Libertarians Want to Peacefully Dismantle Government

Dear Editor,
    Kudos to Richard Whittaker for his article “The Libertarians” [News, Oct. 10]. But Libertarians aren’t at all on the right. I’m a Libertarian, and I would find the thought offensive except that the theme of the article was that the Democrats are getting in bed with Libertarians in their mutual antagonism to the GOP. But the Libertarians are adversaries of both of the vestigial wings. There may be a tangential connection in that both wings spout what sounds like Libertarian ideology. The left wing whispers shyly about its opposition to the drug wars and other wars, but the Libertarians differ in that they base their opposition on individual rights, i.e., a person’s right to ingest what he pleases and the lack of a right to murder foreigners who aren’t attacking. Similarly, the right wing makes noise about taxes and limiting the size of government (and I might add, its actions don’t match its rhetoric), but the Libertarians are against all taxes, representative or otherwise. And their primary agenda is to voluntarily and peacefully dismantle the government. A vast difference!