Will Rand do better in 2016 than his dad did in 2008?

[Leinad]

It worries me how many people call guys like Ron Paul kooks for wanting minimal government. I'll take individual liberty over government control any day, and I'm surprised how so many otherwise sane people (including the mainstream left, right, and center) think differently.

Re: Rand: he's trying to appeal to too many voters, I think. Both conservatives and moderates. If that was to work, he'd have a shot (despite the fact that the number of libertarians in the Republican primaries is a very low amount), but I don't think it will. He's not good enough at messaging to triangulate like that. He's my first choice, and I agree with most of his viewpoints, but most of the voters, be it conservatives or moderates, have a handful of people preferenced higher than him.

[Leinad]

I'll take individual liberty over government control any day,

No, I enjoy people not being able to get access to nuclear weapons

True, you do need some government, which is why I'm libertarian, not anarcho-capitalist.

I get why people could disagree with libertarians, I just don't know why people think we're, as a whole, crazy. If you have different opinions on the role of government, being a conservative, liberal, or socialist could make sense. That's why I never call any of them kooks, idiots, wacko-birds, or anything like that.

The US, specifically, was founded on small-government principles. The Bill of Rights is a list of things limiting the federal government. They understood how important that is. Is there a place for government? Of course. But erring on the side of limiting it is NOT crazy.

(This is NOT to say there are no crazy libertarians. But there's crazies everywhere on the spectrum.)

[Leinad]

I'll take individual liberty over government control any day,

No, I enjoy people not being able to get access to nuclear weapons

True, you do need some government, which is why I'm libertarian, not anarcho-capitalist.

I get why people could disagree with libertarians, I just don't know why people think we're, as a whole, crazy. If you have different opinions on the role of government, being a conservative, liberal, or socialist could make sense. That's why I never call any of them kooks, idiots, wacko-birds, or anything like that.

The US, specifically, was founded on small-government principles. The Bill of Rights is a list of things limiting the federal government. They understood how important that is. Is there a place for government? Of course. But erring on the side of limiting it is NOT crazy.

(This is NOT to say there are no crazy libertarians. But there's crazies everywhere on the spectrum.)

There is nothing wrong with being an anarcho-capitalist

Not at all. It's just one of the many political philosophies I don't completely agree with. Both me and an An-Cap agree we want minimal government, we just have different definitions of "minimal." We can agree that we want it MUCH smaller, cheaper, and less intrusive than it is now.