Not sure why you think that the Libertarian Party is not in favor of less government and getting the government out of our lives. That is what this party is about.

The Post Office - I rarely use them. I would get less junk mail. Win - Win if they are gone for me.

Unemployment Compensation - With all the money we are not paying in taxes we could invest in taking care of ourselves and taking personal responsibility for our own well being. Why is it that when you are not employed you feel that there is some requirement for compensation? We could have our own unemployment insurance if we so chose to.

Abortion fully legal/Legal drug use - Not sure why you picked this one out of the hat of laws that wouldn't even be considered in a Libertarian society. There would be no laws making abortion illegal. Just like a great many personal decisons would not be illegal. As long as exercising your freedoms don't take freedoms from another individual all should be well in the world. Tobacco use would even be decriminalized.

Medicare/Medicaid - Don't need them.

Social Security - Don't need it. Invest in yourself with all that tax money you aren't spending. Unless of course you feel the government does a better job planning your retirement than you can.

No government involvement in healthcare - This could have been dscussed with medicare/medicaid. They do such a horrible job with the few plans they do control, why would we give them anymore?

Environmental concerns - What environmental concerns? Our government is the number 1 polluter in this country. Reducing them in size will do nothing but help the environment.

Weapons - Again, if you aren't imposing on anyone else's freedom/liberty... You should be able to own guns without registration and monitoring.

All fine answers of course but how to implement them?  They seem VERY far from the current reality and some drastic changes need to be made to achieve them.

I'm interested in the small steps that would have to take place to get away from the things I mentioned in my first post.  How can Libertarians promote their points of view without sounding like extremists?  Libertarians aren't even on the map currently in any elections that I know of and people don't really talk about them in any political discussions.  How does the party become relevant?  Ralph Nader seems more relevant and is more talked about in this election.

Ron Paul seemed to be closer to Libertarianism (from what I've heard and what little I've read) but he seemed very Conservative to me. 

Then private companies the offer similar services would be available if there was enough demand for such things.




Then you'd have to obtain another source of income or living or perish.




Nothing. I don't see anything changing for most of us.



Drug prices plummet, gangs and violence disappear almost overnight, what would be a multi-million/billion dollar industry goes legitimate and tax revenues increase. Terrorist organizations like the FARC collapse in a matter of weeks. Taxpayer expenses on the massive prison system decline dramatically. A significant number of people in law enforcement, corrections, and the judicial systems are dumped from government payrolls further reducing the tax burden for the average American.

Oh, and people are STILL using drugs anyway, just like they do now.



Private providers would compete to provide the best quality, lowest cost medical services to customers as humanly possible.



Would be eliminated, placing the burden of planning for rainy days on the average American rather than the state, causing Americans to become more responsible and those who do not to learn first hand what social Darwinism is all about.



See up two.



The environment would go straight to Hell, but of course in my opinion maintaining a safe and clean environment is covered by protecting citizens from enemies both foreign and domestic.



Handguns, rifles, semi-automatic rifles should be completely deregulated.
Automatic weapons should be lightly regulated.
Explosives and weapons of mass destruction should be prohibited.

I appreciate the responses so far.  Some steps seem a bit big and scary.  Quite large steps and I imagine it'd be hard for most people to digest.  The libertarian website has been helpful as well in answering questions about what the stances are of Libertarians.

What about the environment?  I don't think a free market is very conducive to environmental care.  Without regulation I imagine companies would really take advantage of polluting the environment to save money.

I haven't really found any view on the environment on the Libertarian website.

I forgot to add; how do I change my voter's registration?  I can't seem to find it on PA's website.

For a view on the environment you may want to try this:

http://ecolibertarian.org/manifesto

This has alway been a bit of a weak spot for most Libertarians, because market forces do not address things like negative externalities that well. It is too simplistic to say if someone pollutes my property I should be able to sue them. Reserve Mining once tried the reverse of that idea and claimed all of the water in Lake Superior in fact belonged to them, therefore they should be able to dump as they please.

