Sovereign X

Let’s Get This Straight

Key Points

  • Many feel the United States’ dominant and monolithic two-party system is constraining, with growing numbers not identifying with either political party.
  • Many Americans align with the Democrats because they can’t stomach social conservatism and intolerance and, worse, the advocacy of authoritarianism that seems to be the hallmark of the modern Republican Party.
  • Sovereign X believes liberty is not a one-way street, and it may be time to start operating on a global basis to reset and recharge your “pursuit of happiness.”

Glenn Lawrence, Writing From: Montevideo, Uruguay


For most of my voting life, I represented myself as an independent or as a moderate. I never felt entirely at home in either of the two major U.S. political parties. I tended to vote for liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats. I preferred the economic and fiscal conservatism of Republicans (or, as it used to be) but disliked their social conservatism. I skewed to the social liberalism of the Democrats but disliked their less than responsible fiscal and economic tendencies.

I feel constrained by the United States’ dominant and monolithic two-party system. I know many people who feel the same way—who don’t feel that they belong entirely to either party or, in growing numbers, no party at all.

They usually end up aligning with the Democrats because they can’t stomach the social conservatism and intolerance, and, worse, the advocacy of authoritarianism that seems to be the hallmark of the modern Republican party.

But I can’t join them.

I can’t go along with the Democrats’ propensity for massive public spending (“the Federal debt doesn’t matter, let’s roll with Modern Monetary Theory!”), and the thinking that government can and should solve every problem.  Those attitudes and predilections lead to crony capitalism and the enormously corrupt moral hazard of too-big-to-fail bailouts and lobbyist-driven protectionism. 

This has led me over the years to consider myself a Libertarian sympathizer. I’m not a Libertarian theorist or great thinker; I would not be adept at debating the staunchest academic followers steeped in the ways of the great Libertarian thinkers. So pardon me if I fail to nail down the Libertarian code of values perfectly—but I think I can get pretty close.

Libertarianism’s essence can be summed up in just a few phrases: pursuing and respecting a laissez faire approach to all things in life, both economic and social, underpinned by a healthy judicial system to protect the rights of individuals. True liberty is letting people live as they choose to live, provided that their choices and actions do not infringe on others’ rights. This is an inarguable core concept of the U.S. Founding Fathers: the unalienable rights to “…Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” 

This line of thinking leads to something that irks me. These so-called anti-maskers who claim that it is their right to exercise personal liberty by not wearing a mask amid a pandemic. That’s not the pursuit of true liberty; it’s merely the exercise of petty selfishness. 

Let’s get this straight: liberty is not a one-way street. I have the right for you not to harm me, but I also don’t have the right to harm you. I don’t have the right to spoil your food, foul your air, contaminate your water, invade your personal space, nor do I have the right to infect you with Covid-19. So wear a mask, people. It’s the true Libertarian way that respects and adheres to the core principles of American liberty.

The increased infringement of natural rights and the imposition of others’ value systems is a reason to let Sovereign X help you take action as quickly as possible to diversify your life, to start operating on a global basis, to reclaim your sovereignty and personal liberty, and to reset and recharge your pursuit of Happiness.


Glenn Lawrence is co-founder and managing partner of Sovereign X.

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