty of home grown Americans immigration must be slowed, accounting for the fact that illegal immigrants, often times do take jobs.
Victimless Crimes
The LP believes in a strong sense of individual liberty, and thus supports the complete legalization of all victimless crimes. The idea behind it simply being no victim no crime. This includes, prostitution, drug use, ownership of guns, etc.
Free Speech and Right to Privacy
Libertarians are split on the issue, between ones believing in complete deregulation of these and the majority believing in that they can be taken away if they infringe on others peoples rights. The issues being here between issues such as screaming "fire" in a movie theater, or the privacy of a suspected terrorist. However most libertarians believe extremely strongly in these amendments, perhaps beyond other Libertarian stances.
Taxes
A strong Libertarian ideal is of the right to keep your money. You worked for it so it is then your property and the government does not have the right to seize it from you. Libertarians, especially those that believe in some form of anarcho-capitalism, oppose the property, gas, excise, cigarette, alcohol, soda, payroll, gun and income tax as well as tariffs, yet many support the FairTax although many of those libertarians also feel strongly against it's ideal.
Free Trade
Libertarians strongly believe in free trade. They believe that for a healthy economy free trade has to occur, as for inflation to go down and the American economy thus to be the strongest, however many Libertarians oppose free trade agreements like GATT, WTO and NAFTA.
Sovereignty, NWO,Iraq War, Foreign Aid
Most Libertarians support non interventionism in the world as it betrays American sovereignty and uses American taxes. However iffy on it, they do oppose military intervention in places like Darfur as it is no truly america's problem. Libertarians feel very strongly against the New World Order and oppose it almost to the core. Again on the Iraq War Libertarians are split between exiting, and leaving when the job's done, but you probably can't find many Libertarians for the war. Most Libertarians are opposed to foreign aid to other countries, including long standing allies like Israel, and the UK, however many Libertarians believe ins support for both those countries as they are democracies.
Education, Welfare, Social Security, and Healthcare
Most Libertarians are opposed to public dollars on all the above. Social programs redistribute wealth and are unconstitutional and Libertarians agree with that. They believe a free market (as most economists agree) can take care of these better than government intervention, the bureaucracy of the government is mainly on these 4 issues, as aroudn 60% of the federal budget goes into these programs (only second behind america national debt)
Gun Control
All libertarians believe in the right to bear arms, along with the right to self defense and even oppose the restrictions of any kind of weapon, including the WMDs if necessary. Some, however, may also oppose the strike down of legislated firearms laws, such as in DC vs Heller, due to the fact that it replaces one gun restriction with another, which means that all laws on weapons must be repealed without court interference.
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