I am a disillusioned conservative, which is why I became a Libertarian. I continue to listen to conservative voices like Michael Knowles, Steven Crowder, and Ben Shapiro, but I hear many of the same arguments from them that I hear from the collectivist left.
I will focus on Knowles for a moment. I enjoy his religious background, and his return to the faith from his pre-awakening lifestyle. But he says that conservatives need to excise objectionable opinions from the party in order to keep the party ideology pure, and yet he wants to create a large unifying party. He then goes on to attack the Biden administration and the progressives for doing much of the same thing, for calling for unity, but demanding subservience. Yet, they are blind to it and he is not.
I like Ben Shapiro, I think that he is a moderate voice in the world, and tries for the most part to give many people the benefit of ignorance rather than malice. He operates with the worldview that most people operate with a sense of objective reality, and that they can be won over with logic and reason.
I like Steven Crowder. He is funny and doesn’t bend the knee to people who dislike his use of the First Amendment.
I find myself more and more that I am a Libertarian Populist. I want the common people to succeed and move up in society, to become prosperous. I want a large group, woven together by a set of common values that supersede any one particular interest. Being able to speak freely, even offensively, and having the support of the group to my right to say the most egregious thing. The same can be said of practicing my religious beliefs, writing what I want, voluntarily associating with people of many different views and ideologies. The values that bind us together are strong, but loose. And that is intentional.
I don’t care what your race, religion, sex, gender, pronouns, viewpoint, or specific opinion on any particular issue, with one very specific exception. I do not tolerate those who would force their views onto society and individuals, regardless of the “righteousness” of the cause. This authoritarian streak is present in so many people these days, and that trait crosses party lines and runs through every part of the political spectrum. You be you, and I’ll be me. Cool?
A Place 4Politics 