Liberal, Conservative...

Shawn has another good post up libertarianism.

Shawn concurs with Brink Lindsey ; he's a liberal libertarian. He says, "I've always been uncomfortable with the cozy relationship libertarianism seemed to have with conservatism. I am not a conservative."

Brink lays his position out very succinctly,

Here's why. I'm a libertarian because I'm a liberal. In other words, I support small-government, free-market policies because I believe they provide the institutional framework best suited to advancing the liberal values of individual autonomy, tolerance, and open-mindedness. Liberalism is my bottom line; libertarianism is a means to promoting that end.

Shawn goes further,

I like the label "market liberal": it denotes that I am a liberal who views the problems of social and political life as best left to free individuals to resolve. Free markets and limited government are important political goals because they are the means by which individuals can best live free and flourish.

Conservatism, by contrast, seems more to be about limited government as means towards more social control. In order for the family, local community, and/or religious institutions to exert their power over the individual, the government needed to be limited.

I know where Shawn and Brink are coming from, and I sympathize. If Ron Paul counts as a libertarian, then we all need to be clear about what a libertarian is -- and what a libertarian isn't. (And I submit that if the term is big enough to accommodate both Paul and Lindsey, then the term has lost all meaning and needs to be discarded.)

The problem is that the values that we care about: individual autonomy, tolerance, responsibility, liberty -- all require advanced and developed social and cultural frameworks. There is certainly no place in a principled advocacy of liberty for Ron Paul's kind of xenophobia, racism, or conspiracy theories. But there should be a place for family, community and religion. It might be trite to say that no man is an island, but it's no less true for being trite. Even radical individualists raise families, go to church, and volunteer at their local school. just as a commitment to liberal ideas need not require a commitment to socialized health care, a commitment to conservative ideas need not require the establishment of a state religion, or the criminalization of homosexuality.

I may be jumping at shadows, but I think it's important to recognize that there is enormous value in enduring social order. If conservatism is a healthy respect for the accumulated wisdom of the ages, then we ignore that counsel at our own peril. And I would argue that one of the great achievements of the American Experiment was the successful marriage of progress with tradition, liberalization with conservatism. Both the American Revolution and the Civil War brought enormous political change. In both cases, great liberty was won by violent means -- and yet despite the violence of those wars, the extant legal, social, and cultural traditions continued and thrived. Contrast the American experience with the French Revolution. In France, liberalization was total -- everything was upended, and everything went to pot.

Indeed, that point is driven home most forcefully by the noted conservative Edmund Burke in Reflections on the Revolution in France. Wikipedia summarizes Burke's argument very well:

Burke argued that the French Revolution would end in disaster because it was founded on abstract notions that purported to be rational but in fact ignored the complexities of human nature and society. Burke held an essentially pragmatic view of politics and viewed with contempt the vision of French EnlightenmentMarquis de Condorcet, that politics could be reduced to a rigorous deductive system akin to mathematics.

As a Protestant and a Whig, Burke expressly repudiated the notion that the authority of monarchs was divinely instituted or that the people had no right to depose an oppressive government. On the other hand, he believed in the central roles of private property, tradition, and "prejudice" (by which he meant the popular adherence to values that lack a conscious rational justification) in giving citizens an interest in the well-being of their country and in maintaining social order. Burke argued for gradual, constitutional reform over revolutionary upheaval, in all but the most qualified of cases. Burke also emphasized that a political doctrine founded on abstract notions about "liberty" and the "rights of man" could easily be used by those in power to justify tyrannical measures. Instead, he called for the constitutional enactment of specific, concrete rights and liberties as a bulwark against oppression by the government.

In that sense, I think we might more accurately describe a principled defense of liberty as the very essence of conservatism.

But that would be silly. None of the people who have repudiated Ron Paul, Shawn, Brink, Timothy Sandefur, myself, or the countless others are conservatives. Really, in comparison to the current political climate, we're radicals. (Radicals with a respect for history and tradition, I hope.)

The problem is that all the words we use to describe political discourse in this country are hopelessly corrupted. "Liberal" has come to mean the worst aspects of "leftist" ideology. It's statist, progressive, victimized, new-age, anti-reason, amoral, libertine populism. "Conservative" has come to mean the worst aspects of the ideology of the "right." It's statist, reactionary, bigoted, fundamentalist, anti-reason, moralistic populism. "Libertarian" has come to mean the worst aspects of both. It's progressive, reactionary, bigoted, victimized, new-age, fundamentalist, anti-reason, moralistic, libertine populism.

If those of us who love liberty, who cherish autonomy and personal responsibility continue to define our beliefs and allegiances with terms that lost their coherent meaning years ago, we're dooming ourselves to irrelevance.

I'm not a liberal libertarian or a conservative constitutionalist.

We need a new name. We need a new party. Suggestions?