Fun loving libertarians have a choice

Remarking on the upcoming election, a libertarian friend I super respect is hoping that Romney will win, not because the man is a libertarian (far from it), but because it will make it more fun and constructive to be a libertarian.

Let me quote from the email:

Being a libertarian can be fun again, when the president isn’t ACTIVELY trying to destroy the country.  Passively goes without saying, and we’ll have to keep an eye on the bastard.

Like my friend, I have no illusions about Romney. But I think libertarians need to look at the lowest common denominator. A guy who is hell bent on implementing European style statism, who has grown the government like no president before has next to nothing in common with libertarians. He only seems to be with libertarians on certain social issues, but that is illusory, because they are inextricably intertwined with government intervention. “Gay rights” to Obama is an illusory plank conditioned on a loss of autonomy and identity politics rank with partisan agreement. Ditto “women’s rights,” which are the opposite of true independence. “Reproductive rights” do not mean the right to reproduce; this is code language for the right to contraception and abortion, but even then, it isn’t about what we normally think of as rights; these “rights” are defined not as what there is freedom to do, but as what other people can be made to pay for. Imagine for a moment if the way they have tortured the concept of individual rights were applied to the drug legalization. Along with many libertarians, I believe that free individuals should have the right to consume whatever substances they want, but if we apply Democrat thinking, such a “right” would translate into making everyone else pay for the individual’s drugs! How they get away with it, I don’t know. So I really don’t think Obama is aligned with libertarians on social issues on anything but the most superficial level.

Romney, while not to my liking on social issues, is not devoted to destroying what freedom we still have, and there is no question that he is far more in favor of smaller government than Obama.

If elected, his feet can be held to the fire in a way that is unthinkable with Obama. He is aware of an ever-growing small-l libertarian base in the Republican Party, and the proof is that even his running mate shows libertarian tendencies (which others have done their best to stifle).

Obama, OTOH, is a hopeless communitarian statist, a completely lost cause.

Much as I hate reality, the reality is that either Romney or Obama will be elected, and I agree with my friend that if Romney is elected, being a libertarian will be more fun than it has been these last four years.