Liberal Values Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought

The Wall Street Journal shows why the modern conservative movement is not a cause supporting freedom in their view of libertarianism. Kay S. Hymowitz has many words in praise of their free market ideas, which would be expected from The Wall Street Journal. However she also chastises libertarians because they support freedom in other areas. The problem she finds is that such freedom leads to breakdown of the family and “social disarray.”

Even on social and cultural questions, where libertarians have often tangled with tradition-minded conservatives, Mr. Lindsey is on to something in his talk of a “libertarian synthesis” combining self-expression and self-restraint. If the country was slouching toward Gomorrah for a while, it has at the very least straightened up a bit. Many of the indicators of social meltdown that received alarmed attention in the 1980s and early ’90s–high crime rates, “children having children,” teen drug use, rampant divorce–have improved lately.

But they have not improved nearly as much as one might wish–and it is difficult to separate the reasons for our abiding social disarray from the trends that Messrs. Doherty and Lindsey praise and for which libertarians bear a measure of responsibility. Despite Mr. Lindsey’s protestations to the contrary, libertarianism has supported, always implicitly and often with an enthusiastic hurrah, the “Aquarian” excesses that he now decries. Many of the movement’s devotees were deeply involved in the radicalism of the 1960s.

In other words, the Republicans are happy to accept the votes of libertarians on economic grounds, but don’t bother them with other calls for freedom. Libertarians who see benefit in supporting the Republicans should keep this in mind.