Mik Robertson

I'll try my best, but I'm still gaining info about the libertarian party.
Less junk mail. Seriously, since I can pay practically any bill online and even get magazines through e-mail, there's really not much of a reason for the postal office to exist. However, if a service was still in demand, we would have competing businesses for the delivery for mail, just like we have FedEx and UPS for package delivery.

In a libertarian world, this issue wouldn't be much of a concern because the much less government regulated free market would allow you to find a job quicker. Instead, we get these stupid special interest acts such as NAFTA which kills our jobs. But that's for another thread.

Anyway, a libertarian president would enact a consumption tax and get rid of the income tax. So how does this affect you when your unemployed? Well, you would naturally want to consume a lot less, so you would pay less in taxes. In addition, there are alternative options for income such as CDs, bonds, and even the stock market if you know how to play it well. If you can manage your money and show that you're a good worker, then I don't see the lack of unemployment insurance as a problem. The real issue here is that most Americans expect all of these handouts from the government and don't take any responsibility for what they spend, so as a result they get into these big debt holes where they're stuck in it.
Mmm, depends on who you ask. I believe that an unborn child still has rights and abortion should only be used in special situations such as if it could harm the mother, the mother is still a child or young teen, the child is going to die, or if the child will live a very low quality of life. Even then, one can still put the child up for adoption.

On the other hand, it's not like every mother is going to get an abortion just because they don't want the child. In this case, I can see the libertarian viewpoint of just staying out of the messy picture period and not giving preference to one side or the other.
A lot of people think that if we somehow make illegal drugs legal, then everyone is immediately going to run to the pharmacy, get high and this country will immediately fall apart. In reality, the drug laws have made the situation much worse because of the crimes that have followed the illegal trade. Take for example, the probation acts of the 1920s. When alcohol became illegal, what happened? Speakeasys popped up & the trade of alcohol was controlled by organized crime. If we legalize drugs, not only will the illegal trade begin to dissipate but the crime that comes with it will also eventually shrink down to almost nothing. That, ladies and gentlemen is how you win the War on Drugs.
Simply another government tool that doesn't work. Get rid of it.
Heh, I find it funny that despite the fact that my income is being deducted for Social Security, there's no guarantee that it'll be in my future. The system is managed so badly that it just needs to be cut out. Plus, the paltry income that comes with SS when you're 65 won't be enough to sustain you anyway. You still have to manage your money anyway, so cutting SS out will give you more money to be able to save up for retirement.
Same thing with Medicare/Medicaid, only this problem will be about 100x more massive. For some reason, Democrats think that by copying the models off of Canada and other European countries, we'll suddenly have happy joy and paradise. What they don't realize is that our population is a lot larger than most European countries and a lot of the medical infrastructure would have to be shut down to fund it, which would also create unemployment. In addition, your taxes will have to take a huge hike to fund it. Not a very good solution. Instead, we should keep it private, but encourage more businesses to offer healthcare coverage and get them to compete with each other. Competition is what will keep prices down.
As stated above, the government is the biggest polluter because it allows corporations to pollute.  To use another example, if I stabbed or did some sort of harm to you, wouldn't you want to press charges against me? Wouldn't you want me to pay for the damages associated to your health? If these companies want to pollute, then they should pay for the costs of those affected by the pollution. That's also another method for pushing renewable, clean energy sources.
As stated in the Second Amendment, you have the right to own a weapon. If you use it responsibly, then there's no harm done. If you attack or kill someone for your own benefit, then you've not only broken the law, but you've violated someone else's civil liberties an you should be punished for doing so. Just as with drugs, if we put all these bans on weapons, then that will only fuel the illegal trade.

I hope I was able to answer some of your questions.

Do not unto others as you would not have them do unto you.


DoH!

Some other folks used that one already!

Mik