“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” II Peter 2:19
Let’s look at the curious confluence of libertarianism and populism. As the Bible says, you have to be careful about those who promise liberty, but are in fact in pursuit of something quite different.
First a couple of definitions.
Libertarianism can thrive at either end of the political spectrum. In this country, libertarianism is generally associated with conservative political movements. In other parts of the world, libertarians are also proudly socialists. That’s what makes this particular philosophy so difficult to pin down.
In this country libertarianism is generally closely aligned with the belief that the free market is the best delivery mechanism for all services but defense, government is generally the problem rather than the solution, and people (like markets) are best when they are most free to make their own decisions.
Populism is the belief that there is an inherent wisdom in the common man. It manifests itself in this current political climate as a deep distrust of science and academia. Populist movements in this country have popped up during times of economic or social disruption. William Jennings Bryan rode a wave of populism to three unsuccessful presidential bids around the turn of the past century. More recently Ross Perot also ran for President on a populist platform in the mid 90’s. The Luddite movement during the early days of the industrial revolution is a good example of a populist political reaction to social and economic changes.
So why now and what does all of it mean?
Why now is because we are at a time when the country is deeply divided, economically fragile, and people are afraid.
Evidence is the rise of libertarian figures like Ron Paul and populist figures like Sarah Palin.
There are two things that bother me about the process.
First, I have a problem with populism, particularly in today’s climate. At it’s core, it is an emotional response to the pressures brought on by economic and/or social change. Rather than embrace the change, populists look for people to blame for the fact that their world is changing. Rather than question why their world view appears out to be out of sync with the facts, they attack scientists and academics as the ones who have caused the changes that frighten them.
What the populists end up doing is slowing the process of change and prolonging the pain that radicalized them in the first place. They eventually die and their children resume the process of figuring out how to be successful members of society.
Second, I have a problem with libertarianism when combined with populism. I don’t have a problem with the philosophy of libertarianism. My problem that rather explore libertarianism as a philosophy, populists reject research and study. Instead they trust demagogues who inevitably rise to positions of leadership because they promise simple answers to complex questions. For example, the reason you can’t find a job is because the government is too big.
So that brings us to today.
We have an emerging populist movement, tea parties, that have adopted an abbreviated form of libertarianism because it allows them to distance themselves from established parties. As evidence of their influence, the CPAC conference in Washington selected Ron Paul as the front-running presidential candidate in a straw poll of delegates.
Fox, who feels they can take some credit for this movement, is using their growth in viewers to legitimize their propaganda as news and touts Glen Beck as their leading self-proclaimed libertarian.
I think that few in tea party movement really understand what libertarianism means. Among other things, it means government out of all aspects of our personal lives. No drug laws, gay marriage, no public education, no prohibitions on child pornography, the end of social security, medicare, medicaid, the federal deposit insurance corporation, all regulations, all taxes (other than for defense), OSHA, EPA, Head Start, WIC, ADC, CDC, and more. There are libertarians who even object to mandatory immunization and traffic signals.
I heard a libertarian the other day supporting the supreme court’s defeat of election laws restricting campaign financing. His logic was that the only way libertarian candidates are going to get elected is to have the support of wealthy individuals or corporations. So he was all for it.
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.
The bottom line is for this country to move forward, we have to get past ideology and get down to getting things done. No populist movement in this country has ever garnered more that 15% of the vote. This is not what people want. But there are a lot of people who have figured out how to make money off these frightened people, so they want to see this go as far and as fast as possible.
These are the folks that the Bible warned us of. From Savonarola to Beck, there always seem to be room at the head of a mob.
