ELEVENTH IN LINE




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A blog about my life, universe, etc. At any given time you might find something endlessly interesting or just me ruminating on something else, which no one (not even myself) finds interesting. That's the way blogs go, I suppose. Anyway, I was eleventh in line, and you weren't. Hah!

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Name:
Sarah
Age:
26
Residence:
Columbus, OH
Religion:
LDS
Political Score:
5.00/-2.15
Job:
Temp @ JPMorgan Chase
College:
Ohio State University
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Political Science, International Studies
High School: Home Educated
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lloannna@gmail.com

About My Family
My mom is a
lawyer in Pickerington; my stepdad and dad are computer guys, and my stepmom (who works with my dad) is an engineer. My sisters are, in order of age, a photographer, an artist, and a person too young to have her own website. My brothers are, in order of age, living up north, and again, a person too young to have a website. At some point soon I'll be collecting links for my aunts, uncle, and cousins. ^_^

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Thursday, April 01, 2004
 
WHY I MAY NEVER BE A LIBERTARIAN...  
I have to wonder, sometimes, if it'll ever be possible for me to exhibit the necessary ideological purity to ever feel like a legitimate member of a political party like the Libertarians'. Now, I know already the classic aphorisms (the aparent global favorite seeming to be about eleven opinions in a room of ten Libertarians) about big-L Libertarianism (I'm already confident of my small-l libertarian credentials, but at least some registered Democrats and Republicans and Greens and Socialists and Tax Freedom and Reform party members can claim credentials just like mine). That's not the issue; there's plenty of disagreement and lack of cohesion in the larger, more objectively successful political parties in the U.S.; the reason they're successful is mostly due to the fact that they're composed of coalitions of interests that are, in order to gain ground on certain shared issues and a few non-shared issues, willing to forfeit their ideal objectives on other issues.

Part of the issue is that there's a unity of spirit apparent in many Libertarian party groups (including the Los Angeles one, from what I can tell) that I don't feel I can share. I'm ill-suited, I think, to political extremism even in it's (if you'll permit me the concept) mildest forms. Maybe it's growing up exposed to too many differing idealogies, or reading too much classical liberalism, but zealotry just rubs me the wrong way. I don't get any kind of a buzz from photos of Libertarian events where they stand around and burn copies of the Patriot Act; in addition to seeming silly and purposelessly uncouth, the action seems to needlessly reduce reasonable discussion over whether something does or does not infringe on civil liberties to reactionism. It doesn't do much more than produce a feeling of "woohoo, aren't we cool, we all agree with one another"ish nonsense, which is already irritating in gigantic fundraising events. It's just wasteful, decadent, and quite frankly reminds me too much of the stuff I read about the early development of other idealogically pure groups (like the Bloshevik/Communist Party in Russia, and later Communist movements elsewhere). Small groups of people are uniquely equipped to engage in real discussions about issues, to explore different viewpoints and solutions to problems, and to quite frankly raise the level of discourse about Important Stuff. Orgies of me-tooism are a shameful waste of potential.

But it goes further than misguided "we're small, we're strange, and we're proud to be Correct at all costs" imagery that turns me off to the Libertarian party. I don't feel so idealogically motivated as to be wiling to unilaterally support the instant full legalization of marijuana, to open up the borders to anyone who feels like coming on by, etc. I worry about pragmatic "will this make my childrens' lives next to impossible" stuff, not to mention "will this allow someone who'd like nothing better than to ensure my children have no future, meet his goals" type stuff. I don't like every provision of the Patriot Act, I don't approve of knee-jerk security upgrades that don't make anyone safer but do infringe on civil liberties, and I can't stand losses of freedom by judicial or executive fiat. That doesn't mean that I always think government acts are a Bad Thing, that everyone should be released from prison, etc. And whether it's true or not, it seems like that kind of idealogical purity is a prerequsite to honest and full membership in the Libertarian Party.

(and yes, the fact that it seems like a real professional future in the LP is next to impossible to achieve is a consideration -- but if I really wanted some kind of ecclesiastical career, I wouldn't let the whole "no paid clergy" thing keep me from following my beliefs and being Mormon)

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Because only so many people can be eleventh in line.