The United States is an incredibly politically polarized society with much of the population divided between the Republican and Democrat parties. Political discourse is split into a false dichotomy where one is presumed to belong to one if they disagree with the other. I don't know how severe this phenomenon is in other countries, but I suspect there is at least a degree of the same sentiment.
I am a small-'L' libertarian, meaning I don't belong to the Libertarian Party, but I find myself in agreement with the general philosophy of libertarianism. In short, this can be summed up in the non-aggression principle (NAP): it is always wrong to initiate coercive force against peaceful people. Of course, this requires layers of debate and philosophy to determine the scope of individual spheres of authority and the point where trespass occurs, but life, liberty, and property acquired within the scope of the NAP are the fundamental boundaries.
Governments operate through violating the NAP. Taxation, eminent domain, regulatory overreach, license requirements, mandatory contractual impositions, prohibition laws, arbitrary fines or prison sentencing, numerous victimless crime laws, war, capital punishment, and routine police abuse barely scratch the surface. Government is presented as an institution which serves to protect our liberty and maintain an orderly society, but I contend that society predates the State, and progress happens in spite of political intervention rather than because of it.
All of this is to say that I may find myself in agreement with either Democrats or Republicans on specific issues, at least in rhetoric if not their legislative actions. This can be lazily presented as straddling the fence in a middle ground fallacy, but my deeper principles guide my arguments, not an appeal to moderation. I am an extremist when it comes to liberty.
Here's a quick-and-dirty chart showing a selection of topics where I stand on several key topics as an example. This isn't a complete endorsement or repudiation, mind you, because these are all complex issues with diverse opinions on each even within partisan circles.
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Gun regulation | X | ✔ |
| Immigration restrictions* | ✔ | X |
| Business regulation | X | ✔ |
| Drug prohibition | ✔ | X |
| War** | X | ✔ |
| Library access | ✔ | X |
*I get the conservative opposition to profligate welfare handouts at the expense of the working citizen, but not the rabid nationalism or latent xenophobia.
**Isn't it weird that (broadly speaking) over the past 10 years, the Democrats have become more openly belligerent and interventionist while Republicans have drifted away from such positions?
You can see how at first glance, this might seem like cherry-picking positions as a wishy-washy compromise, but my stance is rooted in holding individual liberty and personal responsibility above political authority.
Gun ownership, whether legal or illegal, is not inherently a violation of anyone's life, liberty, or property. Self-defense is a natural right derived from the right to life, and using punitive actions or threats of force to restrict people from owning the most effective technological means to defend themselves is trespass.
Immigration, whether legal or illegal, is not inherently a violation of anyone's life, liberty, or property. Crossing a government border is not equivalent to trespassing on private property, and hring a worker without government documentation and approval is not a crime either.
Running a business, whether licensed or unlicensed, is not inherently a violation of anyone's life, liberty, or property. Trade is an ancient human solution to fulfill wants and needs with archaeological evidence of prehistoric peaceful exchange of goods across vast regions.
Consuming drugs, whether legal or illegal, is not inherently a violation of anyone's life, liberty, or property. The right to "pursuit of happiness" includes the right to err in the pursuit, and vices are not crimes.
War is, however, inherently a violation of life, liberty, and property at home and abroad from taxation, conscription, trade barriers, property destruction on a vast scale, and mass slaughter of soldiers and civilians alike.
Restricting access to library books based on appeals to puritanical control-freak authoritarianism doesn't rise to the scale of war atrocities, but it's not good, either. Government has no authority to act in loco parentis and enact sweeping restrictions on literature a portion of the public dislikes.
The principle of each individual's authority over their own lives and opposition to individual or institutional trespass against the same leads to my position on various issues. As such, I will cheer Donald Trump for freeing Ross Ulbricht even as I criticize his trade and immigration policies. This is why both the cult of personality surrounding the MAGA Republican movement and the Trump Derangement Syndrome from Democrats both irritate me.
The real debates within society are not left versus right, or even necessarily individualist versus collectivist, but liberty versus tyranny. It is consent versus coercion. Do you ever side with aggression in the sense of initiatory coercive force, or do you oppose it without exception? If you examine complex issues through this lens, it may help untangle many divisive issues so they can be understood and addressed rationally instead of resorting the typical partisan appeals to emotion.
Relevant quotations:
"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others."—John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1869)
"Therefore, whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets." (Matthew 7:12, WEB)
Ahimsa Paramo Dharma (अहिंसा परमॊ धर्मः): "non-violence is the highest moral virtue."
Primum non nocere [ˈpriːmũː noːn nɔˈkeːrɛ]: "first, do no harm."
Title image created as a hasty aftherthought in Canva
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