Posted under Conservatism & Political Philosophy
Daniel McCarthy of The American Conservative thinks it might be. He is responding to this story by Dave Weigel which reports on the departure of Brink Lindsey and Will Wilkinson from the Cato Institute.
We at this blog have often referred to the Liberaltarians as cosmotarians as their liberal social values reflect their more “cosmopolitian” outlook compared to more populist oriented provincial libertarians out here in flyover country.
But I say good riddance. Libertarians are only useful in so far as they don’t undermine traditional moral values and organic institutions of authority such as the family and the church. Liberaltarians embody all that is wrong with a certain expression of libertarianism.
Bede on 26 Aug 2010 at 5:31 pm #
Philosophically, libertarianism is a form of liberalism. It makes no sense, philosophically, for libertarianism not to be liberal.
The fact that libertarianism is becoming divorced from its origins is perhaps a reflection that the very right / left divide is becoming blurred. As others have stated, perhaps the next division, rather than right / left, will be between nationalists vs. globalists or particularists vs. universalists.
DanPhillips on 26 Aug 2010 at 8:04 pm #
“As I said in the other post, philosophically, libertarianism is a form of liberalism.”
This is true at a basic level, but I don’t think it is quite that simple in reality. There are reasons why libertarianism has usually been associated with the right (in America at least) and why they have generally felt more at home on the right. I’m working on an article on this. More later.
Coffee Time (and open thread) | Conservative Heritage Times on 26 Aug 2010 at 8:30 pm #
[...] the debate on libertarianism and liberalism (here, here and here), I say that libertarianism is hardwired to drift leftward. | | | | | [...]
Believer on 27 Aug 2010 at 7:24 pm #
Until Libertarians drop the Idea of legalized Mary Jane they will never be a serious political party.
Shocking News! Chairman of Beltway Libertarian CATO Institute Doesn’t Think Nullification is Constitutional | Conservative Heritage Times on 27 Mar 2013 at 10:03 pm #
[...] Here is some shocking news from the “dog bites man” department. The new Chairman of the Beltway Libertarian CATO Institute doesn’t think nullification is Constitutional. (The title is misleading. He rests final authority for Constitutional interpretation with the Courts.) Whoda’ thunk it? A PC sensitive cosmotarian eschewing a doctrine that if embraced might get him branded a thought criminal? No way! Such a thing has never happened before. [...]