I took a libertarian purity test and got a score of 104 (out of 160).
Jason took it and got a score of 84. Ha! Ha!
I teased him about being a mushy, middle-roader when it comes to liberty -- placing him cruelly in the more conservative corner of the Republican Party.
He rejoined that I was the one who got all the "Republican mail" in the household. But that, of course, is only because I worked for the G.W. Bush 2004 campaign phone banks. What can I say? I was fueled by worry about the Supreme Court. I will be doing mea culpas for many years, especially if the Court does not overturn the egregious Roe v. Wade decision and continues to issue anti-liberty rulings, like Kelo v. New London.
But still, 104 -- not bad, eh? Especially when you consider that some of the latter ideas on the test were a little whacked and would require a vast overhaul of the Constitution. I'm comfortable with my score. I'm about as libertarian as you can be without be weird and unrealistic.
Only 76 for me. I've done better on other libertarian tests. =) Certain questions were impossible for me to honestly answer "yes" to. For instance, I don't think all taxes should be abolished, just most of them. There were quite a few questions of the all or nothing variety which I could not quite agree with.
ReplyDeleteYou know, Arielle, you're right -- all taxes could, in all practicality, not be abolished, but the radical within me was, like, you betcha!
ReplyDeleteI draw the line at calling political assassinations moral (in this country), or saying that the courts should be privatized, and things like that. But, most of the creepy branch of libertarianism (anarcho-capitalists) are way too far out for me.
I'd be so happy just to go back to the beauty and simplicity of the original intent of the Constitution -- with the Federal government's being largely irrelevant to day-to-day life.
In addition to what you mentioned, I also found it foolish to support dismantling the military. The military needs to be kept for home defense, but dismantling it would be foolish in the extreme. A country the size of America would be extremely easy pickings without military might that says "leave us alone!"
ReplyDeleteGoodness, no! You're right, we should never completely eliminate the military -- how ridiculous! I took the test again, answering a little more practically and less emotionally, and my score went down to 94 -- still putting me in the company of hard-core (but hopefully not insane) libertarians.
ReplyDeleteStill higher than Jason!
I got a 155.
ReplyDeleteDad, you're insane. It's a good thing that you are the ruler of your own sovereign nation, or we'd be in trouble. :)
ReplyDeleteLove you!