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Yes, I switched parties in my late 20s. I was a liberal democrat when I was a young voter and became a republican after I grew up, quit being naively idealistic, and became a realist about human nature. My philosophy of politics changed around the time of Jimmy Carter. I am still a republican, though I have voted for democratic candidates a few times, subsequently.
0-18: I wasn't really into politics until late high school and even then I didn't put a ton of extra thought into it. My dad was very conservative and he's a smart guy, so I trusted most of what he said.
18-24: Started becoming more libertarian...I thought the arguments were very logical and I liked that they didn't side with republicans or democrats simply by the party name. I still voted republican because I figured it was the lesser of two evils and that voting libertarian was a wasted vote. This is still how my dad thinks even though I've nudged him in a more libertarian/constitutionalist direction.
24-25 (now): About a year ago I was strongly minarchist/Ron Paul libertarian and happened to see one of Stefan Molyneux's "rebutted" videos where he reads an anti-libertarian article and explains what they got wrong. I started watching his other videos and saw one called "intro to libertarianism" where he talked about the non-aggression principle and respect for property rights as the key principles of libertarians. Here's where it gets interesting...
A few weeks went by and I found out he was an anarchist and I was confused. I never even considered that to be a realistic option. Then I thought back to those principles and realized that if I was going to be 100% consistent, I couldn't support government at all. It kind of shook my a little bit because it was such an "extreme" stance, but it made complete logical sense. I then found Larken Rose's videos and after watching them, I was ready to commit to anarcho-capitalism. It took some time getting over the emotional resistance of it all, but there was no going back after that.
So, now at 25 I will not be voting at all in upcoming elections. I don't want to play the game at all. If I vote, I'm supporting a system that will do things against my fundamental principles and I'm not willing to contribute to that, even for a more "limited" government.
I think we're the only 2 Leftist Libertarians on this board.
I used to be a Republican but then I grew up and realized that they didn't speak for me or America. I am now an independent and vote mostly Democrat but sometimes others. It has been a long time since I voted republican and the way they are going, it will be a long time before I vote for them again.
I'm curious to see how many people used to be part of a different party than they are now. Even if you don't want to label yourself as a "Democrat" or "Republican" which side do you usually vote for, and did you ever used to vote differently?
In Republican-heavy southwestern Ohio, there rarely are any primaries on the Democratic side. Since declaring a party in Ohio is as easy as asking for a Republican or Democrat ballot in the primary, I have more than once requested the Republican primary ballot in order to vote for (or against) a primary candidate. Yeah, I was considered a Republican for the next two years - because you can switch your party affiliation only at the primary election, and Ohio does not have regular off-year primary elections - but I figured that was OK because I was skewing the Republicans' demographic.
Or, you could, like most Americans who don't bother to vote, realize that if it ends in -ism, it's not good, except for one: centrism. Centrism happens when an equilibrium is reached from both extremes. Democide (government/political genocide) happens when either side gets so extreme that the consider the other side traitors that need to be exterminated. I will continue to vote for the Democratic Party until that equilibrium is reached. It's about time people start to grow up and throw ideology out to the curb, and start applying nature's rules to government: everything MUST be in balance. Otherwise, chaos results.
Hasn't anyone noticed everything in nature operates on a feedback system? Everything is on a balance of positive and negative influences. Government is no different. In fact, even man-made objects are subject to these rules of nature. EVERYTHING operates on a feedback loop, and all equations balance out eventually
I get what you're saying and agree that balance is very important in many areas, but not in this case. If I believe that it's wrong to steal something that belongs to someone else, I'm not going to compromise and say that it's ok in certain cases. Same with using violence to get what you want. I took the time to really think it out (and am continually doing so) and my conclusion has been that initiating force is always wrong. That's why I can't be centrist. It would be like me saying "Well, I think it's always wrong to murder an innocent person, but if other people think we should be OBLIGATED to do it then we should meet in the middle somewhere. I don't want to be extreme, so maybe we can come to an agreement about when it's ok." As I said though, I see where you're coming from and would agree with you in many other areas of life.
I think we're the only 2 Leftist Libertarians on this board.
I'm not completely sure I'd call myself leftist libertarian...possibly. Either way, I know we agree on the majority of things. Even if we disagreed on some of the details we have the same general views and I think that's cool
I used to be republican because our elections are decided in the primary, there are little or no democrats so most local offices are a republican running unopposed.
I became a libertarian because I got so turned off by the Pat Robertson/Jerry Falwell moral majority crap that the Republican Party had become.
I'm not completely sure I'd call myself leftist libertarian...possibly. Either way, I know we agree on the majority of things. Even if we disagreed on some of the details we have the same general views and I think that's cool
Well, if you call pushing a boulder uphill cool...yeah.
That video you posted made perfect sense. It was either ignored or bashed.
When I escaped the authoritarian/force/coercion mindset I realized two things:
1. People are so conditioned to look for central approval of an issue they are willing to live with whatever the decision may be.
2. I really don't have any answers to many issues but interestingly enough...I don't care anyway. Having autonomy really is enough to keep an individual pretty content. I suspect this would be the case for many folks if they ever broke the psychological lock of central authority.
I'm not completely sure I'd call myself leftist libertarian...possibly. Either way, I know we agree on the majority of things. Even if we disagreed on some of the details we have the same general views and I think that's cool
Libertarians generally oppose the things that leftists stand for.
Unfortunately for your fantasy though, the moderate Blue Dog caucus of the Democrats has lost 2/3 of its members. The leftist Progressive caucus of the Democrats has gown to over triple its size.
The Democrats of 20 years ago were anti- illegal immigration anti- gay marriage. The Democrats today are pro-amnesty and pro-gay marriage. The bans on gay marriage that the left is trying to overturn in modern times were, in fact, put into law by Democrats. Your very own Harry Reid leading the Senate voted to ban gay marriage.
Republican Reagan wanted to reduce the size of government and lower government spending in the 1980s. Republican Bush in the 2000s increased medicare, increased federal involvement in education, and ran massive deficits.
So whereas you have your fictional rhetoric about the extremist Republicans and the Democrat moderates trying to hold back the tides of the right wing barbarians, I actually have facts on my side.
Yesterday was yesterday. Both parties have swung back and forth, sometimes to extremism, many times.
The enduring challenge for both is seeking and controlling the center. That's why we often have a President from one party and a Congress from the other. Most voters want the checks and balances that are built in to our governmental system. Most politicians simply want to win. Therein lies the difference.
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