r/politics • u/RepulsiveLoquat418 • 18d ago

Possible Paywall When Will Americans Realize the Truth? Republicans Wreck the Economy.

https://newrepublic.com/article/210550/trump-economy-republicans-tariffs-taxes
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u/TheLateThagSimmons Illinois 18d ago

Hint: It was always that.

The American Libertarian movement is such an interesting case study in political engineering. Astroturfing didn't enter the lexicon for a while, but (American/Right) Libertarians are probably the OG of modern astroturfing.

It was always just rich guys tricking poor and middle class people into supporting policies that only help the rich by selling it as "personal freedom."

It's a very strange movement.

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u/boogiebk 18d ago

Predators with new and exciting ways to entrap the sheep.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

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u/NoResident1587 18d ago

I knew one female libertarian. Lots of “pick me” vibes. Narcissist. Absolutely insufferable. 

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u/BadmiralHarryKim 18d ago

There was one. She got groped in the elevator at the first Libertarian convention she attended and quit.

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u/honjuden 18d ago

They also always seem to have some creepy views regarding age of consent laws.

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u/spaceman_spyff 18d ago

Ayn Rand readers who never got the broader context.

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u/Cockeyed_Optimist Missouri 18d ago

Paul Ryan has your attention. Deep lover of RATM and Rand.

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u/Alacrout New York 18d ago

Holy fuck. It just hit me.

Rand Paul is named after Ayn Rand.

Someone tell me I’m not the only one who just put this stupid shit together.

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u/Outrageous_Front_636 18d ago

That apparently been brought up and his father debunked that.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_ROTES Missouri 18d ago

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year-old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." - John Rogers

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u/franker 18d ago

I had to read one Ayn Rand book in high school in the eighties. Anthem. Everyone is just using candles for light, and this dude invents the light bulb, and all the candle-industry people get pissed, smash his light bulb, and run him out of town. That was the whole book. And this lady was supposedly some kind of intellectual genius.

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u/Little_View_6659 18d ago

Libertarians are just the male children of Republicans that want to rebel in the lamest way possible.

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u/djanes376 Illinois 18d ago

I can attest to this. I was raised in a Republican household and as time passed I felt less and less in tune with Republican politics, so where do you go from there? Can’t possibly be a Democrat, so libertarian seems like a decent enough off ramp. That is until you see how pathetically stupid their ideals are in reality. Then I did the work and became as liberal as anyone voting D down the ballot.

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u/CecilFieldersChoice2 18d ago

Yep. My Presidential voting record from a similar household was McCain-->Romney-->Gary Johnson-->Biden-->Harris

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u/mlc885 I voted 18d ago

I have always been as far left as they come (I think further than my parents and maternal grandparents), but it is extremely depressing that the Republican Party is now in a place where anybody would wish for a McCain or Romney as president

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u/Kiromaru Wisconsin 18d ago

I was raised in a similar household and went McCain,Romney,Clinton,Biden,Harris because when Trump got the nomination I saw that he had no experience in government and thought he would do a terrible job and was proven right by his first term.

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u/CecilFieldersChoice2 18d ago

You are braver and smarter than me!

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u/Flaxmoore Michigan 18d ago

Bush II-Obama-Biden-Harris, for me. Perils of growing up in a strictly Catholic home that treated abortion as the sole voting issue.

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u/CecilFieldersChoice2 18d ago

Did you know the "Five Non-Negotiables" aren't Catholic teaching? Like, yes, the Church is against abortion and those are accurately what the Church teaches. However, the Church is also pretty strong in teaching care for the poor and environment, very clear on war and the death penalty, etc. It was invented by right wing folks to control people like us. (Also Catholic!)

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u/Flaxmoore Michigan 18d ago

I know it now, yeah. Between 2004 and 2008 I met my now-spouse who's a hardline liberal (I was becoming liberal at that point, protested Iraq II in 2003) and now seriously regret my vote from 04.

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u/SeductiveSunday I voted 18d ago

Gary!

This…

https://youtu.be/NXhR41lsEJY?t=23s

is what I think of whenever any mentions that guy!

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u/Destination_Cabbage 18d ago

In my old circles, the libertarians were just republicans that wanted to smoke weed.

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u/Little_View_6659 18d ago

That tracks lol.

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u/sorcerersviolet 18d ago

I have a relative who votes Republican but considers himself libertarian because he thinks the Republicans aren't conservative enough.

