About
Freedom means you are able to live your life as you choose so long as you bring no force against others. Anything less is a form of slavery. Are you free?
What is a Progressive Libertarian?
Progressive Libertarian - A capitalist market supporter that understands the need for programs that provide a small degree of regulation in order to ensure that the market is run in a transparent and honest manner to foster an environment in which businesses have equal entry to the market, and provides consumers with adequate information concerning products and business practices; advocates for individual liberties and privacy, low taxes, consumer awareness, and a smaller, less imposing government with more decisions being made on a local level.
Our Goal: To advocate the Progressive Libertarianism principles and ideas, elect politicians that share the same views, no matter their political affiliation, and educate others on the principles of a free society by talking with family, friends, co-workers, and others.
Aren’t Progressives Socialists?
The term progressive does not belong to any one political group or party, and does not symbolize a movement that makes the followers subservient to the cause, as many that wrongly use the term progressive, do. Progressives tend to slowly work towards more government involvement in our lives, while Progressive Libertarianism works to slowly decrease the amount of government involvement in our lives, involvement that does more to hinder us than help.
The dictionary defines progressive as: favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are. This simply means that as Progressive Libertarians, we are observers of the Libertarian philosophy, but recognize that we cannot stand still in time or rely on what we’ve always done, or not done in some cases, as a means to solve new age problems. This does not necessarily mean that something always has to be done, as the market can offer a solution superior to that of government.
As Progressive Libertarians, we advocate for programs that help to advance the country as a whole through education and information, all without government mandates. We also believe that generally, government intrusion into the market creates unfair markets, which decreases competition and helps to create and inflate booms and busts. The best way to ensure a fair market is through consumer knowledge and information, a reduction of special interest influences on government, and regulations that require businesses to be open and honest with their customers.
The basic belief of all Libertarians is a live and let live policy. People should have the freedom to do as they wish so long as it does not restrict the freedom of others. Our rights and freedoms are derived from our existence as an individual, not from a piece of paper that grants us permission to our rights.
We can adhere to our founder’s principles and still allow certain programs to run, knowing that with our ideas having had a hand in the matter, the program can only be better than what it is in its current state. Over time with Progressive Libertarianism ideas being instilled in these programs, they can be reduced and even eventually phased out as they are no longer needed.
A government should be ran far more efficiently than any business. The cost of our government is too great, with debt piling up by the minute. The government has no choice but to bring down its costs, and these have to be across the board to every inch of government. More taxes have rarely been a good answer in history.
The gears of government cannot be reversed overnight, not even slowed significantly. It will take time to get there, and require us to take baby steps before we can make our leaps and bounds. Our truly free society are many years away, and we’ll have to work harder than ever conceived in order to achieve our freedoms. This will require action on everyone’s part; waiting for someone else to do the work will get us nowhere.
What are the first few steps you can take? You can begin by no longer accepting the lesser of two evils. Vote for the person you think is right, not the person with the best chance to win. If there are no good choices, search for your own candidate. Call your representatives in office, whether it be local, state, or federal, and talk to them about your concerns. If enough people demand attention to an issue, it will be raised. Do your research, and find out more about the people you elect and the legislation that your government passes. Talk to your friends and family and get them involved, this can’t be done alone. Above all though, be a critical, open minded thinker! Don’t be afraid to challenge what you believe is wrong and be open to the possibilities that you could be wrong yourself. Practice objective, open-minded critical thinking in all aspects of your life and you will begin to move mountains.
Our emblem contains the colors of our country’s flag, the statue of liberty, the symbol of liberty everywhere, and five stars, with each star representing a pillar of the Progressive Libertarianism foundation:
Liberty
Peace
Democracy
Self Determination
Individualism
Without these five basic necessities of life, a person cannot truly be free.
We welcome all people from all walks of life to join us, no matter your political affiliation or nationality, as Progressive Libertarianism is a concept that is above party lines and not bound by territorial lines, and should be able to be embraced by people of all nations and cultures; though this is a US based group the concepts are the same. If you believe in these ideas and believe that government should not intrude on the personal lives of people, this is the place for you.
“Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.” - Pericles
–Please note that any other group advocating Progressive Libertarianism that is not listed or linked to on this website is not affiliated with the Progressive Libertarian movement.
Wow I have always considered myself a “Independent”. I like what I hear. I believe we need the first step to stopping big government is the stop the DNC from calling the race card on everything. I believe the people should be able to make up there own minds on the subject and not allow these far left to bully people. If we stand to protect the truth and and not allow the far left or far right to flame race politics and to look at things objectley and not subjectivly. We need to stop allowing the media to influence people with a bias opion. Let’s go back to the constitution. Let’s educated minorities and explain the constitution to all. Teach self responsibly.
Libertarians believe in the non-aggression principle, agreeing that they, nor anyone they delegate, will not use force/coercion to achieve political or social goals. Therefore Progressive “Libertarianism” is in direct contradiction with the non-aggression principle and is not libertarian at all.
I have considered myself a Libertarian for quite some time, but always struggled with the “complete hands off approach”. There have to be some measures in place to ensure that “the rules of the game” are followed. While I generally agree with a huge scaling-back of the federal government,I do believe that many of the ideas presented on this site have merit.
@Chris Smith
Chris,
I agree with your assessment. Certain planks in the platform will cause libertarians and those that subscribe to the Austrian theory of economics heart burn. The most disconcerting is “…see the need for a government agency to promote consumer awareness of products and company actions.” The problem has always been that any agency always attempts to expand its purview over time; its the nature of governments. So any government is ripe for abuse, since its very nature is antithetical to personal freedom.
Of course in the nascent days of liberty and the enlightenment, thought leaders knew this and attempted to create balance. The original articles of confederation and constitution reflect this. But being “progressive”, the nation over time has deconstructed the careful balance put in place.
Now the term progressive, is interesting. It implies that “old” ideas are bad and “new” ideas, ie progress, is always good. Which of course is nonsense. But it also promotes the idea that something must always be done; whatever that something is. I claim that anything that must be done, must be accomplished through individual action. It is the sum of millions of individual actions that move society and does not promote the coercive power of government.
I would encourage anyone that found this site to NOT wait for the “government agency” to educate them. Hit mises.org and and http://www.lp.org
I feel the more I learn about this, I fit it. But I still feel like I don’t really know if my personal beliefs fit or not? Do you have any good websites you recommend that might explain Libertarianism? I would love to know more.