Why I’m a libertarian, what it means and why you should be one too

For the longest time in high school, I told anyone who would listen that my goal in life was to create my own political party. I put hours into this idea, researching topics and mascots and colors and logos.

I wanted a party that was fiscally conservative (lower taxes, less government regulation of business, fewer governmental departments) and socially liberal (pro-choice, feminist, pro-equality for all gender identities and sexualities and which supported a strict separation of church and state.)

I wanted non-interventionist foreign policy that was closer to the Monroe Doctrine than the Bush Doctrine and equal participation in international and transnational organizations rather than unilateral leadership. I was very excited about building it from the ground up ­— I was playing with European-style names like Centrist Party of America or Americans for the Center. Something that implied a third, middle route between the hawks and religious conservatives on the Right and the big government, big-spending liberals on the Left.

I have since found a better name for that ideal party: The Libertarian Party. It’s real, it already exists and it’s everything I want in a political party (except for being a major player).

First and foremost, it is important to note that libertarianism as a philosophy and the Libertarian Party are two different things. Libertarian philosophy is a spectrum just like any political philosophy, and there are those who fall closer to or further from the party’s platform than I do.

My beliefs are in no way representative of everyone who calls themselves a libertarian, but they do fall on the spectrum. At minimum, the Libertarian Party and libertarians in general support maximized freedom in both personal and business matters.

Basically, libertarians want the government to keep its hands off of their businesses and its nose out of their personal lives. It’s very much a “live and let live” philosophy, which is probably my favorite thing about it. There’s no judgment about life choices, no proclamations about who chooses what morality for any other person — it is up to each individual to run his or her life as he or she sees fit. It is thus also the responsibility of each individual to work to achieve the goals she or he wants to accomplish and accept the consequences of choices made in pursuit of those goals.

The closest libertarians get to a unified morality is the Non-Aggression Principle. This is a core belief of libertarianism that you have the right to do as you please so long as you don’t infringe on anyone else’s right to do the same. This becomes the framework through which one can determine criminality — the right to swing one’s fist ends at the next person’s nose.

Libertarians believe that it is not the responsibility of the government to legislate morality, but rather to protect natural rights. This is very important to me, as I believe in a strict separation between church and state. The United States is a nation of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Atheists, Agnostics, Rastafarians, Pastafarians and perhaps most recently, Indiana’s First Church of Cannabis (look up Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act for more info).

Creating laws to govern all of those people who believe in such diverse teachings and philosophies based on only one of those belief systems, to me, seems oppressive and deliberately exclusive. Libertarians trust people to live without violating others’ rights — without the need for a government-imposed moral code. People can be decent human beings, live in society and respect one another without adhering to the exact same proscriptions for living a good life.

With the 2016 presidential circus already beginning, my frustration with the lack of options in Congress and American politics in general is more prominent than usual. As a self-avowed political junkie, I have no doubt I will follow every twist and turn of the campaign trails.

I will bemoan the failings of the major candidates from the Republicans and the Democrats and proudly support the candidate for the Libertarian Party. I might even volunteer for the campaign, working to spread the message of the Libertarian Party and push it further into mainstream awareness.

My new goal is to work to make the Libertarian Party a national power player, one that can operate on the same level as the Republicans and Democrats and garner the respect it deserves.

If you’re interested in learning more about libertarianism, consider attending a meeting of Hopkins Students for Liberty (hopkinssfl@gmail.com) or reading up on the Libertarian Party’s official platform (www.lp.org/platform).