Libertarians need to declare freedom from religion

Do you consider yourself a libertarian? I did at one time.

Boy was I wrong. But you there, you are a true libertarian. Government needs to get out of the way of progress. The government has no right to tell us what to do. If it does not hurt others, I can do what I want.

Smoke a joint? Cool.

 Conduct business without regulation? We are job creators.

 Shoot off high powered firearms? Hell yeah, AMERICA.

Be cool with a former decathlon Olympic gold medalist being transgender and winning an award on national television? Wait a second what about God and the Bible. 

Sorry bro, you are not a libertarian. Libertarians do not believe in the idea of except when...

But taxes, less government, freedom, Rand Paul, I am a true tea party libertarian.

No you are not. The problem with the new wave tea party libertarians is their fidelity to religious zealotry. Getting the government out of people's lives includes all aspects of people's lives. This includes gay marriage, abortion rights, and gender identity, and many other issues. I am going to talk about the first three today.

Gay Marriage

The Supreme Court did the right thing throwing out all the idiotic bans on gay marriage. The government has no right whatsoever to tell anyone who they can choose as a partner. Why are we as a nation, in the 21st century, denying american citizens rights? Being a libertarian is about gaining rights, not denying them.

Abortion

What is the deal? Why do the libertarian heroes like Rand Paul still yell about abortion? The thought of allowing the government to control a woman's decision over her own body seems to be incredible anti-libertarian. The hero of the libertarian movement, Ayn Rand, was very pro-choice. If you are pro-life, you are not a libertarian. Sorry Senator Paul.

Gender Identity

Recently ESPN handed out a Courage ESPY award to Caitlyn Jenner. The right wing hate machine went into overdrive. There are some legitimate arguments for why someone else deserves an award for courage.That is not the argument. The national narrative from the "conservatives"  and "libertarians" is how upset they are because Caitlyn Jenner is shoving it in their face. Shoving what? Her freedom (there is that word again) to accept her identity? If you want to be a true libertarian, you better star accepting the LGBT community. They want freedom, and they tend to have some disposable income.

Why do these three topics seem to trip up modern libertarians? The answer is simple, religion. The libertarian contingent of the country tend to be republican, and the Republican Party has gone all in with the right wing christian community (that is the only religion republicans care for). Libertarian politicians feel the need to cater to the christian zealots. Hating the LGBT community, demonizing women's health and fighting to control marriage identity seem to be the main focus of religious republicans. The libertarians need the religious activist support, so true libertarian beliefs are being sacrificed. With the political sacrifice, the libertarian politicians give up their authentic beliefs. These true believers become regular old political panderers. Their libertarian philosophy was only an act. These thinkers are politicians who only care about being elected. Once elected, their philosophy falls off and "practicality" takes over.

Many millennials have strong libertarian views. They are philosophically connected to libertarians and care less for the antiquated religious views. When politicians like Rand Paul move away from philosophy and start embracing political opportunism, he loses this new powerful voter group. True libertarian (freedom) philosophy can gather up a large part of the millennial vote. Dump the religious right of the 20th century and embrace a future of true personal freedom. That is the key to winning elections as a true libertarian. Hate never wins. Freedom is a powerful message.

Be republican or be libertarian. There is no in between. If you want to embrace religious thought as absolute, you do not believe in freedom. Sorry bro,  you are an old school zealot. You are not a beacon of personal freedom. Ditch religion, become a disciple of personal freedom. There is the path to social victory.

RD Kulik

RD Kulik is the creator and Head Editor for Seed Sing. He enjoys finding the hypocrisy in modern politics. He would really enjoy if you would write for SeedSing