Libertarians and Black Lives Matter

Libertarians support civil rights for all human beings. Throughout American history, various groups have suffer civil rights violations on account of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and cultural background. Today, the focus has been on police mistreatment of black people.

So black people have started a movement, and there is a slogan and a hashtag that goes along with it. #BlackLivesMatter. And there is a national organization and multiple local organization by that name as well. Some of them want to disband the police altogether, which arguably makes them more libertarian than even me. And some these groups have agendas that are unrelated to racism. They want to replace capitalism with socialism.

Any political movement centered around a single issue will attract people of various ideologies. Ten years ago, the Tea Party Movement stood against government overspending. Polls were taken showing that the Tea Party was more popular than the Republican Party. The GOP lured many Tea Partiers into their big tent and manage to get them to elect Donald Trump. It should be noted that under Trump, the national debt has been growing faster than the economy.

So politics can make for strange bedfellows, and hashtags can get hijacked. (#ImWithHer) Libertarians should still take an interest in the BLM movement. Here's why:

• 1. It isn't fair that black people are disproportionately arrested for victimless crimes.
• 2. If we stand with them, they might be interested in aligning with Libertarians
  
• 3. If we don't stand with them, they are more likely to align with the Marxists who have been standing with them.
• 4. It's not like we have anything to lose.
• 5. The solution that progressives might come up with is to have police arrest 8 white people for every black person that they arrest.

Black Lives Matter. There, I said it. Racists can cry about it like Chris Cantwell.

Please vote responsibly.