I've been thinking about what makes libertarians different than conservatives. The short answer, as best I can work out, is that those who argue "because Jesus" generally call themselves conservative, while those who have 99.99% of the same goals as the god-botherers, yet who don't automatically give "God-Jesus-Bible" as the answer to every question tend to call themselves libertarians.
Amanda does a great job of defining the libertarian's primary motive, whether religious or not, which is that "libertarianism tends to spring up when you start to believe human beings exist to serve systems and institutions, and not vice versa." Most conservatives, and those who identify as libertarians especially, for some reason conflate their own sense of self with that of corporations. Not a corporation; this isn't about brand loyalty or where one works. It's more that these people. . .here, let me illustrate this with some Cake lyrics:
Birds fall from the window ledge above mine.
Then they flap their wings at the last second.
You see birds fall from the window ledge above mine.
Then they flap their wings at the last second.
I can see their dead weight
Just dropping like stones
Or small loaves of bread
Past my window all the time.
But unless I get up,
Walk across the room
And peer down below,
I don't see their last second curves
Toward a horizontal flight.
All these birds just falling from the ledge like stones.
Now due to a construct in my mind
That makes their falling and their flight
Symbolic of my entire existence,
It becomes important for me
To get up and see
Their last second curves toward flight.
It's almost as if my life will fall
Unless I see their ascent.
See, there's a construct in their mind that makes the success of a few large corporations and their CEOs symbolic of their entire existence. And if they don't take constant action to ensure these corporations/CEOs' success - at their own expense, if necessary - then they are convinced that their lives will fall.
That's why libertarians, with the exception of legalizing marijuana and maybe prostitution, can never be found defending individual liberty. Instead they defend without fail the right of corporations, which they invariably describe as 'businessowners' even when they're really talking about a multinational conglomerate, to lie, cheat, pollute and discriminate however they want.
I have yet to see a libertarian or conservative fight for an individual's rights or liberties and not have that individual turn out to be a corporation and/or its CEO. Civil liberties for actual human beings are defended only by liberals, full stop. If you want, like E.D. Kain at Balloon Juice, a so-called 'limited government in terms of scope,' then you need to support Democrats. Democrats are the ones who will keep the government out of the bedroom, who will stop individuals and institutions from trampling on the rights of others.
Anyone truly concerned about individual liberty is a liberal. Libertarians and Conservatives, on the other hand, are - as described so well by Cake - nothing so much as suffering from an identity crisis, at best.
