The trap of self-righteous politics

I'm as guilty of anyone of being self-righteous concerning my views, and this post is not addressed to anyone I know of, but it concerns myself.

Being libertarian-minded, I tend to hold some views held by a minority of people, or have views concerning issues that are not discussed heavily in the political arena (i.e. local or state licensing laws, state funding of ballparks, etc...). Now, in the past, I was a typical Republican, and I still am, but I now hold libertarian views on off-spotlight issues, or I take a more-libertarian approach to the majority of issues. As I became more interested in libertarian ideas, I began to develop an elitist type attitude. Fortunately, as I have matured, I have become more humble with these ideas. In fact, I am the most humble person I know! My humility would put yours to shame!

Anyway, anytime someone is really passionate about politics, they are more likely to be more obnoxious, self-righteous, or whatever. I always got annoyed at some of the liberals who have tons of bumper stickers on their car, or who make everything a political issue, or who wonder how one can watch a sports game while there are starving children in Sudan, or wherever, but really, as I grew passionate about my own beliefs, I was doing the same, at least in my attitude. Political passion is valuable, but it can make one undesirable to be around. A counter-example is one of my lifelong friends. He is someone who is passionate about politics but seems to keep a pretty level head.

Some of the extreme right, extreme left sites that I have come across in my time are very self-righteous, but some of the worst are the extreme libertarian sites (those that consider themselves anti-state, and some anti-war), including those with Christian commentators. While disagreeing with the government is a staple of limited government types, many of the anti-state sites seem to have a total disrespect, maybe even a hatred, for those in authority. I suppose that such a distrust of government (whether it be that of the opposite political party, or gov't in general) can easily lend itself to a judgmental, self-righteous attitude, but it does not have to.