Dec 4, 2006
Liberaltarians, Anyone?
In today’s Washington Post Sebastian Mallaby discussesBrink Lindsey’s article in the current issue of The New Republic. There Lindsey argues that libertarians should ditch the Republican Party in favor of the Democrats.
Evidently Brink Lindsey defines libertarians in the very generous manner described here. According to Mallaby, Lindsey argues that"the ambition of realistic libertarians is not to shrink government but to contain it: to cut senseless spending such as the farm program and oil subsidies to make room for the inevitable expansion in areas such as health." So apparently that's what libertarianism has come down to, at least as conceived by the vice-president for research at the Cato Institute. I can't imagine that some of his colleagues and donors will be impressed by this particular formulation of what libertarians should aim for.
Mallaby concludes thus:
"The era of big government is far from over, and liberals and libertarians gain nothing from fighting over its inevitable growth. But precisely because government is on a trajectory of unsustainable expansion, liberals and libertarians have a common interest in reinventing it."
I understand where Sebastian Mallaby, a political pundit who does not claim to be a libertarian, is coming from. I'm more puzzled by Brink Lindsey, who, I guess, claims to be a libertarian.
Evidently Brink Lindsey defines libertarians in the very generous manner described here. According to Mallaby, Lindsey argues that"the ambition of realistic libertarians is not to shrink government but to contain it: to cut senseless spending such as the farm program and oil subsidies to make room for the inevitable expansion in areas such as health." So apparently that's what libertarianism has come down to, at least as conceived by the vice-president for research at the Cato Institute. I can't imagine that some of his colleagues and donors will be impressed by this particular formulation of what libertarians should aim for.
Mallaby concludes thus:
"The era of big government is far from over, and liberals and libertarians gain nothing from fighting over its inevitable growth. But precisely because government is on a trajectory of unsustainable expansion, liberals and libertarians have a common interest in reinventing it."
I understand where Sebastian Mallaby, a political pundit who does not claim to be a libertarian, is coming from. I'm more puzzled by Brink Lindsey, who, I guess, claims to be a libertarian.