What Is A Libertarian?

Their Perspective
The Republican Party (GOP = Grand Old Party) is quite put-out with both the Tea Party and the Libertarian Party. They both rock the Establishment boat and cause a big rift in the GOP Party. The Tea Party is known for it's protests against higher taxes and bigger government. But what exactly is the Libertarian Party and what are their guiding principles?

Definitions
Here are several sources of definitions that should help you understand what Libertarian is and what they believe.

Wikipedia: "Libertarianism is the group of political philosophies which advocate minimizing coercion and emphasize freedom, liberty, and voluntary association. Libertarians generally advocate a society with a greatly reduced state or no state at all."

Dictionary.com: Libertarian: "a person who advocates liberty, especially with regard to thought or conduct. A person who maintains the doctrine of free will (distinguished from necessitarian)."

About.com: Libertarian: "One who believes that the only legitimate purpose of a government is to protect the rights of its citizens. Anyone who supports civil liberties to a greater-than-average degree. Anyone who believes in minimal, decentralized government. When the word "Libertarian" is capitalized, it generally refers to a member of the Libertarian Party."

Author David Friedman (The Machinery of Freedom): "The central idea of libertarianism is that people should be permitted to run their own lives as they wish."

Author David Boaz (Libertarianism: A Primer): "Libertarianism is the view that each person has the right to live his life in any way he chooses so long as he respects the equal rights of others. Libertarians defend each person's right to life, liberty, and property-rights that people have naturally, before governments are created. In the libertarian view, all human relationships should be voluntary; the only actions that should be forbidden by law are those that involve the initiation of force against those who have not themselves used force-actions like murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, and fraud."

You Get The Idea
The underlying theme as shown above, is that there should be as little government intervention in your lives as possible. What's wrong with that? You should be able to pursue your God given right to being happy - as long as you are mindful that you do not trample on someone else's rights. You live your lives as individuals - not as part of the "collective" - as Obama and his pundits want!

Isn't it time to consider these goals and philosophy of life instead of constantly being mislead by BOTH political parties? Think about it. You may realize that this is more in-line with your thinking.