Revolt of the Libertarians

Lew Rockwell and Justin Raimondo both have recent (characteristically overheated) columns about the growing “fascism” of the American right. William Marina of Liberty & Power critiques Rockwell here. Reason’s Jesse Walker has some thoughts here.

The thrust of the Rockwell/Raimondo position is that American conservatism has shifted from being anti-government during the Clinton years to pro-government now that Bush is president and especially in the wake of 9/11.

Marina questions (correctly, I think) the depth of the libertarianism of the American right during the Clinton years. He points out that Newt Gingrich, leader of the “revolution” of 1994 was anything but a libertarian (a point that Rockwell and Raimondo would concede, I suspect).

The Rockwell-Raimondo position rests on the assumption that the conservative grassroots were staunchly libertarian during the 90’s and are only now moving in a more authoritarian direction. My guess, for what it’s worth, is that grassroots conservatives were never consistently libertarian. Most people simply don’t have an elaborately thought-out political ideology that they use as a yardstick by which to judge all parties and candidates. Politics is much more tribal than that.

Moreover, libertarianism was always just one element within the broader conservative movement. It existed (at times uneasily) alongside traditionalists, social conservatives, foreign policy hawks, law and order types, Reagan Democrats and other decidedly un-libertarian tendencies.

For better or for worse, consistent liberatarians are few and far between (just like consistent adherents of any political ideology). Most people pick a side and stick with it despite ideological deviations. It’s more a matter of cultural/tribal affiliation than anything, which is part of the truth of the red-blue dichotomy. And most people would rather see “their guy” in power than dismantle that power as radical libertarians advocate.