"Introduction to Libertarianism" with Dick Clark

Curious about what it means when someone says "I'm a Libertarian"? Watch this talk by the Libertarian Party of Alabama's 2006 nominee for AL House of Representatives District 79, Dick Clark. This video was made at an Auburn University Libertarians event on 31 August 2006. For more information, visit http://CitizenClark.com . For information on the national Libertarian Party, visit http://www.lp.org .

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• introduction
• libertarianism
• libertarian
• liberty
• Dick
• Clark
• alabama
• auburn
• university
• political
• philosophy

[itrainsinoctober]

Libertarianism would actually make things worse in terms of equality. Lower taxes and less regulation equates to more wealth consolidation. Not a good idea and in the long run would most likely lead to an enormous wealth gap, similar to what we see today in Latin American, although Hugo in Venezuela is trying to change that.

[CitizenClark]

@itrainsinoctober: Actually, there is good reason to believe that wealth consolidation had been augmented by the growth of central government. Hugo Chavez is a petty dictator of course, and his actions to restrain the press in Venezuela have shown his true colors.

[itrainsinoctober]

Help the poor?

The children of the wealthy get the best education, can live in the safest neighborhoods, can afford the highest quality of food and get the best medical care. What you libertarians fail to understand, continually, is that freedom is a meaningless term without equality, both economic and social.

[CitizenClark]

@itrainsinoctober Re: "freedom is a meaningless term without equality, both economic and social." Spoken like someone who has never been struck by a police officer.

[picapauengracado]

Just want to commend you on your lecture and on keeping the posture when some dude blankly accused your ideas of being silly. If this was meant for the general public, it seems like you'd get a warmer response if you'd stick to specific policy proposals, and state the rationale in tangents.

[CitizenClark]

picapauengracado: Thank you for the kind words. This speech was delivered to a libertarian campus group. You are quite right that general audiences are more likely to respond to a different presentation.

[trippin4091]

It is more disastrous to use fake money like we do now.

[kac1964]

I,m looking at our current recession.

We are not immune to it now.

[utubehayter]

@Oceanus57

Right. We should always start off with a highly improbable lifeboat scenario to make real life decisions. Its always a good, rational basis.

Why don't we instead imagine "Santa Claus is real"?

[Oceanus57]

These arguments don't hold up if you imagine a situation where one man owns all property. And the idea of one man owning all property is just the opposite of property being shared out with absolute equality. Libertarian fundamentalism is as impractical and as wilfully obstructive to humanity's well-being as communism. We'd all despise the idea that the sun and the air could be owned by someone. So why celebrate the idea of land ownership as being positive?

[JulesManson]

Silence may have no voice but a misdirected one is far more harmful. This is why I chose to be a libertarian and encourage others to give this a chance. For those who are unsure of what a libertarian is, it can be easily summed up with only two words -- constitutional conservative.

[funder1der]

Taking from those that work and giving to those that don't. The end of the republic.

The corporations buy votes from the politicians, who used money from those that work, to buy votes from the masses, that refuse to.

[YayMeth]

@CitizenClark If I manage to publish a book, I'd like to quote this on the first page. -A gun lovin' fool who has been struck by police.

[MrAbolitionist]

not all Libertarians are pro-abortion-choice, Some view that abortion violates the natural right to live. I love how he talks about how we got our bodies from our parents and yet he believes our mothers have a natural right to execute us in the womb. btw I'm a Pro-Life Libertarian

[DrOktopuz]

@itrainsinoctober Im a venezuelan and let me tell you something,since Hugo Chaves is here ,there is more poverty than ever.Hugo chavez is nothing but a dictator and the whole country is worst because he is here.

[samanthalynn6790]

No shit, I'm from Slidell! Good to see a fellow Slidellian out there making a damn good case for the Libertarian cause.

[itrainsinoctober]

@digitalaether I'm interested in a just society and understand the inherent flaws of Capitalism.

[digitalaether]

@itrainsinoctober:

There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal.

— F.A. Hayek

You seem to advocate attempting to make people equal, which does not work, as opposed to treating them equal.