There is a Youtube video where there is a conservative being critical of libertarians.
As a libertarian myself, I will be the first in line to concede that there is room for criticism since many self proclaimed libertarians don’t always follow the non aggression principle.
The conservative speaker made a couple of interesting statements. He said that if you ask libertarians what the chief role of government is to protect our liberty, but ask a conservative and it is to protect life.
Okay, I am willing to ponder on that concept and kick it around in my brain a bit.
He followed up by saying that the Founders wanted it this way as well. He backed this claim up by saying in the Declaration of Independence they list “Life” before “Liberty” and thus therefore it takes precedent.
Any truth to this concept? Seems like a stretch to me. It would be like saying the colors of the flag are red, white and blue so therefore the most important color is red. Also, the terms seem to be inter changeable because if I were to murder someone, I would be denying them their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness as well as property.
Thomas Jefferson famously wrote of slavery during the Missouri Crisis, “we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.” This statement reflected the idea, in wide circulation at the time, that the only moral claim stronger than justice was self-preservation. If libertarians deny this, I haven’t seen it.
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