Why Libertarians are losing the right.

As more and more conservative voters reject the establishment right, they are looking for alternative viewpoints and organizations that might represent their political beliefs. People like myself, who find themselves increasingly more independent have little in the way of actual party affiliations that have the power to engage and take on the political mainstream in Washington.

While many on the right identify with the Tea Party, it has no leader and runs amuck as some of the super-pacs and the supposedly conservative Leadership have been co-opted by the establishment. If you’re a political junkie who follows the spectrum of opinion makers on facebook or other social media platforms, it doesn’t take long to get mired down and confused. Everyday articles are written denouncing this and championing that. So when a headline appears that sounds like it might appeal to your basic core beliefs we click on it and hope that someone can help make sense of the themes that course though the 24/7 news cycle.

One of the political movements that attracted conservatives was the libertarian movement. They are really good are providing click-bait, with headlines about liberty and smaller government. I was one of the people that gravitated towards libertarian-ism in the past 5 years. I have followed Rand Paul and his father Ron for years. I followed Cato and reason magazine. From there I followed others who popped up in the chain of thought leaders.

The Libertarian party platform. http://www.lp.org/platform

However, over the course of the last 2 years, I have found myself un-following these groups and individuals. It has come naturally as a result of feeling like they have become a cache of purist and elitist that are no better than the extreme left academics that promote social justice. Once you get outside the thought leaders of libertarian circles. The average follower is likely to become hostile, if you disagree with their opinions.

About 2 months ago I read an article from reason, the author bashed the right and Christian Tea Party types. I can’t remember what the article was about, but I do remember that the writer of the article was a researcher for the Cato institute. Forgive me, but for the life of me, I can’t find the article. But I remember thinking, the title of this article should be “How to alienate the right and assume you are intellectually superior to everyone”.

This thought, that libertarians can bring about their form of utopia is
frustrating. The groups that gather around the campfire of libertarian ideas are a wonderful group of people. Laissez-faire and the Mise’s groups put out good material worth reading, with straight data and historical context. For the average reader that is looking for baseline idealism about free markets and capitalism you can get good material from this sites and facebook groups. I can’t help but notice that the libertarian followers are co-opting these ideals and transforming them into social- political manifestations of truism’s. The quest for individual freedom is an important one and we are no closer to restoring the rights of the people than we were 10 years ago. We all need a reality check.

Conservatives in this country will never oppose your idea’s of freedom and
property rights. But to think that your gonna live in gated communities with roads funded by community effort or a kick-start campaign, with personal security paid in bitcoin, make the average conservative a bit leery of your high mindedness. Not that it couldn’t happen. More power to you, if you can make it happen. But to us, these are idea’s that separate the powerful from weak. This will never be a reality in the inner cities, until wholesale change comes about. So the old saying “you can’t there from here” comes to mind. We inherently see your individualist approach as a way of excluding yourself from the country. And this is the dichotomy of the right vs the Libertarian. Both believe in individual freedoms. But one takes personal liberties
to mean anything goes as long as it’s not hurting anyone else and the other approaches it from the standpoint of working from the basis of preservation of inherent rights, given by nature and cemented in the Constitution. Not that we think you are all anarchists, we know you aren’t, though some in the movement are. We don’t judge you on the few.

I know there are those in the Libertarian movement that are going to argue that’s the difference between a big L and little l libertarian. That, when it comes to liberty we are on the same page. It may be true to a large extent, but we certainly differ on the issue of foreign affairs. But I won’t go into that now.

Still, the fact is we have a real problem with political capital. Increasingly, I
see Libertarians facing off with the right. It is my belief that you can only skirt government involvement in everyday life to a certain degree. Then you come face to face with the leviathan that is the federal government. The Libertarians believe their time has come, and maybe so, in small increments. None the less, the country is being besieged by the left. If ever there was a time for those who believe in freedom to come together against socialist masquerading as progressives, now is the time. Now is not the time for Libertarians to be bashing the right. You are alienating a segment of the population that is friendly towards you on many issues.

It’s time for the libertarians and the liberty movement on the right to decide if they think they can bring about change on their own or work with other liberty minded people to bring about change. Until then, we are destined to continue down the path of socialism as the progressive left and the establishment right erode personal rights and the divide the political capital that opposes them both.

John Q Conservative Public.

Some links for you.

http://mises.org/
http://fee.org/
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Friedman.html