"With liberty and justice for all."
I started this blog to work out my political philosophy. It’s not that I never had opinions on politics, but that I wanted a chance to write about them, and develop them into what I would hope to be a coherent, practical, but unique viewpoint.
As I’ve always been a little different, I wanted to stand apart from the Democrats and Republicans, Liberals and Conservatives.
I came up with the term “New Libertarian Socialist.”
Now this is a bit of a paradox in itself as Libertarianism and Socialism are polar opposites regarding the role of government. But like Libertarians, I wanted to emphasize the importance of liberty and the individual’s ability to be unique and think for herself/himself. Like the Socialists, I feel a strong need to be concerned for others, particularly the less fortunate.
I added the word “new” as there is a long history of Libertarian Socialism, whose advocates were often considered anarchists. Generally, all the thinking along these lines (if you Google libertarian socialist) was by dead white guys in Europe. But a political philosophy has to be alive which means it can’t depend on the thoughts of the dead, but must be invigorated by the thoughts of the living of our time.
I’ve added a summary of my political philosophy to the banner of the blog:
- Preserving freedom
- Respecting human rights
- Government is a tool of the people
- Preferential concern for the poor
- Concern for the poor should be a joint effort of individuals, non-profit groups and government
- Ideology should not stand in the way of common-sense and practical solutions
- Fiscal responsibility in government: revenue that matches spending
No comments:
Post a Comment