Comments on: Illiberal Libertarians

By: Matthew Yglesias » Rand Paul Only Likes the Easy Part of Freedom

Matthew Yglesias » Rand Paul Only Likes the Easy Part of Freedom — Thu, 20 May 2010 18:29:24 +0000

[...] working with a bad, myopic definition of freedom. I recommend Brink Lindsey’s post on Ron Paul’s illiberal libertarianism from back in 2008. His son is much the [...]

By: bathrooms

bathrooms — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:21:24 +0000

Keep up the interesting posts. I love to see keen bloggers!

By: Matt C

Matt C — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:25:29 +0000

Oh and one more thing – he’s a freaking “religious fundamentalist” because he said that evolution is a theory? Last time I checked, it was precisely that.

This post is a joke.

By: Matt C

Matt C — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:20:27 +0000

Mr. Lindsey,

I have listened/read to many of your comments and have often been quite pleased with the clarity and cohesiveness of your oppinions.

This post, however, is the height of disingenuity. Ron Paul is illiberal??? Of all the people in mainstream politics, you call out the one guy who has actually stood for individual autonomy in every vote he has ever cast in the Congress. There is a reason they call him “Dr. No.”

I am afraid you are on the defensive and this post is really embarassing. Maybe he is xenophobic, or homophobic, or astraphobic (and I doubt that he is any of these.) So what? As a liberal, are you not supposed to be tolerant of intolerance? And please point me to one law he has helped write, or one piece of legislation that he championed, that espouses “illberal” values.

Give me one…and I’ll give you 100 votes against illiberal policies your homies in the Democratic party put front and center.

By: tttar

tttar — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:09:40 +0000

But Obama is your guy, because he apparently best represents your limited government views, right?

In your capacity as vice president for research, did you not come across this article?

http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html

I’d love to see you explain how these people represent the values of the CATO Institute.

By: johnleemk

johnleemk — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:58:31 +0000

I don’t put a lot of stock in the claims that Paul is racist, and I honestly think he is a great guy. I have seen him speak in person, and actually got my photo taken with him. I was sympathetic to his campaign, and in many ways, I still am. But what I find disturbing is that, as Ziggy observed, his campaign fed into this reactionary brand of libertarianism obsessed with promoting negative liberty at the expense of almost everything else.

While I am not a big fan of positive liberty, I think there is a lot of truth in Jeremy Bentham’s observation that all liberty is in some sense positive: the only reason I can claim my house as my private property is because I can bar you from entering it. Without that positive right, there is no such negative right as the right to private property. Some degree of positive liberty is essential for a truly free society, and the original classical liberals fully grasped this (Bastiat and Mill in particular). That is what Paul and his supporters do not seem to get, if their campaign against almost any domestic policy is good basis on which to judge them.

I believe that Paul gets much more right than he does wrong — but what he gets wrong, he gets horribly wrong. For now at least, anarchism and minarchism are not feasible ways of running society. Liberaltarianism is the next-best alternative.

By: Ziggy

Ziggy — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:17:39 +0000

Have too say your article is spot on

I was a Ron Paul supporter being as I’m libertarian minded his message seemed refreshing & at first I tried to excuse his association with conspiracy kooks & Christian fundamentalists but then the story about the newsletter broke & the revelation that on his staff were former members of the KKK & other notorious far right groups.

I’ve also come to realise that Ron Paul’s message has not helped the cause of liberty but in fact has fed reactionary libertarians.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:19:48 +0000

I’m not sure why you have such a hard on for the WTO. Never has someone got so much good press for stifling innovation and enforcing poverty around the world.

By: patrick stephens at psjs.net » Liberal, Conservative…

patrick stephens at psjs.net » Liberal, Conservative… — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:56:57 +0000

[...] concurs with Brink Lindsey ; he’s a liberal libertarian. He says, “I’ve always been uncomfortable with the [...]

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:11:13 +0000

In 2006, you wanted to make an alliance with the Democrats. You claimed that divided government would reduce gov. spending and earmarks.

Nothing could be further from the truth. There is more federal and pork barrel spending then ever. Democrats are talking about renegotiating NAFTA and single payer health care.

What have you got out of the alliance? Will you concede that you were wrong?

From “moderate” Dem. Rahm Emanuel in today’s Wall Street Journal:
“In an era in which you earn what you learn, Americans should no longer be allowed to drop out of school at age 16. We should require all students to receive one year of training and education after high school.”

Does not get more libertarian than that.