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October 22, 2004
Libertarians: Huh?
I do not get Libertarians. This is odd since for the most part that is how I would classify myself. I think the federal government should probably be about a quarter of the size it is today and taxes should be about a third of what they are. I would eliminate entire cabinet level departments if I had the chance along with many federal programs. And yet my reaction to libertarians is similar to this emailer to instapundit from yesterday:
I would like you to explain a little more on your impressions of libertarianism. I consider myself a libertarian, and not just because of my name. But listening to the libertarian party today leaves me with one reaction. Huh?
Their isolationist stance on security and foreign policy just doesn't make any sense in today's world. It is like surrending for the sake of liberty, which means liberty would end.
Huh? is about the same reaction I have. I disagree with their isolationism and the defense department is the one department that I would not cut back. We have governments to provide for our common defense before all other things and to maintain order. But libertarianism has gone beyond putting government in its proper place to anarchy, with no room for defense or any semblance of order producing laws. Obsessions about the constitutionality of drivers licenses or the income tax show how unserious libertarians as a party and as a group are about actually changing things. There are lots of issues they could be talking about like the war on drugs and eminent domain where libertarians have a chance to convince enough people that less government involvement is appropriate and that there is a chance to actually change government policy in these areas if they worked hard enough and built enough coalitions. But most libertarians seem to prefer to debate the whole big picture philosophy and obtain pure libertarian thought rather than to see any results in public policy if it means any sort of compromise from this goal. That is why there presidential candidate tries to get himself arrested for not having a drivers license instead of focusing on issues most normal people care about and acts in a way (no respect for the law) that drives most normal law abiding citizens away.
Earlier in the same instapundit post Reynolds linked to this post at Reason about libertarian leaning people and presidential elections. Many of the commentators looked down their noses at people who voted regularly for president and said it did not matter, they all always suck except libertarian. I am sure that it may make them feel real good about themselves and it shows why libertarians are great at debating, but are lousy at actually making a difference in the world and changing anything.
Posted by Pete at October 22, 2004 08:34 AM
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