Written by In part two of Banter’s discussion over whether libertarians are part of the conservative movement, we sit down with friend of the show Jonah Goldberg. Jonah, as you might suspect, has some thoughts on the matter. He makes the case that libertarians and conservatives share the common goal of furthering liberty. Even if libertarians and conservatives have their disagreements, this commonality binds them together in a common movement. Jonah also shares his thoughts over the future of the conservative movement and CPAC, the large conservative conference held in Washington every year.
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Banter #44: The One About Conservatives with AEI's Jonah Goldberg [ 30:46 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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Last night’s “debate” was windy, inadequate and came no where near to making the distinction necessary here. The “libertarianism” that Welch and Goldberg were describing must be the boutique varietal that is smugly oblivious to developments in the relations between government and Joe six-pack the plumber.
The militarization of the police in America never came up in the discussion. The so called tactical raids by police, sold to the public as a means of protecting hostages, have gone from 3,000 a year in 1980 to over 40,000 today. These are events where pet dogs are frequently slaughtered, children are terrorized, adults are pummeled, property is wantonly destroyed and other humiliation commonly occurs. According to Radley Balko, who is a contributor at Welch’s magazine, only rarely do serious charges result from such assaults The expanded use of the taser, that has killed hundreds of people, relies the internet for coverage. Conservative media fail to recognize the constabulary as an empowered government employees requiring scrutiny.
Churchill once said:”If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.” Newspapers recently reported that in addition to the tomefuls of existing ones 40,000 new laws were passed last year across the land. Many of these rules further ennoble various government workers. The populace is gradually becoming enserfed by ennobled hacks in the TSA, DHS, FBI and the rest of the G-Man alphabet soup.
Those calling themselves the conservative media barely notice these things. They also fail to note any connection between todays movement and the corporate colonialism that preceded it in the days of Henry Cabot Lodge, Teddy Roosevelt and Albert Beveridge. There are many other points that were neglected but I am pressed for time.
Libertarians SHOULD have a very obvious alliance with conservatives, but so many traditionalist conservatives straddle the two philosophies, and only speak out for economic liberty. They then attack libertarians speaking out against social repression. Well, economics is just the process of trading of our productivity. You cannot remove ones social habits from the discussion of economic.
Modern libertarians just want the government out of their business (including the National Security state). As such, we could just as easily ally with liberals, except for the fact that liberals don’t give a hoot about civil liberties these days- unless they are racial or reproductive in nature. The GOP and the conservative movement must become something more than just the war party. The older generations in this country believe in being the strongest military power on the planet. The next generation will be less affluent, and less inclined to pay for the security of the global supply chain ( I’ve had it already!). Santorum, Gingrich and (to a lesser extent) Mitt Romney just disgust me. Save perhaps Romney- I would no sooner vote for the other two than I would Barack Obama. And I have leaned conservative since I was in college.