Mormonism is deeply, doctrinally, libertarian.  Most Mormons haven't figured this out yet.  In a Pew survey I found one time, and that I refer to all the time, and that I didn't save a link to, but I bet still exists out there, 90% of members of the church identified as either Republican (70%) or Democrat (20%).  That means, in case you're keeping track, that I have a massively uphill battle.  That's fine, it also means I have a lot of potential for success!

 

So, if you're a Mormon, you're probably wondering what the heck I'm talking about.  Why would I say that our church is doctrinally libertarian?  What does that even mean?  What, even, is a libertarian, for that matter?

 

When I first started this project, I did an hour and 20 minute podcast episode answering all of those questions.  You can listen to it here.

 

The text version is under construction.  There are a couple of things you can read online, though, if you don't want to slog through the 80 minutes I linked above.  I started two long Twitter (now known as X) threads.  One is an introduction to what libertarianism is.  It's not very Mormon-specific but it was written with a Mormon audience in mind.  It's mostly done.  You can find that one here.

 

The other mega-thread, still in progress at this point, is here.  It combines a background in the Mormon doctrine of the premortal life with an argument about how the implications of those scriptures heavily, heavily point us toward libertarian politics and policies.

 

But, guess what?  I'm going to give you the short version right here!  And here's how that goes:

 

All non-libertarian political positions and policies are, essentially, suggestions that we should give up our agency in order to prevent sin.  This, you might recognize, was Satan's plan in the premortal life.  When we embrace non-libertarian politics, we have switched sides from our original, agency-affirming side in the premortal life.

 

That's it.  If you're not familiar with that backstory, read the thread referred to as "the other mega-thread," above.  

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