There are only two major political parties in the United States, the Republican party and the Democratic party. While there are a lot of Americans that identify as “Independent”, there is no actual political party that is the Independent party, so for all practical purposes, those that claim to be Independent, are going to end up voting typically for either the Republican candidate or the Democratic one. There are, once one gets pass the major parties, a whole slew of Third parties, of which, the biggest of these is the Libertarian party. Yet, the Libertarian party has so few members, in total, that with the exception of some local elections, those that run under the Libertarian party banner are primarily running as a protest vote against the two major parties.
The Libertarian party platform is contained within the saying that it desires “as much liberty as possible” and “as little government as necessary.” One might think that with a general sentiment as being all for liberty and less for governmental interference that this would resonate most visibly with people that are successful, educated, and well-placed. Indeed, the makeup of the Libertarian party does reflect these types of people, along with those on the pathway to that sort of perceived independent success. After all, when we look at successful people that believe wholeheartedly that their success is built upon their effort, or their astuteness, or things akin to this, they then may well be susceptible to believing that they shouldn’t need to really pay much of anything in taxes, or to be interfered with in regards to the liberties that they feel that they are fairly entitled to. That sort of position, has its logic, but as in many a thing, there is also the unfortunate forgetting that few of us, actually get to where we get, without having been provided some sort of assistance by other people, governmental programs, or just the basic infrastructure of this nation which permits such success to be more readily generated.
In life, there is only so far that a person that is all about their own self, and hence is self-centered and selfish, can go, without feeling some degree of pushback from other people that are members of that same society. In other words, while we should give credit to those that are highly intelligent, motivated, clever, and that exert themselves with a good and concentrated effort upon their given goals – it has to be recognized that not everyone has the same innate capabilities or abilities within their skillset. So that, while it can be said, that those that are Libertarian and successful, can pat themselves on their back, it has to also be recognized that there are other citizens of these same United States, in all sorts of various stages, good or bad, of their respective lives, that each of us needs to acknowledge, as well.
Indeed, there are those people that point out that they don’t really need help from anyone, and to their credit, they aren’t really wrong about that – because they are often adept at what they do, and quite accomplished in the things that they have done. However, to believe then that we owe nothing to anybody else, or to our government, or to society, is to believe that individual achievements trump everything else; when, in fact, those that desire to be a member in good standing of society, have an obligation to do their fair part to lend a helping hand to that society, of, for, and by the people.