Posted on 06/08/2022 1:08:17 PM PDT by libertasbella
No political movement is a monolith. Political movements have their own sub-sects and factions within them. Libertarianism has been no exception to this rule. One variety of libertarianism that stands out is paleolibertarianism.
The paleolibertarian strand of libertarianism fuses traditional cultural values and philosophical values with the standard libertarian antipathy of government intervention into private affairs.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.libertasbella.com ...
Paleolibertarian thought emerged out of a well-established classical liberal tradition that put private property and market activity on a pedestal. The “paleo” qualifier is used due to how the paleo libertarian ideology has its origins in classical right-wing thought.
19th century classical liberalism and the Old Right largely influenced paleos. British historian Lord Acton is among the most prominent intellectual role models for paleos due to his opposition to centralized state power. This tradition of pro-small government views would be maintained by the Old Right in the first half of the 20th century. It became known for its opposition to the centralized managerial state and the missionary foreign policy the U.S. adopted since World War I.
Several politicians such as Howard Buffett and Senator Robert Taft and writers such as Garet Garret and Albert Jay Nock espoused these principles. Paleos would later champion the aforementioned figures’ ideas.
Many proto-libertarian pundits and theorists started to gain notoriety during the New Deal. Although she was no libertarian, the Objectivist author Ayn Rand would also be a major source of inspiration for many paleos. Her free market beliefs made her popular across the majority of libertarian sects.
The Rothbard/Rockwell Duo
Figures such as the historian Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockwell, the founder of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, were instrumental in developing this segment of libertarianism. Both men were influenced by the Austrian school of economics and were actively involved in the advocacy of anarcho-capitalism.
Their compilation of essays in the Rothbard-Rockwell report became the main guide for spreading Rothbard’s message of free markets, private property, and traditional western culture in the 1990s. Although the paleo movement is not exclusively anarcho-capitalist, its undeniable that pro-capitalist strains of anarchism have largely shaped its overall ideology.
The Schisms Within Libertarianism
The libertarian movement experienced a significant rise in the 1970s and quickly witnessed the Libertarian Party emerge as America’s leading third party. The Koch brothers, Charles and David, helped form the Cato Institute along with Murray Rothbard in 1977 –– signaling a promising new age for libertarians. However, it was not able to keep itself together for very long. Infighting due to disagreements on strategy and philosophical differences caused the movement to fissure. One of the most infamous splits was the Koch-Rothbard split in the 1980s.
In large part due to differences regarding libertarian strategy, Rothbard began to clash with his fellow Cato board members and eventually criticized the 1980s Libertarian Party presidential ticket of Ed Clark and David Koch for not taking radical stances on the issue of taxation. This led to Rothbard’s expulsion from the Cato Institute in 1981
From there, Rothbard teamed up with Lew Rockwell, Ron Paul’s former Chief of Staff, to form the Mises Institute. Even after Rothbard’s death in 1995, the paleo sect continued to remain a force within libertarianism. Rockwell’s website, which was founded in 1999, has been the hub of paleolibertarian discourse. It features notable writers such as Karen de Coster, Thomas DiLorenzo, and Tom Woods, among others.
The Paleo’s Break From Conservatism
The Cold War temporarily united libertarianism with conservatism through the “fusionist” movement, which coalesced around the issue of preserving a market-based economy and resisting a totalitarian state. However, once the Soviet Union collapsed, this alliance started to gradually collapse.
Many libertarians became skeptical of the Right’s interventionist streak that came about with the rise of the neoconservatives. Additionally, conservative’s inability to roll back the administrative state made libertarians realize that this movement was not following through with its rhetoric. In light of this, a number of libertarians became convinced that aligning themselves with the acceptable Right and neocon adjacent groups was no longer a fruitful strategy.
It’s a long word.
How would this differ from Conservatarian? That’s the term I use for myself and it seems to apply to the same basic idea.
I was thinking Paul Rand on a diet.
Long and unelectable. Anarchists, not much different than Antifa. Maybe one in the same for many of the folks.
Sorry. Rand Paul. Paul Rand is a designer.
Rand Paul is the libertarian Senator.
Great article!
It’s digging your own cave to live in, instead of waiting for nature to provide it for you.
It’s another meaningless attempt to categorize political philosophies. Why don’t we instead discuss how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
Tom Woods’ podcasts are always worth a listen. He is also, like Mark Steyn, refreshing as he isn’t all politics, all the time. He is also a historian, a big plus.
“a number of libertarians became convinced that aligning themselves with the acceptable Right and neocon adjacent groups was no longer a fruitful strategy...”
Well, frankly, they haven’t come up with a more fruitful strategy since then, so this seems to have been a miscalculation.
Threaten to withhold your votes and you might get a concession. Take your votes and leave and you get nothing.
(Libertarians aren’t popular enough to have the “3rd Party” option actually be viable, so they get nothing through that route either)
So do you ever post anything other than your own material?
https://freerepublic.com/tag/by:libertasbella/index?tab=articles
Do you make much money from using FR as a free advertising source?
You should be ashamed.
And horsewhipped.
I don’t know wth Antifa is or what they claim to be. They are not Anarchists. Anarchy, first used in the 1500’s meant an absence of government. The belief that you are self governed and that no one should be forced to do what’s opposed to their inner compass by another. We could take note - the left and many on the right want to force others to live by their personal morality. Stop it.
Edmund Burke?
“How would this differ from Conservatarian?”
I think it’s pretty close.
I probably can’t call myself a “conservative” (as the word is often used) because I am not an authoritarian conservative — for example, I hate drug use, but think the War on Drugs was and is a disaster, with the police state that grew up around it itching to be misused against normal Americans.
Agree
This might help. Here’s Nick Gillespie’s latest from earlier today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nQPUQeafwU
Ideologies like this don’t translate very well to the real world.
Bookmark
a buzz kill...
time for another hit...
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