Libertarians and the Occupy Movement

I recently had a conversation on Facebook with someone I had met through our local Occupy Harrisburg group. I posted “We do not forgive, we do not forget, expect us!” as my Facebook status. Many of you will recognize this as the internet meme of the global hacking collective known as Anonymous.  In the comments, he began attacking Ron Paul, and while my status had nothing to do with Ron Paul, I was told me that he believed me to be obsessed with the guy because I had a profile picture of myself with Ron that was taken back in 2007. It’s not the first time I’ve heard this type of rhetoric from people in the occupy movement, and so I wanted to take a moment to talk about why I’m interested in the occupy crowd, and how I believe libertarians stand to gain by defending and even promoting some of occupy’s ideas.

I like most libertarians believe that Government, instead of being a servant of the people, has become a servant to massive corporations, and the global banking system that owns them. I believe I hold this value in common with most people within the occupy movement. I like Jefferson, believe that the banks are much more powerful than even standing armies, and I believe corporations have become such a problem in this country only because Government has aided them and allowed them to grow corrupt. I believe that eliminating the corrupt banking interests, starting with the private Federal Reserve Bank should be the number one priority of a free people.

I like most libertarians believe we need to stop the endless war overseas that is killing so many innocent people, not to mention irreparably harming the name of this great nation, and plaguing our children with hopeless debt. I believe we need to massively cut the budget of the Department of Defense, and I believe we need to bring our troops home and defend this country from those who wish it will. This also is a view I believe I hold in common with the occupy movement.

I believe we need to end this senseless war on drugs. Libertarians and most Occupy members tend to agree with me here. The war on drugs much like any other war has claimed thousands of lives, ruined countless families and, just like our military action overseas, is costing an obscene amount of money. Further the drug wars are motivated by racism, fuels violent criminal cartels, and puts drugs in the hands of kids.

I am a supporter of marriage equality. Who you marry is your business, if you don’t like gay marriage don’t get one. This is yet another thing that I find I have in common with most people who are involved in the occupy movement, and is a cornerstone of libertarian thought in that, if a “crime” has no victim, it shouldn’t be illegal to begin with.

All these common viewpoints are just some of the reasons why I stand in support of the occupy movement. We are however not without our differences. Determining exactly what needs to be done to fix the issues is something I often debate, but I do so with the understanding of the need for solidarity in order to be successful. United we stand and divided we fall. If you’re reading this, and you believe that we’re better off together, and you believe that even though we have our differences, we can work through them and prevail, like this. Let’s show those who would have us argue amongst ourselves that we are better than that.