Emily Brennan
Online Media Manager
In the past year there has been an immense amount of political unrest in the United States. This country has been divided, torn apart by our nation's leader these past four years. Even after watching Joe Biden’s Presidential Inauguration speech, where unity was his theme, I still feel as though this country will still be more than divided. As I scroll through social media, I feel hopeless. It is filled with anger, hatred and suspicion. As I learn more about journalism and mass media, I find myself not politically affiliated with any party. Instead, I tend to read from both conservative and liberal news sources and try to draw my own conclusions. I have also spent time looking into other political parties that our nation does not draw much attention to. One of these parties was most particularly interesting - the Libertarians.
Most libertarianism views stem from what we call political philosophy. The concept of Libertarianism is freedom of personal, social and economic liberties. Individual freedoms are highly valued, believing that every person is free to make their own choices. Libertarianism is the right to govern oneself. It is believed that every American has the liberty to follow personal interests as they wish, if they are not causing harm to another or oneself. Freedom of expression is fully supported along with the opposition of censorship. Another key concept to libertarianism is rejection of coercion. Coercion, by definition, is “the practice of persuading someone to do something by using force or threats.” With personal freedom comes freedom of political parties and freedom of opinion. Libertarians do not believe in the use of verbal abuse to convince one to believe in certain ideas or choices.
There is controversy when it comes to the third party because it is seen as right-wing. However, this is misleading. Libertarians not only believe in the right to private property, bear arms and the free market, but defending social issues such as LGBTQ+ rights, women’s choice to govern their own bodies (including abortion and the decriminalization of prostitution) and decriminalization of all drugs on the federal level. They also believe in open borders and strongly oppose any kind of war along with the death penalty. Some who practice libertarianism believe in Laissez-Faire economics, meaning that the economy will flourish if the government’s top priority is protecting individual freedoms. For this theory to work, Libertarians argue that the free market is necessary. Other Libertarians might believe in a concept called egalitarianism. This is another part of “political philosophy,” believing that all people are equal in some way.
Overall, Libertarians believe in the freedom to choose. You might choose to read this article and think “interesting take.” Or you might choose to put the article down after the first paragraph because you disagree with it entirely. The choice is up to you. For this country to come together again, hate, anger and fear need to be replaced by unity, discussion and compromise. If you would like to take a deeper look into the official Libertarian party, you can find them here.
“Our problem cannot be solved by any form of coercion, but only by agreement.” -Unknown.