The libertarian moment is over, and we have killed it (Part 1)

by Ben Seidman

Over at the Washington Post, former Reason staffer Dave Weigel writes about the possible end of “The Libertarian Moment.”  Weigel quotes from several other right-of-center sources who all seem to agree that there’s at least an ebb from where things were a year ago, and much of it is tied to the (overstated) decline of Rand Paul’s presidential campaign.  Neoconservative Noah Rothman attributes the decline to the rise of ISIS, which he interprets as a refutation of libertarian foreign policy.  

There’s a grain of truth to all of these claims.  However, the real culprit is the self-styled “Liberty Movement” itself.  It is to be expected that Internet Libertarian Warriors and other fringe figures will be unreliable and indeed even counterproductive sometimes.  But the professional libertarian establishment in the Beltway is truly to blame.  For at least a decade they have been undercutting libertarianism at every corner- on the one hand claiming “political pragmatism” when it means surrendering to statism, and claiming “ideological principle” when it means undercutting real libertarian victories.  The Beltway Establishment has traded ideology for respectability, and lost both.  

Libertarians for War!  Or Why Brink Lindsey is the Source of Everything Bad

The decline goes back at least to the Iraq War.  In a 2002 Reason piece, Cato VP Brink Lindsey published his case for the Iraq War.  It is a piece which would make Tom Cotton blush.  Lindsey argues:

“Here is the grim reality: Radical Islamism is in arms against the West, and its fanatical followers have pledged their lives to killing as many of the infidel as they possibly can… And let there be no mistake: This is a fight to the death. Either we crush radical Islamism’s global jihad, or thousands—or even millions—more Americans will die.”

Does this sound a little familiar?  Does it sound like it would fit right in at John Bolton’s new 501(c)(4)?

As shameful as Lindsey’s Kristolite endorsement was, most of Cato remained a principled opposition to the war.  Lindsey’s greatest sin, and the root of all problems, comes from a 2006 essay of his simply titled: “Liberaltarians”.  Notably, the piece originally appeared in The New Republic.  Lindsey faults the 2006 GOP losses for, among other things, “an atrociously bungled war in Iraq.”  Lindsey makes no mention of his own support for the Iraq war.  Perhaps we are to cut him some slack- sure any libertarian can and did predict complete government failure in the war, but Lindsey is a Liberaltarian!  

The piece only gets worse.  For example, Lindsey asserts that the major libertarian victories of the past century were products of the political left.  Included in this list is the end of Jim Crow, even though progressives loathed blacks and the forces supporting segregation were, almost to a man, Democrats.  One almost has sympathies for Lindsey’s naivete back in 2006, saying that “rising education level…have promoted increasing independence of mind.”  Equally ridiculous is his belief that economic growth is the natural ally of progressivism.

The “Liberaltarianism” piece would become the Port Huron Statement of Beltway Libertarianism.  Perhaps it was disillusionment with the Bush Administration, perhaps it was a desire to ride the then-rising political tide of the Democratic Party, or perhaps it was a desire to get invited to the right cocktail parties.  Regardless, at that point the Beltway Establishment decided that libertarianism would be all about progressivism and social justice.  The rest of libertarianism, from old white paleos in Auburn to the antiwar stalwarts of the Old Right, would have to be purged in the name of a more cosmopolitan libertarianism.  

To be continued in Part 2…