The nature of the liberty movement is that it is iconoclastic. It is impossible to reconcile a belief in liberty with the ideology of social democracy and mob rule; either you are free to do as you please or you must submit to the hegemony. There is and always will be a conflict between those who believe that they can control others and those who wish to be left alone. As libertarians we must not shy away from this conflict but embrace it as a just struggle. Advocating for compromise in this arena is a fools errand. It is both poor strategy and poor tactics. Instead of trying to get along with those who wish us to submit meekly to their rule we should shout them down.
The goal of the libertarian movement must always be to promote liberty. The proper means by which this goal can be achieved are the organizing of like minded people and the conversion of those who have no firm political persuasion (people in college, for example). It is futile to attempt to proselytize to social democrats of any stripe. People do not reexamine their premises; they do not challenge their deeply held beliefs. There is no way to make liberty appeal to those who are committed to state action and state control. Efforts to cater to the social democratic masses are self defeating. These people cannot be drawn into the libertarian fold or rescued from their statism. Selling out our principles in a vain effort to appeal to the social democratic crowd will simply weaken our movement and discredit our arguments.
Libertarianism is a broad tent ideology. Many of the members of this movement are militant atheists and many others are devoutly religious. There are minarchists, anarchists, constitutionalists and many other flavours of libertarian. It should come as no surprise that a movement which trumpets individualism should be attractive to a diverse crowd. Attempting to impose a homogeny of opinion upon libertarians quite obviously runs contrary to the principles of the movement.
The Libertarian Party of Canada is quite simply the political arm of the libertarian movement in Canada. It is incumbent upon this organization and the individuals within it to ensure that their actions are compatible with the philosophy of liberty. With an election in three months the goal is to have as many candidates as possible so it seems like everything possible should be done to encourage more people who wish to run in an election under the party banner to do so instead of forbidding individuals from running. Frankly the Party is not really in a position presently to be rejecting potential candidates with an expected maybe 90 candidates for a total of 308 seats. Nor is it appropriate for a centralized executive to censor the views and opinions of candidates. Certainly if there is an area to demand consensus it is in opposition to the initiation of force or on affirmation of the right to own property. These are the core ideas of the libertarian philosophy. It is absurd to demand that candidates kowtow to cultural marxism or the social democratic agenda in any form. We are not social democrats. We are libertarians. These ideas have an irreconcilable conflict.
Nicely said.
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