You would identify as?

[JBeukema]

(poll to follow)

What would you identify as, if you had to give a name to your general ideology? What are your core beliefs and why did you make the choice you did?

 

[JBeukema]

Personally, I would say classical liberal/libertarian

The purpose of the state is to protect the populace; the central authority should be as weak as it can be kept while being able to perform its duties. Decentralization and federation help maintain liberty.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Assuming that by 'Classical Liberal' you mean the kind of liberal described in this post: http://www.usmessageboard.com/educa...th-conservatism-america-was-born-liberal.html, sign me up.

-Joe

 

[JBeukema]

With the exception that this

Liberals were sometimes contemptuous of the propertyless masses below, forming alliances with them only so far as necessary. Middle-class liberals’ contempt for those below them was often a mask for fear; their contempt of the aristocrats above them was tinged with envy.

strikes as propaganda and isn't applicable to classical liberalism (at least as I understand and use the term) or libertarianism so much as it is of modern neoliberalism, statism, and the elitism of the modern 'liberals' composing the Democratic party and related ideologies, which have less in common with liberalism than with the class warfare philosophy or stalin and others.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Classical liberal / Libertarian.

 

[Toro]

"Pragmatic classical liberal."

Since that's not an option, I just put "classical liberal."

 

[Arawyn]

I tend to be socially conservative but am developing more and more libertarian tendencies. I believe the government (fed) should be kept to a minimum and only engage in areas under which was granted under the Constiution. I tend to heatedly disagree with Republicans who believe that banning things like smoking in a car, in public, or creating any new laws to further restrict freedom.

 

[xsited1]

My hunch is that most who selected 'Classical Liberal' are not really Classical Liberals and believe in big government programs.

 

[Oddball]

My hunch is that most who selected 'Classical Liberal' are not really Classical Liberals.

If we're going by the Hayek definition, I'm in there.

 

[xsited1]

My hunch is that most who selected 'Classical Liberal' are not really Classical Liberals.

If we're going by the Hayek definition, I'm in there.

Me, too. It might be a good time to post who he was just in case anyone doesn't know.

Friedrich August von Hayek (May 8, 1899 - March 23, 1992) was an economist of the Austrian School noted for his defense of free-market capitalism against a rising tide of socialism thought in the mid-20th century. He also made important contributions to the fields of jurisprudence and psychology.

In The Road to Serfdom (1944) and subsequent works, Hayek said that socialism necessarily led to fascism as central planning overrode individual preferences in economic and social life. Hayek contended that in Centrally Planned Economies, an individual or a group of individuals decided the allocation of resources for the whole country and suffered from the economic calculation problem. This accumulation of power led to misuse and growth of fascism. In The Use of Knowledge in Society (1945), he sought to show how the price mechanism serves to share and synchronise local and personal knowledge in achieving diverse ends among society's members through a principle of self-organization. Hayek coined the term catallaxy for a "self-organizing system of voluntary co-operation".

Hayek viewed the price mechanism, not as a conscious invention, but as an evolved habit. Such thinking led him to speculate how the human brain could accommodate such evolved behaviour and, in The Sensory Order (1952), he proposed, independently of Donald Hebb, the connectionist hypothesis that forms the basis of the technology of neural networks and much modern neurophysiology.

Though an academic outcast for much of his career, Hayek's work gained new attention in the 1980s and 1990s with the triumph of economically liberal right-leaning governments in the United States and Great Britain (Margaret Thatcher, British prime minister from 1979 to 1990, was an outspoken devotee of Hayek's writings). However, Hayek sought to distance himself from the political right in his essay Why I am not a Conservative (1960).

Hayek shared the prize for Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1974.

Hayek is often referred to as F. A. Hayek, and sometimes by his full name.

Hayek. Who is Hayek? What is Hayek? Where is Hayek? Definition of Hayek. Meaning of Hayek.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Personally, I would say classical liberal/libertarian

The purpose of the state is to protect the populace; the central authority should be as weak as it can be kept while being able to perform its duties. Decentralization and federation help maintain liberty.

nothing liberal about this asshole except his uninformed opinions.

this dolt is more a progressive libertarian, which in itself can cause dis-ease of the mind.

 

[Oddball]

Ahhh...And nano-brain chimes in with a little of his patented trolling!!

Eat any good books lately??

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Classical liberal / Libertarian.

yet another progressive posing as a liberal. gwad, they make me sick!

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

"Pragmatic classical liberal."

Since that's not an option, I just put "classical liberal."

another...

why do some asswipes think they can be as intolerant as any jerk to walk the earth and yet claim the mantle of liberalism?

 

[hjmick]

I don't identify as anything as I am all over the board in my beliefs.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Ahhh...And nano-brain chimes in with a little of his patented trolling!!

Eat any good books lately??

and...I will soon identify myself. wtf are you hiding from, loser?

 

[noose4]

blue collar democrat but for purposes of this poll i chose liberal.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Classical liberal / Libertarian.

yet another progressive posing as a liberal. gwad, they make me sick!

Definitely not a progressive, and only a liberal in the classical Locke / Bastiat / Mises / Hayek sense. Libertarian would be my modern identification.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

I identify as a liberal and always have. Even (and especially) during the Reagan/Bush years I was a loud, proud liberal. Before 911 I was a liberal who flew the American flag from my front porch. I am tolerant of most people and allow them to speak beforev I bitch slap them. I've never participated in a counter demonstration whose goal was to silence others or to out shout the message of others I fundametally disagree with.

Progressives masquerading as liberals can be found at most demonstrations and counter demonstrations where opponets are portrayed as enemies and dehumanized.

fuck all you progressive nitwits. fuck you all.

how's them apples?

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

"Pragmatic classical liberal."

Since that's not an option, I just put "classical liberal."

another...

why do some asswipes think they can be as intolerant as any jerk to walk the earth and yet claim the mantle of liberalism?

You're complaining about intolerance after all the names you call people on this board?