Wealthy Liberals Form Partnership, Pledge to Support Think Tanks

Washington Post ^ | August 10, 2005 | Edsall, Thomas

[Rockingham]

"The former [reactionaries] doesn't realize when it is giving up freedom and the latter [social conservatives] wants to control your life as much as the libs."

Such as? I am not sure exactly whom you are referring to, but I have heard similar comments before. I believe that I recognize the frame of mind: you are a libertarian, I assume, and heavy on lifestyle libertarianism.

Political parties and ideological movements have to be coalitions if they are to run an entire country. A hierarchy of views and interests keeps intramural squabbles and difference of opinion in check or deferred for the sake of larger goals. Over time, the coalition tends to knit together and differences get resolved or put into a stable framework.

As for lifestyle libertarianism, it is a boutique scale political preference; but the libertarianism of Adam Smith, Jefferson, Nock, and Mencken is part of the bedrock of American conservatism. I do not think libertarianism of either stripe is going to grow except to the extent that conservatism prevails.

Snarky comments about "reactionaries" and "social conservatives" miss the essential point: without the more numerous and politically effective "reactionaries" and "social conservatives," libertarianism would still be struggling to find its way out of Ayn Rand's salon.