Libertarians sell Conservatives a Bill of Goods

One area which libertarians pride themselves on is that they hold few positions on the issues. As such you can, in theory, be both Catholic and libertarian. You just can't force your Catholicism on others. Similarly, libertarianism is sold to conservatives in general. One can be anti-abortion and still be libertarian because there is no libertarian position on abortion. It sounds good, and if it weren't for one teensy trifle we might actually accept the premise.

The trifle, you say? Well, simply that libertarians do hold positions on the issues and to become libertarian, you must hold those positions too.

Yes, before someone argues otherwise, they do hold positions on the issues, even issues such as abortion. They think a woman who wants one should be allowed to have one. This is not a neutral stance: this is being pro-abortion. It's no different than the tired liberal saw (which many if not all seem to accept) which states, "I'm personally opposed, but..." If you believe that abortion should be allowable then you are in favor of it and that's you're actual position on the matter. To say anything less is disingenuous, quite frankly.

Abortion is but one example, so there's no point running down the litany of relative political positions. Yet there is a further problem involving things such as abortion. If we can't work against it through the law and remain libertarian, then libertarianism becomes a shell. It asks us to give up on a very basic principle through which by surrendering we have violated our most basic and essential beliefs. It asks us to give up not only the vaunted individualism which the creed champions (a pretty obvious point when you think about it) it really asks us to give up our souls. How can we be people who believe in the dignity of others if we have no yardstick by which to grade human behavior?

Libertarians have positions on the issues; there could be no libertarian movement if this were not true. It's time they acknowledged as much, and played fair with Right Reason and human intellect.