Libertarianism in the Republicans
I’ve been told that the US republican party is the most libertarian party and the best bet for libertarians in the US.
This doesn’t fly well with me. As opposed as I am to the Democrat’s ‘liberalism’ and statism, I don’t see that republicans today are libertarian.
Some of the liberal agenda was pushed by Reagan and before him Barry Goldwater campaigned on a far more libertarian basis in 1964 (and in the 1980s broke ranks against the religious right on many issues).
Yet look at the republicans today. Dominated by war mongers, led by a man who wants to lock people up without trial and confiscate the property of political dissidents. The party contains people would would quite happily put people to death for being anti-war.
They are socially conservative and not even economically liberal. Bush has presided over the biggest increase in state spending ever.
True, there’s the Republican Liberty Caucus, but they are frankly marginalised by the religious right and the social conservatives and the pro-war lobby.
None of the front runners for the Republican nomination are particularly liberal. Guiliani has shown himself to be illiberal on many things such as pornography despite his social liberalism. He’s also authoritarian personally and not in the least bit economically liberal.
McCain has led the biggest assault on free speech with the McCain-Feingold campaign financing act. He’s a nationalist and “national greatness” conservative and vehemently pro-war. He took over from Goldwater promising you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, but has been a meddling, authoritarian in public policy.
Thompson - Easily the most pro-Bush candidate. Hawkish on foreign policy and socially conservative.
There is of course Ron Paul who seems to be getting a lot of attention on the internet and now some attention in the mainstream media, but he doesn’t realistically stand much chance…
Not much choice really. They’re all as bad as each other.
Perhaps the GOP contains some libertarians, but its policies for the foreseeable future are going to be broadly illiberal and authoritarian.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 24th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
George W. Bush represents the neo-conservative wing of the Republican party, and during his presidency it has become the predominant line of the Republican Party. But of course Republicans still like to claim in front of libertarian voters, that they are libertarians.
Actually both big parties have libertarian sub-groupings, the Republican Party has Republican Liberty Caucus and the Democratic Party has Democratic Freedom Caucus, but both of these are of course only one small ideological sub-grouping among many other within their respective party. The only libertarian Party in the United States is of course the Libertarian Party.