Libertarian… When It Fits My Narrative

I am libertarian at heart. I haven’t always been a member of the party, but as a value — as a belief — the love of liberty and freedom has been central to my existence.

I was watching a documentary on Netflix about the evolution of the American soldier, from the buildup to the Revolutionary War onward. And they nailed it: Americans fight for something larger than themselves. They fight for the air we breathe, and the freedom to walk amongst it. Protection of that very liberty is what drives them as soldiers, and what fuels us as Americans. It’s the same fierceness exposed when you cage a wild animal — the ferocity with which it fights against its confines. That is the heart of America, and probably the human spirit itself.

But when it comes to American political parties, I’ve been all over the place. We sure have fucked it all up, leaving Americans with impossible choices, most of which spit in Liberty’s face.

For much of my adult life, I tolerated the two-party circus. Democrats drew me in with talk of equal protection. Republicans with talk of limited government. But by 2016, the masks were off. Democrats were openly salivating at the idea of firearm bans. Republicans were openly salivating at the idea of legislating transgender people out of existence.

So I asked myself: where is the party of liberty? The party that believes in the American promise — that we are free to succeed, free to fail, and free to carry the burden of both without interference.

Enter the Libertarian Party.

The party that has “liberty” in its name. They’re supposed to eat, breathe, live, and love it. But at their heart, they are still a political party, fallen to the same traps that inject chaos into the American dream — one self-serving law at a time.

The Libertarian Party has historically been a disaster. A collection of Republican castoffs and self-styled rebels who wear “third party” like a thrift-store leather jacket: edgy until the seams split. Many Libertarians don’t even love liberty, they just love being different. Like music snobs who abandon a band once it breaks big, they want obscurity, not principle.

And so, only a fraction of their members actually understand liberty’s weight — why the Founders enshrined rights as their first order of business, why those protections were meant to be absolute.

This became painfully clear in a conversation with a “Libertarian” friend. I told him I boycott Sprouts and Trader Joe’s for their smug “No Firearms Allowed” signs. He shrugged. Said some limits on freedom are reasonable.

Wait… what???

I pointed out we’d never say that about any other constitutional right. Imagine telling a journalist: You can publish freely, but not about that. Imagine telling a citizen: You’re free from illegal searches… unless we feel like it. Imagine telling a church: You can worship, but only on Tuesdays.

Really? The people who fled a king, took up arms against their government, and spelled it out in plain English — those people didn’t mean what they wrote? That’s your argument?

No offense, but that’s bullshit.

I grew up carrying. A pistol at my side, a shotgun or rifle in the truck or car. Everyone around me did as well. I didn’t see criminals everywhere I looked. I saw neighbors. Friends. Students. I didn’t see weapons of war; I saw responsibility. Firearms weren’t menace; they were survival.

And what good is free speech if you can’t defend it? What good is freedom from unlawful search if you can’t resist? What good is freedom to repel soldiers seeking shelter if you can’t match their rifles at your door? These rights aren’t separate, they’re braided. Without the Second Amendment, the rest unravel.

Yet here we are in 2025. Democrats brag about taking your guns. Half the country cheers them on. And worse, self-identified “Libertarians” explain why liberty comes with limits.

And now I’m going to be that music snob: perhaps the Libertarian Party should become a little more exclusive — and make the love of American liberty a requirement of affiliation. Otherwise, stop calling it the Libertarian Party. Call it what it is: cosplay.