[494] in libertarians
conservatism rising
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (hhuang@MIT.EDU)
Sat Dec 10 01:25:12 1994
From: hhuang@MIT.EDU
Date: Sat, 10 Dec 94 01:24:18 -0500
To: libertarians@MIT.EDU
Times are a changin'. Some Democrats are trying to outdo
Republicans in cutting spending; quite a refreshing change from just
one year ago. For some reason or another, people are interpreting '94
as an anti-gov't year. Conservatism, long second fiddle to
liberalism, is now ascendant.
Libertarians have been telling liberals and leftists for
decades about the dangers of state power. The left and liberals were
oft deaf because Democrats stayed the majority party and lacked the
ability to simulate what a conservative gov't would be like (because
we've never really seen one before). It suited them to categorize
libertarians and moral authoritarians under the same epithet:
"conservatives." But something about becoming minority status makes
people do a re-think. The scales fall from their eyes and lo! they
see ... a "quiet revolution": libertarianism as new player.
Many leftists and liberals believe in a substantially
deregulated society when it comes to social issues. Unfortunately, a
lot of them would rather socialize the economy than liberalize
society. But now that socializing the economy has been derailed, some
folks are reconsidering their priorities. What's more important? PC,
socialism, or civil liberties? What's most worth defending?
Expect conservatives to try to implement parts of a
conservative social agenda. So a leftist/liberal has two options:
1) Keep bashing on those "conservatives." Yup, just keep lumping
them under one nasty majority.
2) Seek allies such as libertarians. First, acknowledge their
existence.
Several months ago, Vernon noted that libertarians stood to
recruit members associated with the "left" who have grown increasingly
disenchanted with left-wing authoritarianism. Things are looking up!
-Han
