Should libertarians Vote Republican?
Disclaimer
I am not an economist. I am not an expert on politics. And I'm not a libertarian (although I am something of a libertarian sympathizer).
Some Background (As I Understand Things)
I'll include this because I hate reading stuff that makes heavy assumptions about my qualifications as a reader. I don't know everything, but I still want to get what authors are saying if it is something I'm capable of understanding.
Okay, I also like to hear myself talk.
Many economists are libertarians. Classical economic theory and libertarian philosophy are deeply related. Many libertarians vote Republican because both libertarians and Republicans believe strongly in the primacy of property rights. Traditional Republicans also share with libertarians the belief that (to quote Reagan), "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem".
Libertarians also believe strongly in other rights for individuals. This is where libertarians and traditional Republicans may diverge. Republicans may make sacrifices on personal freedoms in order to make gains elsewhere.
Of course all of this is very elegantly portrayed by the Nolan Chart. Go look at that for a while if you don't know it already. It was a real eye-opener for me.
Moving On
I read Marginal Revolution from time to time. It is an economics blog. One of the primary bloggers there is Tyler Cowen, and I really enjoy reading his posts.
Tyler recently wrote "... the Republican Party is *** and I will not vote for them". This had little to do with his primary point in the post (which was anti-regulation), but it sparked many angry comments like this one:
A libertarian who votes Democrat because the Republicans are not libertarian enough is like a communist who votes Republican because the Democrats are not communist enough.
This is a sentiment that was immediately suspect to me.
As is obvious from the Nolan Chart, a libertarian would share as much philosophy with a Republican that strongly supports property rights but is neutral on civil liberties as he would with a Democrat that strongly supports civil liberties but is neutral on property rights. The common conception, though, is that libertarians have traditionally favored Republicans. I don't know as I can explain why.
Regardless, the fact is that neo-Conservatives and Christian fundamentalists have changed the Republican party.
Despite all of their Reagan invocations, Bush-style Republicans are not merely neutral on civil liberties. They have driven some of the most draconian shifts in American domestic policy that we've seen in decades. I think it's fair to say that the current generation of mainstream Republicans are actually anti civil liberties.
Further, the Bush administration and the Republican congress have together built the biggest federal government the United States has ever had. No libertarian would find that especially pleasing.
In that light, it is clear to me that while neither Democrats nor Republicans are likely to be especially appealing to libertarians, Republicans are certainly not an obvious choice. In fact, they are probably the greater of the two evils in many cases.
