Introductions are in order…

I’ve been invited by the vivacious ElfNinosMom to start contributing here at Last Free Voice, and I suppose that a short introduction would be in order for my first post here.

Most of you already me, as I tend to frequent the main Libertarians haunts on the internet and in the Chicago area. I’ve probably both aggravated you and made you laugh. It’s how I am, especially with my personal politics.

I followed a very typical path to the Libertarian Party; I was a conservative Republican who believed in limited government and personal responsible. I had a similar epiphany to the one described by Bob Barr: I finally realized that if I wanted to work for limited government and personal responsibility, I’d have to join a political party which actually believed in those values, and it became increasing clear that the Republicans no longer were the party of Goldwater.

Ideologically, I tend to fall between the cracks of being labeled. I can cite strong agreements with various schools of economic thought, and I’ve assembled a combination of the Austrian school, Chicago school and classical liberalism. I would hesitate to call myself a student of any one economic “school”, but do agree there are certain areas in each “school” which have value: the Austrians on money, Chicagoists on rational expectations, classical liberalism on an overriding, general philosophical value.

I’m looking forward to the vigorous debate that I know will come!

Also, check out my personal blog at http://www.jeffwartman.com

Tags: introduction, Jeff Wartman