The American political spectrum is very wide taking in many different ideologies and belief systems when it comes to government, power and the citizenry. Its a lot like personality types when it comes to individuals. Some people are just naturally happy in in a good mood most all of the time. They are a joy to be around, can be the life of the party, always are seeing the positive side of most things, and are generally ‘the glass is half full’- if not more - type of people. Then there are the opposite, people who are almost always sad or gloomy. They are real downers and can kill the buzz at a party faster than a cold rain in September. They are ‘the glass is half empty’ - if not even less - type of people. They are easy to identify and apply a personality type to them.
I once knew a person who had a serious case of bi-polar illness. Most of the time, they tended to be rather quiet and unassuming and blended in with the wallpaper. Once in a while they were on the manic phase and could be the life of the party and a real live wire but such times were rare and to be remembered. Much more often, they were at the low point - in deep depression and you did not want to be within a mile of them since they just dripped and oozed sadness and despair. It is a sad condition and those unfortunate to have it have my sympathy and understanding.
Modern medicine considers such a condition as rare and as abnormal. Modern medicine has developed drugs and treatment for it and that is a very good thing when people can be helped to lead a much more productive and normal life.
Libertarians like to puff out their chest and tell you how
“I am special†..... “I am different†.... “I defy the traditional continuum of the political spectrumâ€. On some issues they are far right... on some issues they are far left ... and on some issues they are moderates. In that regard they are like the abnormal mental illness of bi-polarism of political ideologies.
Its too bad you cannot just give them some prescribed medication and cure or help cope with that illness.
Of course, when you look closely at the issues of the day, most libertarians fall firmly on the far right of the spectrum on the really important issues. You see, I do not give a flying crap about legalizing drugs. The issue means nothing to me and if I could care less about it then I suppose I would. But the issue is meaningless to me.
The same thing with something pornography. I just do not care because it does not impact my life or my life style one iota. To be rather frank and honest about it - I do not smoke dope or use drugs... never have. Dirty pictures never really have cut it for me either. And those are the so-called issues in which libertarians lean to the Left on.
All the other stuff which I care about deeply; the rights of organized labor and the working person, civil rights for ethnic and racial minority groups, fighting corporate power, using the power of government to create a fairer and more equitable society for all, achieving a fairer distribution of income, achieving a fairer tax policy to insure proper citizen services, protecting important programs like Social Security and Medicare, health insurance reform, having a strong system of public education, .... the list goes on .... on all those issues libertarians are on the far right wing.
That is why myself and many other people associate libertarians with the right wing. On the really important issues of the day, they are indeed radical right wingers who are reactionaries. If they got their way on policy issues, we would find ourselves back in the bad old days of the 19th centuries Gilded Age.
No thank you. Been there and done that.
I am reminded of the comedian Kevin Meeney who was popular in the 1980’s and 90’s. He used to do a routine where he talked about things that some people thought were important, things that some people thought were critical to their lives. Then he would launch into a song.....
http://www.kevinmeaney.com/audio/KEVIN_MEANEY-.mp3
“I don’t care ..... I don’t care....
I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care.â€
A really great routine and it describes perfectly how I feel about the libertarians “left†issues. When it comes down to the really important stuff - on which side of the line they fall in the fight against corporate power and the rich - they are firmly on the ultra conservative right wing reactionary side.
And that is what I care about more that trivial crap like legalizing drugs or pornography. In fact, the rich corporations and their apologists, toadies and servants would be more than happy to let as many of us as possible go through life stoned out of our minds with a giant stack of pornography at the ready if we only will just allow them to have the real wealth and the power that goes with it in this country. Sorry, that deal does not appeal to me.
So libertarians can claim both ends of the political spectrum just the same way that people burdened with bi-polar illness can claim to be the life of the party on some days and depressed and near suicide on other days. The not so funny thing is that people with bi-polar disease did not select it or decide to have it. Libertarians actually opted for their disfunctional ideological illness.
For them, sadly, the glass is always empty with no chance of ever having as much as a drop in it.