In a free society, you make the choices about your life.  In a politically dominated society, someone else makes the choices.  And because people naturally resist letting others make important choices for them, political society is, of necessity, based upon coercion.  From “The Libertarian Mind” by David Boaz

In our modern political canvas, we place everyone in one of two categories left (liberal) and right (conservative).  There is a platform for each and we must choose one or the other for practical relevance.  There are two dominant parties with the Democratic party representing everyone from overlapping center to left and the Republican party representing everyone from overlapping center to right.  Many feel that the party platform of each has become more polarized left (Democrats) and more polarized right (Republicans.)  I believe the most significant foundational value of the American Experiment is Freedom.  Which of the two dominant parties is the strongest proponent of Freedom?

The Republicans seem to be the biggest proponents of economic freedom while the Democrats seem to be the biggest proponents of personal freedom.  What party do you join or support if upholding Freedom is the most important to you as a voter?  I have met many hardened Democrats that seem to me to be fiscally conservative and socially liberal and  I meet many Republicans that seem to be socially liberal and fiscally conservative.  What I tend to find is that the choice of party for each is based upon which of the two (personal or economic freedom) that they feel is most important.  I happen to be a staunch fiscal conservative and in support of economic freedom (low taxes, smaller government and a limited amount of Federal laws regulating economic activities) and yet I also am a social liberal in that I believe that we should not legislate morality and that personal behavior should be of personal choice and governed by grass roots family and community organization but because I believe Economic Freedom is the most critical of the two, I default to vote Republican.  I know many Democrats that weight the need for social (individual) freedom above the need for economic freedom and they default to vote Democrat.

Ultimately, each law passed is a restriction on the people’s freedom to act and choose as they please.  There are easily more laws restricting and governing an individual person than any person can keep track of and explicitly follow.  Is one of the two dominant political parties a protector of Freedom?  I do not see it.  Both parties fancy the title of “law maker” for its representatives.  If you are making more laws you are restricting freedom.  What if I do not want more laws?  What if I want many laws actually repealed and what if I want the government to be substantially smaller?  Conventional wisdom says that I should vote Republican but I am beginning to question that wisdom.  Republicans seem to give the goal of smaller government and less intrusion in our personal lives lip service but I do not have confidence that the GOP actions will match the GOP words.  Ronald Regan was raised an Irish Catholic Democrat and he said, “I did not leave the Democratic Party, the party left me.”  I feel that way about my GOP.  But I do not find safe harbor with the Democratic Party, in fact I still find it the lesser of the two evils.

While our society remains generally based upon equal rights and markets, every day new exceptions to those principles is carved out in Washington and in Albany, Sacramento and Austin (not to mention Brussels, Beijing, and elsewhere).  Each new government directive takes a little bit of our freedom, and we should think carefully before we give up any liberty……A Liberal Society is resilient; it can withstand many burdens and continue to flourish; but it is not infinitely resilient.  Those who claim to believe in liberal principles but advocate more and more confiscation of the wealth created by productive people, more and more restrictions on voluntary interaction, more and more exceptions to property rights and the rule of law, more and more transfer of power from society to state, are unwittingly engaged in the ultimate deadly undermining of civilization.  From “The Libertarian Mind” by David Boaz

If Liberty is the main component of America’s foundational beliefs, we are in the process of removing one pillar at a time from our foundation and using it to increase the mass and weight of the structure on top.  Eventually the structure will collapse.  Human nature causes us to value scarce resources over abundant resources.  We take Freedom for granted and value it less than our concern for “fairness” and our recently new identification of equality as meaning “equal results”.  We are not aware that each step we take toward trying to make things “fair” and “equal” is a step away from freedom.