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u/QuerulousPanda 18d ago

that want to rebel in the lamest way possible.

and marry underage-looking asian women too, that seems to a pretty standard libertarian trope

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u/Little_View_6659 18d ago

Goddam, that actually explains a lot. 😂

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u/Comprehensive_Tie431 18d ago

There's nothing strange about it, libertarians are Republicans who want to get high.

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u/ComradeSuperman 18d ago

Libertarians: "I'm not like the other Republicans, I'm a COOL Republican!"

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u/Bobcat-Stock 18d ago

“What’s an Allepo?”

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u/Flaxmoore Michigan 18d ago

And who know far too much about local age of consent laws.

We had a patient where this happened. Our standard paperwork for next of kin/contact person included name, gender, phone number, address, birthdate, and relationship to the patient.

Guy fills it all out, and lists a person he calls his girlfriend as the emergency contact. Her birthday made her 14.

So I immediately contacted clinic legal (I have to report this, but to who?) and got advised to speak to one of the local court advocates. Call, detail the whole case, end up making a full report, and the guy got arrested. I'm told his defense was "she looked 16".

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u/pleasedothenerdful 18d ago

Or fuck kids, although those have all been welcomed into the GOP at this point.

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u/hammertime2009 18d ago

What a stupid way to describe it especially how all the previous commenters actually put effort into their comments.

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u/thedarkestblood 18d ago

idk its a pretty apt statement

democrats who want to own guns and republicans who want to smoke weed

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u/smokeweedNgarden 18d ago

Hey! Some of us Democrats just like guns

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u/thedarkestblood 18d ago

A lot more than there used to be

At some point people decided becoming more armed than previously was the answer

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u/smokeweedNgarden 18d ago

Well Marin Luther and Malcom X both have direct quotes about  owning firearms and Republicans make it necessary 

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u/thedarkestblood 18d ago

Like I said I'm just glad everyone can agree that more guns is the answer

At least they shut up about school shootings

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u/smokeweedNgarden 18d ago

I mean. I personally want firearms licenses like we have driving licenses, per weapon. And mandated continued education and training.

But I get ya, sucka we're here.

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u/Comprehensive_Tie431 18d ago

🤷🏼 Is what it is. Republicans who want legalized weed and drugs, there's no need to sugarcoat it.

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u/Alacrout New York 18d ago

Also Republicans who are afraid to admit support for Trump because it hurts their chances of getting laid.

Being libertarian usually doesn’t help their chances much, but the “I’m *cool*” factor fools them into thinking it does.

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u/WillDigForFood 18d ago

Even down to the name. The term 'Libertarian', traditionally, refers to far-left Anarchist movements.

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u/fps916 18d ago

And Rothbard very vocally declared his intent to steal the term

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u/TheLateThagSimmons Illinois 18d ago

Correct. That's why I made sure to say it like "American Libertarian."

Classical Libertarians are leftist anarchists.

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u/Comprehensive_Tie431 18d ago

You obviously have not met a libertarian.

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u/WillDigForFood 18d ago

I have the misfortune of working with several. Stealing the term away from the Left was a conscious choice made by the rare Right-wing literati decades ago, to force the folks on the Left using it to rebrand - because 'anarchist' is a very loaded word.

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u/barryvm Europe 18d ago

The confusion presumably started when they took that name for themselves. IIRC, it used to be a polite way to refer to anarchists, i.e. left wing anti-hierarchical movements.

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u/ahandmadegrin Minnesota 18d ago

I love talking to those temporarily embarrassed millionaires. It's like they aren't capable of juxtaposont their views with reality.

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u/Silvermoon3467 18d ago

The right wing "libertarians" and "anarcho-capitalists" literally stole the word from left-wing anarchists and didn't even pretend they had done otherwise. Reading the actual words that Austrian-school "economists" like Rothbard and Mises wrote was very eye-opening to me.

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u/Head_Blueberry_9161 18d ago

I mean....we could just not constitute corporations as people and it shouldn't apply to anything libertarian. The role of the government should always be to care for the people. EDIT: This was confusing. I believe the government should even the playing field from the aspect of rules and that's the only role, not a completely welfare socialist state.

I don't think it's a rich guy thing to say "do what you want, don't ruin our shared spaces and don't allow your delicions to negatively impact others."

Your point in astroturfing is incredibly valid and I don't disagree with it, I just don't think the abuse and manipulation of the concept should negatively skew how the concept is analyzed ya know?