Libertarians are Neither Conservatives nor Liberals (Wild Cards) - Roderick Long

Libertarians must stress that their ideas are not simply a mix of conservative and liberal positions but rather that libertarian ideas are distinct from conservative and liberal ideas.

http://aaeblog.com/2009/09/10/wild-cards/

Libertarian theses:

1. Big business and big government are (for the most part) natural allies.

2. Although conservative politicians pretend to hate big government, and liberal politicians pretend to hate big business, most mainstream policies -- both liberal and conservative -- involve (slightly different versions of) massive intervention on behalf of the big-business/big-government elite at the expense of ordinary people.

3. Liberal politicians cloak their intervention on behalf of the strong in the rhetoric of intervention on behalf of the weak; conservative politicians cloak their intervention on behalf of the strong in the rhetoric of non-intervention and free markets -- but in both cases the rhetoric is belied by the reality.

4. A genuine policy of intervention on behalf of the weak, if liberals actually tried it, wouldn't work either, since the nature of government power would automatically warp it toward the interests of the elite.

5. A genuine policy of non-intervention and free markets, if conservatives actually tried it, would work, since free competition would empower ordinary people at the expense of the elite.

6. Since conservative policies, despite their associated free-market rhetoric, are mostly the diametrical opposite of free-market policies, the failures of conservative policies do not constitute an objection to (but rather, if anything, a vindication of) free-market policies.

Tags: Roderick Long, libertarian, libertarianism, conservative, liberal, conservatism, liberalism, progressivism, socialism, socialist, progressive, left libertarian, left libertarianism, free market, laissez faire, corporatism, capitalism, libertarian positions, big government, anarchism, statism

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[spinnsetter]

Great job and Im right their with you ...

[Scramble131]

keep the articles coming!

[ahenne753]

Libertarians are libertarians. :) The six points are excellent. Why doesn't somebody nail them to the doors of the White House?