ATTENBERGER%ORN.MFENET@LLL-MFE.ARPA (08/25/86)
The message from Barry Fagin defining libertarianism was very educational. Let me see whether I have things in perspective now. In the old days, there were only liberals and conservatives. Liberals wanted change, conservatives wanted status quo. Then maybe under the "new deal", the term liberal came to mean someone who supported welfare payments and other government aid programs. Later the term liberal also became synonymous with "pacifist" during the era of George (get out of Viet Nam) McGovern and Barry (bomb the Chinese) Goldwater. So now there is a new movement which is pacifist but is against government aid, so they have coined a new phrase: "libertarian". Let me anticipate objections to equating "pacifist" with "libertarian". If I directly use Fagin's definition of valuing "individual liberty, the free market, and social tolerance", then my conservative brain conjures up an image of Ronald Reagan... Is President Reagan a libertarian? (That ought to stir 'em up!) -------