Monday, December 04, 2006

Re: Liberaltarians   [Jonah Goldberg]

From a reader:

Jonah,

This idea has me laughing in my cornflakes. Here's why I'm laughing: my
experience and sojourn in the 90's in the wasteland of libertarian
politics. Now that I'm all grown up, I have left such things behind.

There are, *at most* three camps of libertarians:

1. The anti-tax, anti-government spending libertarians. These guys will
find no common home with the liberals whatsoever. They believe, as I'm
sure you know, that government is evil. Not just wasteful, but evil.

These guys are among some of the most intellectual of the libertarians,
but they're not going to be swayed by any argument on government
spending. The liberals will split the sheets with this crowd very quickly.

2. The dope-smoking libertarians. Yes, there is a wing of the
libertarian movement that is all about ending the drug war. While I have
sympathy for their position, given the track record and ineffectiveness
of the drug war, the people making this argument themselves too often
come across as brain-addled dope smokers who just want to smoke their
ganja in peace. No intellectual heft, and you really want to be careful
in making a public appearance with these types. The liberals have people
who will walk cheek-by-jowl with these folks, but the party "elders" in
DC will not let this merry bunch get onto the evening news, so while
there is common ground, it is to be hidden ground.

3. The pro-gun wing of the libertarians. There are pro-gun liberals, but
they're few and far between, and the "party elders" in DC (such as
Schumer, Feinstein, et al) are having none of these pro-gun guys in
their tent.

This grand association ain't going nowhere fast.

Me: I think there's some truth here, but it should be clarified that Brink Lindsey is no ingénue when it comes to the ways of the libertarians. If he thinks there's merit here, odds are he's basing it on something beyond — or rather, in addition to —  mere wishful-thinking. Still that doesn't necessarily mean that if one were to remove the portion of his thinking that was purely wishful, there'd be enough left to make his plan plausible.

 

12/04 01:50 PMShare