Must... Not... Hijack...
fyp

I think Gary Johnson and Buddy Roemer are good for siphoning off like 1-2% of the Republican vote.

The point being, I would think that you are more likely to find a Democrat supporting these freedoms than a Republican.

No I think neither side gives a ****.

Smoking bans, trans fat bans, gun bans: The party of personal freedom in America

Don't feel bad, suspiciously new user who immediately headed to politics, I've made that same mistake recently as well.

I agree with you.

I think these are great examples. While republicans are fighting against freedoms that actually vastly improve the quality of peoples lives (gay marriage, rights of Mexicans in border states, abortion, civil rights)--democrats, what, fight against the right to smoke in public places? You really want to fight for the right for fast food restaurants to put trans fats in your food? I see pretty big distinctions between those two value systems.

I think its pretty obvious that neither the Democrat or the Republican party is a freedom party the Democrat party has a recent history of being more for controversial personal freedoms - gay rights, pot, abortion, gaming, etc.

the things Republicans tend to be for are on the weird side - Unpasteurized Milk, Non-Energy efficient light bulbs, Business Corruption, Guns, etc.

The point is there is no mainstream party that supports rights and freedoms in general. If you want to argue that some freedoms are more important than others, do that.

I'll just be left behind wondering why we can't have one party that encapsulates the ideals of America.

Little known fact about Mitt Romney #1 -
Mitt was part of the pep squad at his boys-only private high school.

The problem is people disagree on what those freedoms are. Libertarianism is definitely simple and elegant, but a country is not. A country is complex, balancing just individual freedoms isn't so simple let alone factoring in actually constructing a society in which someone would want to live.

When Einstein said “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." He couldn't have better described libertarianism.


Edit: just for one, try balancing your freedom to smoke with my freedom not to inhale your cancer-smoke

I'm going to disagree with you instead, and maintain my position that democrats have a better track record on personal liberties than republicans.

Part of the problem with America is differing ideals. It seems to me that republicans believe that we should be subjugated to their religious conception of morality.

Democrats seem more interested in utilitarian value calculations of reducing harm. Again, they seem like two different ideas of freedom.

Which banned freedom specifically is the glue holding together modern American society?

Is it the trans fat ban? The late term abortion ban?

I think Abe Lincoln just flipped over in his grave.

Equating Abraham Lincoln with modern Republicans is not accurate, imo. A lot of southerners at the time looked at it as big government infringing on states rights.