Originally posted by: ElFenix
a libertarian is actually a liberal, but because the democrats (more accurately described as authoritarian leftists, because their ideology is generally leftist and they trust that government authority is a justifiable means to that end) have co-opted the term 'liberal' to refer to themselves and anyone more leftist than themselves, true liberals have had to come up with something else. liberal is the ideology of the bourgeoisie in revolutionary france and in the american revolution. it basically is someone for little government interference in either personal or business spheres. government should merely be a transparent framework/infrastructure for social interaction. for the liberal, taxes are slavery, and should only go to provide for necessary government functions, such as national defense, police, and a court system to resolve differences.
You, sir, are correct. American Libertarians should more properly be called Classical Liberals (and should not, under any circumstances, be confused with what they call Libertarians in Europe, aka Social Anarchists).
Classical Liberalism began in France during the reign of King Louis XIV. Louis was a sh!thead who liked to build expensive palaces for himself, have play wars, and tax and oppress the people to death. Unfortunately, statism has a way of suppressing economic growth, so the end result was that France's economy could not keep up with Louis' financial needs, a fact which Louis found to be an inconvenience (while the peasants starved in the streets). He hired a prominent banker to turn the economy around, and the banker began asking businessmen what should be done. The resounding answer was "
Laissez-faire!" which in French means "Leave things alone," i.e. business does best when government gets out of the way and lets the people run it.
Louis choose not to take this advice, his country continued to deteriorate under his Authoritarianism, resulting eventually in revolution and the beheading of his grandson (Louis XVI).
Thomas Jefferson and many of the Founding Fathers were Classical Liberals, as was Adam Smith.
Originally posted by: digitalsm
Libertarians are generally fiscally conservative and socially liberal.
True
They think abortion is okay, gay marriage is okay, and the death penalty should be done away with.
True, true, and false.
They do not believe in social or corporate welfare, large military budgets, or pork barrel spending.
Of course, true.
They are very much pro gun and for protecting enviornment.
True and false. Life being the most important of all rights, a person unable to defend himself is by definition not free. As to the environment, Libertarians are not tree-huggers, but conservationists. Depleting resources is bad for business as well as the environment.
Other than that most are extremely greedy capitalists.
Absolutely false.
Greed is the desire to unearned wealth, and NO ONE is greedier than a socialist, despite their lies and blatantly false propaganda to the contrary.