Libertarians: Don’t Sell Yourselves Short

At first glance, “socially Democratic, fiscally Republican” sounds both accurate and easy to understand. After all, Libertarians generally do advocate for both economic and social freedoms. However, this relies on an assumption that Democrats and Republicans are socially and economically liberal, respectively, at all. In reality, neither of them actually fulfill this role. Republicans under Trump engaged in a large spending spree even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The total debt at the end of 2019 was $27.75 trillion, representing a 39% increase since President Trump’s inauguration, states <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">ProPublica</a>. According to <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/calvin-coolidge-transformed-the-economy-can-we-2013-11-08" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">MarketWatch</a>, the last time the national debt decreased was under President Calvin Coolidge. Meanwhile, Presidents like George W. Bush funnel trillions of dollars to the military-industrial complex. The last time military spending was cut by a Republican was under President H.W. Bush, as shown by <a href="https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/the-defense-budget-through-administrations/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">AEI</a>. Instead, these “fiscal responsibility hawks” have added trillions in unnecessary spending to the national debt. This is a result of a clearly delusional policy of spending more and taxing less; while it is a good strategy for earning votes, especially after the electoral failure of George H.W. Bush, it ruins the fiscal conservatism of the party overall. <a href="https://carstenoyer.medium.com/libertarians-dont-sell-yourselves-short-932f703bfa85">Read More</a>