More on the Benefits of Freedom

A LIBERTARIAN’S VIEW

“Members of the religions right today insist that American is—or at least was—a Christian nation with a Christian government. . . . Some Americans opposed ratification of the Constitution because it was ‘coldly indifferent towards religion’ and would leave ‘religion to shift wholly for itself.’ Nevertheless, the revolutionary Constitution was adopted, and most of us believe that the experience with the separation of church and state has been a happy one.”

David Boaz. Libertarianism. 1998.


COMMENTARY

A few definitions, short and incomplete, are in order. In the United States, we acknowledge, through the programs of our two major political parties, that two distinct species of freedom exist: social freedom and economic freedom. Republicans, at least the traditional Republicans, stress the importance of economic freedom and the Democrats favor with their policies the social freedoms. Hence, we witness, for example, battles featuring deregulation (Republican) versus the safety-net (Democratic), tort reform (Republican) versus plaintiff rights (Democratic), and nutritional laissez faire (Republican) versus mandatory canola cooking oil (Democratic). Libertarianism represents a third alternative (there is another as well, totalitarianism). Libertarian theory, which has its roots in the Classical Liberalism that grew from the Scottish Enlightenment, restricts neither economic nor personal social freedom. Because small government has been the watchword of the Republican Party, most libertarians have found association with the so-called conservative appealing. Nevertheless, the NeoCon/Religious Right takeover of the Republican Party, which began benignly enough with the rise of Ronald Reagan and reached a toxic climate with the current occupant of the White House, has dislodged the party’s libertarian wing. Witnessing encroachments on personal freedoms unthinkable under previous Republican administrations, this freethinking bunch has begun to make common cause with the left on issues relating to personal freedom, including matters of separation of church and state. The Republicans continue their courtship of the Religious Right at the cost of alienating libertarians and thus becoming a minority party for the foreseeable future.

CS