No room for libertarians

It's become obvious that once again there's no room for libertarians in the Republican Party or the Democrat Party. Neither party is committed to the principles of classical liberalism. It boils down to conservative and Big Government Republicans on the Right and liberals and progressives on the Left, with moderates trying to figure out which way to shift. The Libertarian Party is a dead letter.

Neither major party is a viable vehicle for libertarians, so once again libertarians are relegated to the fringe of American politics, although our country has never needed libertarian economics, civil liberties and foreign policy moreso than now. The libertarian influence on the Tea Party is being marginalized as "extreme", and the media presents the usual cartoon version of libertarianism in an effort to denigrate its contribution to the national conversation. Even many libertarians are either moving to Republican libertarianism, supporting foreign intervention and minimizing free market principles, or to the Left in the form of a combination of modern liberalism and civil libertarianism which actively opposes free market principles and fails to oppose the Democrats' expansion of foreign intervention.

This marginalization of libertarians is a status quo reaction which protects our statist system of government, keeping the two-party system locked firmly in place. Aside from the status quo centrists who simply want power because there's personal comfort, prestige and advantages with power, there are two social religions vying for the heart and mind of the State through a coercive interventionist government which can bring about the tenets of their social religion. On the Right is the conservative social religion, and on the Left is the progressive social religion -- both are true believers and seek power to change others or prevent other from acting in ways contrary to the tenets of the respective social religions. The conservative social religion focuses on the issues of abortion, law and order, protection against radical Islam, pornography, Christianity, fiscal conservativism, pro-business policies, patriotism, border control, sanctity of marriage, the war on drugs, and such, while the progressive social religion focuses on the issues of labor rights, women's rights, poverty, saftey net security, anti-capitalism, regulation of industry, nationalized healthcare, global warming, multi-culturalism, foreign intervention which helps developing nations, community organizing to transform power to the oppressed, redistributon of wealth, and such.

Both social religions require a strong State with coercive powers which reach beyond Constitutional limits. Libertarians may share similar goals which each side, like fiscal sanity, alleviation of poverty, equal rights for all, but mostly libertarians believe that such efforts as the War on Drugs are wasteful and counter-productive, and that safety nets do more harm to those in need than would private efforts to voluntarily provide assistance to those in need. Libertarians don't seek political power which would coerce others to act certain ways -- libertarians, for the most part believe that people should be free to do as they wish as long as they are not violating the basic rights of others to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Libertarians are not necessarily amoral libertines, although some might personally be this way, just as anyone in any group might be this way as evidenced by both individual conservatives and progressives caught acting in libertine or amoral or immoral fashion. Libertarians can be just as morally committed to certain ways of living as anyone else -- they just believe that real morality is freely chosen. A man who contributes to charity is practicing morality in a real way as opposed to someone who gives nothing personally but rather takes from some and gives to others. The person who chooses to make a career helping people conquer their addictions is acting morally as opposed to someone who turns  addicts over to over-crowded prisons where they have no chance of recovering.

Morals are made real through inner struggle and personal acceptance, then action, not through government legislation. The libertarian way is a more difficult way because it makes people responsibile for their decisions, and this is not popular with those who would rather coerce society to act a certain way, then hide within a political party.

Plus, economic freedom is necessary for widespread economic opportunity and gowth. The conservatives give lip service to economic freedom, but neither side is fighting diligently for a free market. Without economic freedom all freedoms are threatened. Libertarians are once again being pushed out of the conversation after a brief fling with the ideas of classical liberalism. It remains to be seen which way the Tea Party will go, but if they go toward libertarianism, they'd better be prepared to go alone politically, because neither party will implement their ideas.