In this recent debate, Libertarian politics have been discussed in an open and serious way by the nation, and that’s good even if you don’t like the Libertarian position.
It means that for the first time, people are actually looking beyond the two party monopoly of the Republicans and Democrats and are trying to find some new ideas.
Ron Paul has done quite well in several Republican primaries, and while he’s not going to win the Republican nomination, it means that he’s leading the charge to get different ideas into the open and that there are people willing to break from the marching orders of the Republican and Democrat party leaders and listen.
This is a time of unrest. Protesters like the Occupy Wall Street movement are in cities all over the world, the Tea Party has taken seats in Congress and led the fight in the debt ceiling stand off that ruined the credit of United States, and the Libertarians are a fund-raising powerhouse that has stabbed right into the heart of right-wing politics.
We have plenty of reasons for unrest. The economy that was shattered by the policies of George W. Bush has not recovered, Congress is impotent because the Republicans have refused the very idea of bipartisanship and instead use their narrow margin to block the president’s appointees, and the Democrats have been too cowardly to take a firm stand on substantial issues.
The disease that created these symptoms has not been cured, or even given treatment.
Big finance still goes unregulated, the unemployed do not have jobs, and our representatives seem to think that the American people have an insatiable taste for war and are eager to send our finest men and women to die and be maimed on the battlefield.
Hopefully, this means that the rise of the Libertarians is just a herald for a time when the two parties are dead and we have four, or five, or 10 parties representing a lot of new ideas and new ways to do things.
That being said, I also hope that people are wary.
Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of economics or history knows that these fringe political groups are chock full of terrible ideas and that their candidates seem particularly flawed, so people are going to need to be very careful that we do not run from one leader into the arms of an even less competent one.
Examine every new idea and leader with a critical eye and don’t fall into the team mentality that should be reserved for national sports alone.
It’s no longer about “conservative vs. liberals” or “Republicans vs. Democrats” or “my team vs. the other team,” but it’s about the American people coming together and refusing to accept dogma and propaganda in the place of discourse and solutions.
We don’t need to shout each other down any more, but instead we need to steal the best ideas from our opponents and use them to solve our common problems.
The enemy has shown its face, and it was our own complacence all along.