"To glimpse into how small-government principles have drawn those young voters, Yahoo News asked libertarian-minded Americans to share their stories."
Yahoo News got in touch with me this week asking for short, first-person accounts from a handful of young people explaining how they came to libertarianism. I was able to send four stories along—two from coworkers and one from tumblr’s own Jayel Aheram (againstpower)—and all four were published and featured in the final piece!
Here’s an excerpt:
Piyali Bhattacharya with Ron Paul
In high school, Piyali Bhattacharya had a bleeding heart—she says she was a “very proud and outspoken liberal”—and questioned U.S. involvement in wars and believed in free health care and education for all. She re-evaluated those political leanings in college when she found “Google Ron Paul” scribbled in chalk on a sidewalk. Now 24, she works for Young Americans for Liberty, a nonprofit organization in Washington D.C.
In her words:
Less than ten minutes of research confirmed that I had found a candidate whose stances resonated with my own on nearly every issue. But more importantly, this man had been consistent for years about the importance of civil liberties, of a limited, constitutional government, of free market Austrian economics—and just how far politics and policy in America had strayed from those tenets.
War is still unpleasant when we are engaged in unconstitutional, unsustainable, and costly foreign intervention. I still believe in the rights of women and homosexuals—not because they belong to those groups, but because they are individuals and should be treated as such. And my bleeding heart hasn’t hardened, but a deeper understanding of free market economics had led to the knowledge that limiting government and encouraging private charity are the best way to help those in need.
