Why I Call Myself A Libertarian Socialist – Part One
In my last post I explained why I changed my political views on Facebook. Today I am going to begin the whole story.
First I’ll start with the short answer – I call myself a libertarian socialist because I don’t know what other label fits me better.
I started to take an interest in politics when I was in seventh grade. Reagan was challenging Carter in the presidential race and that was an interesting race from my perspective. My parents were new Christians who had always voted for Democrats and they were going to vote for Carter a second time. Not only was he a Democrat, but he was born again.
I had just enrolled in a very conservative Christian school and we were being taught that Reagan was the right man for the job because he best represented the principles we read in Scripture. I remember discussing this with my parents and as far as I know they decided to vote for Reagan because of this. We were all convinced he was the right man for the job.
Before I get away from this topic I should point out a few things. One, though I have tremendous respect for President Carter, I still think Reagan did a better job than Carter would have. Two, though I may feel “duped” into voting for someone on false pretenses, I did learn a valuable lesson – one should vote based on the issues, not the religion of the candidate.
As I continued to study politics I became convinced that the root of everything bad in the world was government. More government, more problems. In my mind, our country was a success because our government was intentionally crafted to protect its citizens from itself. When I was old enough to vote I registered Republican because I believed they supported smaller government.
Over the next few years, I learned a few things about life and politics:
- Democrats and Republicans – same people in different costumes.
- Government is not THE problem – oppression is.
- Americans have, in my opinion, confused liberty with individualism.
As a result, I have a much different view on American politics. I’m sure you can’t wait to learn more. Stay tuned.