I hope Ron Paul wins. If he doesn’t, at least his campaign will expose more people to libertarian ideas. Libertarian ideas embody a principled world view that, if embraced, will remove many sources of cognitive dissonance from your life. Libertarianism transcends the left-right spectrum that Americans are taught in school and lets you hold an intelligent third-party view of the Left and the Right.

The only difference between the Left and the Right is how to wield political power. They both agree that the State is necessary, but they disagree on how to use it. Both sides are better described as Statists, because they believe the benefits of the State are greater than the costs. (And the costs are great.) Leftists believe in social freedom like using drugs, gambling, or engaging in various sexual practices, but they don’t think you should have economic freedom to spend the fruits of your labor how you wish. They tax and regulate and control the means of production. Those on the Right allow you economic freedom but deny you social freedom. In reality, it is much more complicated than this, mainly because we have politicians who, to avoid “extremism”, try to limit both social and economic liberty, regardless of which party they belong to. Neither side favors complete individual liberty. They favor using political power to achieve their own ends.

Take The World’s Smallest Political Quiz to illustrate the point. I also recommend Are You Liberal? Conservative? or Confused? (An “Uncle Eric” Book)by Richard Maybury.

Libertarians take the intelligent and consistent view of allowing you freedom in all aspects of life. You are free to spend your time and money on any pursuit whatsoever. You are only limited by the equal rights of others. This is only a short explanation to an enormous body of thought that I encourage you to consider if you are at all interested in how to make the world more prosperous.

Daniel mentioned LewRockwell.com and the Mises Institute. Both are invaluable. Here are a few of my other favorites:

Human Action by Ludwig von Mises
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
The Law by Frederic Bastiat

Remember, don’t think Left vs. Right. Think Liberty vs. State.