Occasionally when reading the news or watching the talking heads on television, you’ll hear a politician referred to as “libertarian leaning.” If you’ve never heard that word before, or you aren’t too clear on what libertarianism is, you might at first think it’s a pot-smoking Republican or a Democrat who’s been mugged. Those may be true, but the reality goes a bit deeper than that.

In this latest post in the Liberty 101 series, find out what a libertarian is, what it means to be libertarian leaning, and what the right and left aren’t telling you about the right, the left, and the two other options.

Broadly defined, a libertarian is someone who believes in the simple principles of individual liberty and personal responsibility in all aspects of one’s life. It sounds simple enough, and you may think you belong to a political party that holds the same belief, but if they have an animal for a logo, then you don’t and they don’t.

The Republicans and Democrats both say — loudly — that they want liberty, to anyone who will listen. The long historical record shows, though, that they both have ideas on what liberty they think you should have and what liberty they think you should not have.

In recent years Republicans have favored economic liberty, even though they can’t seem to deliver it, while attempting to restrict social liberty. For instance, a Republican would be likely to propose cutting taxes and government spending, but proposing prohibitions on gay marriage, marijuana and any other group of people whose private interpersonal activities they find offensive.

The Democrats, on the other hand, favor social liberty while wanting to place restrictions on economic liberty. For instance, a Democrat would be likely to propose legalization of gay marriage, private drug use, and other private interpersonal activities, but would propose taxation and economic restrictions to fund causes they find worthwhile, such as reducing poverty or punishing the rich for being rich.

As you can see, there is a clear distinction between the two, at least on general issues of concern to us all. Of course, everyone is human, and even among one party, you will find some people who, on some issues, lean toward the other party. But the division of social and economic liberties is a useful one, as it’s become one of the cornerstones of modern politics. Those who lean toward economic liberty are considered to be on the “right” of some imaginary political line, and those who lean toward social liberty are considered to be on the “left.”

Unfortunately, this division is too simplistic to represent everyone, and it doesn’t even represent the typical American! In the 2004 election, many people reported that they voted for “the lesser of two evils” when choosing the President. Fortunately, there is another choice. There are two of them, in fact.

When you divide politics on whether one supports social liberty or opposes it, and whether one supports economic liberty or opposes it, four possibilities arise. (In fact there are many more, as people don’t usually tend to the extremes on anything, but I’m trying to keep this simple.) We’ve covered two of them already, the so-called “right” and “left.”

But what if one opposes both social liberty and economic liberty? This philosophy is called authoritarianism, or less kindly and more the way it works in practice, totalitarianism. I’m sure you can name a few totalitarians off the top of your head. They tend to directly kill large numbers of people much more often than those on the “left” and “right” do, as those prefer more indirect methods of killing large numbers of people. Totalitarians rarely stay in power very long, as they tend to either destabilize themselves through their own actions, or invite armed conflict from other nations of a less totalitarian bent.

Unless you’re extremely power hungry, you probably don’t find totalitarianism attractive, especially if you or anyone in your family ever lived (or died) under a totalitarian regime.

The fourth and final option, you guessed it, is libertarianism. On the spectrum we’ve mapped out, libertarians favor both social and economic liberty. This is exactly the opposite of totalitarianism. Libertarians believe that when it comes to your life, you should be in control. You should be able to choose for yourself who you associate with and how far you carry your relationships, and accept the consequences of your choices. Libertarians believe you should be able to keep the fruits of your labor, that is, your money, and you should not be forced through taxation to fund a program you don’t support or believe in, and accept the consequences of your choices.

Libertarians believe, simply, that you should be able to do whatever you want, with whomever you want, as long as it’s completely voluntary on both sides, and neither of you coerced, deceived or defrauded the other.

A lot of people can get squarely behind that idea, at first. Then they think of the unmarried couple fornicating down the street, living in sin, or the crowds of homeless people on the streets, and the unfairness of their situation, and instead of looking for a solution which is compatible with liberty, they look to government to “solve” the “problem.”

Fortunately, there is virtually always a solution, both to economic and social issues, which doesn’t involve the government at all, but only single private individuals making individual choices for themselves. Government is rarely or never necessary to solve the ills of society, and in fact, for whatever problem it’s asked to solve, it usually makes that problem worse. Bizarrely, it then uses the fact that the problem has gotten worse to justify its own existence and to expand. The problem becomes worse still, it asks for more money, and the cycle continues. You say goodbye to both your money and your rights.

The Liberty 101 series will tackle issues which the government mishandles, at the behest of both the Republicans and the Democrats, and explain how private individuals, working together in their own interests, can achieve better results every time. Dr. Mary J. Ruwart covers this very well in her book, Healing Our World in an Age of Aggression. If you don’t have the cash to drop on that second edition, you can read the first edition for free at her Web site.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, we’re libertarians around here. That means on these pages you’ll find all freedom, all the time. And we aren’t just leaning, either. For instance, I have never in my life wasted my vote on either the Republicans or the Democrats. For the only way you can waste it is to vote for what you don’t want; if you do, that’s surely what you will get.

By the end of this series, I hope to convince you that for any issue you care to bring up, government is usually not the best answer, probably should not be the first answer, and likely shouldn’t be involved at all, if you want the problem actually solved. If you want a headstart on where this series is likely to go, be sure and read Healing Our World.

P.S. I didn’t make that stuff up about the political spectrum. It’s based on a political chart designed by David Nolan, and it’s actually been turned into The World’s Smallest Political Quiz. Go take the quiz and see where you stand.