Where Do Libertarians Belong?

• Author: Rawles, Linda
• Position: Letter to the editor

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Thanks to reason for asking "Where Do Libertarians Belong?" (August/September). At least here in Arizona, the answer is not with the Tea Party, conservatives, or anyone who supports Sheriff Joe Arpaio's gestapo and the "show me your papers" movement.

If I have to choose an alliance, I have resigned myself to going left: It is easier to teach a liberal that rights are not entitlements than to get a conservative to define freedom in a way that gives the concept meaning and integrity.

Matt Kibbe's "freedom" has given us wars, religious patriotism, Joe Arpaio, and the immigration law. Under Jonah Goldberg's federalism, we give up all of America to majoritarian moralism and forget about individual freedom altogether. Conservative is as far from libertarian as liberal. At least the left is more honest about its agenda, which seems to flow from a sincere if misguided empathy rather than fear and hatred.

Linda Rawles

Carefree, AZ

Jonah Goldberg parades the old canard that only on the political right can libertarians find serious economic libertarianism. Please. Republicans are always libertarians when they're out of office.

Matt Kibbe is correct about Tea Parties, at least as I have experienced them. In the Baltimore area, they're spontaneous and decentralized. Might there be some right-wing loonies among them, as Brink Lindsey indicates ? Well, you could find some of those people right next to you in the produce aisle at your local Safeway.

Lindsey is correct when he says that merely clinging to the right leads us to very unlibertarian ground. Unfortunately, he implies that his political home collapsed with the alleged implosion of the Libertarian Party in the 1980s. He should look again. Here in Maryland, we Libertarians ran a nearly full slate for Congress in 2008, and we're doing it again this year. Libertarians do have a...