,
21 tweets,
4 min read
Read on Twitter
As a conservative with strong libertarian impulses, I've always been dismayed at how useless self-described libertarians tend to be when it's time to actually fight the expansion of the State. They're more likely to throw in with the Left or be manipulated by them as catspaws.
This is partly a matter of disorganization. As the social media era has made painfully clear, organization and hustle are invaluable for shifting public opinion and moving votes. Libertarians tend to see themselves as lone wolves or above the messy business of retail politics.
Some libertarians fell for the old left-wing swindle of sexual libertinism. They'll give away all the truly meaningful liberties for the sexual liberties the authoritarian Left uses the same way Roman emperors used bread and circuses.
Some of them detest religious conservatives above all other things, and are easily manipulated by the Left as a result. Libertarians who ostentatiously pride themselves on atheism have been dragooned into left-wing pseudo-religions, or at least persuaded not to oppose them.
Every few years we get a rash of stories about the supposedly blossoming "Left-libertarian alliance." Some of this is agitprop meant to push libertarians to the Left, knowing that people who profess disgust for grubby politics will tend to follow the path of least resistance.
But to the extent there really IS a Left-libertarian alliance, it's amazing to watch so-called libertarians making their peace with an aggressive totalitarian political movement. There isn't a single item on the Left's political agenda that does not injure liberty and autonomy.
A true libertarian should be in the trenches fighting the Left and its Democratic Party everywhere, with the full measure of their energy and passion. Not a single victory for the authoritarian Left should be tolerable.
The GOP is a VERY imperfect vehicle for driving to a state of greater American liberty, but at least they kinda-sorta know where it is. There are some Republicans who really believe in small-government libertarian ideals. They're a minority, to be sure, but they exist.
The Democrats are full-blown authoritarians with a bottomless appetite for power and control. There isn't a single aspect of your life they don't aspire to control. Any tactical concession they pretend to grant to libertarians today will be taken back tomorrow.
But too many libertarians are hypnotized by a few seeming "liberties" the Left dangles before them - abortion is portrayed as a struggle against theocracy and a matter of pure personal autonomy, drug legalization is a thumb in the eye of overbearing law enforcement, etc.
On abortion, libertarians must confront the same moral equation as everyone else: either the baby is a human being, or it isn't. If you understand that the baby is human, you cannot conclude the "libertarian" approach is to extinguish all of his or her liberties.
As for drug legalization, use your heads: a nation with more widespread drug use will not become more free. Instead, the managerial elite will demand ever more power to control an unreliable population that makes poor life decisions and cannot restrain its destructive appetites.
Far too much of "libertarianism" is just a dodge to pretend the self-proclaimed libertarian is "above politics." That makes them easy for highly-organized and bullying Left to push around or ignore. They're conscientious objectors in a battle for what remains of American liberty.
Some are too obsessed with figuring out where libertarianism ends and conservatism begins. They're dithering over whether to join the men, elves, or dwarves on the battlements of the West while a vast horde of left-wing orcs charges up behind them.
And some self-professed libertarians are motivated primarily by loathing for some element of the conservative coalition - a loathing carefully cultivated by the Left for the very purpose of ensuring libertarians will capitulate to them or stay on the sidelines.
If you're a libertarian trying to float above the fray and hold your ideals to yourself, you've badly misread the momentum of politics. You're stuck in the early 1980s. At this point, your options are to resist the authoritarian Left or submit to them.
Stop planning a fantasy victory parade through the tiny, shiny capital of a country that will never exist and start winning some political battles. Pushing the authoritarian Democrat Party back is vital. Halt the advance of liberty's sworn enemies, then work on pushing them back.
The ultimate political goal of libertarians should be helping the American population rediscover the true value of liberty. There are concrete policy steps that can be taken toward that end, just as the Left deliberately pursued policies to make liberty appear less valuable.
And you will never implement any of those policies without the political support of Republicans and conservatives. The Democrats are utterly, implacably opposed to all of them. They're planning to take over the rest of society and the economy in the next election.
Once upon a time, the Left convinced libertarians they were the champions of free speech against "Moral Majority" scolds and censors. Now the Left is poised to annihilate free speech, taking away the only liberty some libertarians seem truly invested in.
We're in the red zone now, guys. If the Left wins big in another election or two, you won't even be allowed to talk about your immaculate libertarian principles anymore. If you aren't willing to come off the bench and fight for anything else, at least fight for that. /end
