The Two Party System

This image is trying to illustrate the idea that the two party system of politics in America(on one side is democrats and the other side is republicans) are supposed to be polar opposites from each other, and that libertarians have a completely different idea about who should govern your life.  In fact though, the two parties are not polar opposites.  They do try to portray themselves as this image suggests

 Democrats would like you to believe that their party stands for individual liberty - allowing people to make their own decisions while at the same time confiscating a large part of your property to redistribute to poorer and so-called "disadvantaged" people.  In fact though, they work to control people's decisions, such as what wages they are allowed to work for and what tools or weapons they may possess to defend themselves,

Republicans would like you to believe that their party stands for allowing people to decide for themselves how their money is spent, while at the same time making laws to force people to live by their own moral code.  In fact though, they also confiscate a large part of your property, but they want to spend it on waging wars and funding the police state needed to enforce their moral code.

Libertarians understand that the best way for men to progress, be healthy, happy, and wealthy, is to allow them to run their own lives and control their own property.  Mutually working together making voluntary decisions and trades is a better(though not perfect) system than allowing a central organization to use threats and violence to enforce the will of an elite group of government officials.

The True Political Spectrum

In America, we're taught that there is a political that has the democrats on one side and the republicans on the other.  Democrats are said to be on the left, and republicans on the right.  Democrats may be referred to as left-wingers, and republicans as right-wingers.  People who try to mix both beliefs are called centrists (meaning in the center).

In reality, there is not much different between these two "sides."  When you boil down all their beliefs to the bone, they both revolve around the idea that some person or group of people have the right and authority to rule over you and to claim ownership of your life and property.  We call this belief authoritarianism.

The opposite of this belief in authoritarianism is voluntaryism.  It is the belief that all people own themselves and that no other person can have a higher or better claim on the ownership of their body or property than the individual can.  It is the belief that all the ways people interact should be voluntary.  Neither force, nor coercion, nor threats should be used to make someone do what they don't want to, or to stop them from doing what they want to do, as long as they are not harming anyone else or violating another person's rights.

All governments are authoritarian.  But some are more authoritarian than others.  North Korea is one of the most authoritarian governments.  They control much of their citizens lives, such as the books that can be read, the movies they can watch, the news they are told, where they can work.

The American Constitutional government is a less authoritarian government.  The Constitution was written to clearly define what government was allowed to do and to put limits on how much the government could interfere in the lives of it's citizens.  Unfortunately, the government has claimed more and more power for itself over the years and is becoming more authoritarian every year.  America does not have the limited government that the writers of the Constitution intended, and the actual government is much closer to the oppressively authoritarian government of North Korea than most Americans would like to admit.

America claims to be the "land of the free," but it is more accurate to say that it is the "land of the people who are more free than some people in the world and less free than others."  The only truly free society is one follows the principles of voluntaryism.

Good ideas don't require force

Americans like to call their country the "Land of the Free."

In a free society, the only actions that would be crimes and prohibited would be actions that hurt others, harm their property, violate their freedoms, or force them to do things they don't want to do.

So things like murder, theft, vandalism, and breaking contracts would still be crimes. But things like smoking in a private restaurant, not wearing a seat belt in a car, or carrying a weapon for self-defense would not be a crime.

But American democracy is a system where someone is always trying to get control of the government so they can make rules to stop people from doing things they don't like, and force them to do things they do like.

There are usually just two sides to vote for, the democrats and the republicans. Both sides want to force their ideas on other people who don't agree with them. So they want to make laws to keep people from doing things they think are bad like I mentioned earlier. And they want to force people to do things against their will, like fight wars all over the world, help countries like Israel buy nuclear missiles, and spy on their friends, family, and neighbors.

This isn't to say that some of the ideas aren't good. But if they are good ideas that people want to support, they shouldn't need to use threats of force, violence, and theft to accomplish them. People can voluntarily support ideas they agree with and try to persuade others to join them by presenting the benefits of the ideas.

Using government to force your ideas on others is immoral, unjust, and just plain wrong.

Government, politics, and parties!

Republicans vs. Democrats vs. You

The two biggest political parties in America are the Republicans and Democrats. They pretend to be opposites of each other, like black and white, or night and day. But that's mainly just an act. For example, republicans are known to be in favor of a big military and war, and the democrats are known to be anti-war. But president Obama is a democrat and has started several new wars since becoming president. Democrats are known to spend lots of government money and the republicans are known to be against government spending, but president Bush was a republican who spent billions of dollars on war and the military. They talk like they are opposite of each other, but in all the areas that really matter, they are just the same. What this cartoon tries to illustrate for you is the fact that although people(represented by the sheep) get very enthusiastic about voting for "their side," the two sides are really the same. No matter if the sheep elect a lion or a wolf, they are going to be in trouble. Either way, they have to be worried about being eaten for dinner. It's the same for us. No matter if a republican or democrat are elected, we have to worry about how much of our money they are going to steal and how many of our freedoms they are going to make illegal.