Bucc,
I had never really equated libertarian with republican until the time of that conversation. I don't know where the idea came from and it probably wasn't you but I didn't know very much about the party before then and took some time to get to know it and that concept came from that activity.
It seemed to me that ( very roughly speaking ) the libertarians were spun out of the republican party because the core ideals of that party ( smaller government, personal responsibility ect ) were only given lip service by that party.
I found this on the wiki under left libertarianism and I found it interesting.
Quote:
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Left-libertarianism is usually regarded as doctrine that has an egalitarian view concerning natural resources, believing that it is not legitimate for someone to claim private ownership of resources to the detriment of others.
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I don't believe this but I believe precisely that since we allow private ownership of resources that we owe it as a society to see that the resources needed for survival, specifically food, shelter and clothing are available to those that need them so no citizen needs for these basic necessities they no longer can freely get due to the principle of ownership.
I don't know what that view makes me but I had a great time defending the position on usenet many many moons ago.
It seems that the europeans agreed with me and the americans hated it. No one called it socialist though but we weren't that label minded then. It'd be interesting if that view fit somehow into the libertarian ideal though because I do agree with quite a few of their positions as shown on the wiki but I strongly believe that it's a governmental responsibility, if they defend private ownership to ensure the most needed resources are available to those who don't own them and I'm not willing to give those specific responsibilities to private charity.