The Peculiar Phenomenon of Libertarians Supporting Donald Trump
Former President Donald Trump’s sketch comedy portrayal of a would-be authoritarian, filtered through his antic norms-busting style, gives his fans an out: Libertarians nervous about Trump are just too uptight and antiquated to understand his appeal in this comedy podcast age, they might say. Being sincerely alarmed about Trump makes you the yokel—a deluded victim of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
But Trump, through the insult comedy and random ravings, is consistently a man of authoritarian temperament: He craves using government power to punish media that displeases him (including threatening broadcast licenses); desires legal immunity from accountability for himself and all government law enforcement; and most significantly, his prime campaign action point is launching an unprecedented in this century police/military action against millions of people living peacefully and productively in America.
His appeal to some who use the libertarian label is perplexing, then—except in that he’s not Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris is also someone no libertarian could affirmatively wish to be president—except that she’s not Trump.
Libertarians should have the courage of their claimed convictions to radically oppose the U.S. government status quo (which in the past eight years has been managed or represented by both Trump and Harris) and feel no obligation to positively affirm that either unlibertarian choice should reign. Not voting or promoting either is an appropriate option. Voting for or promoting Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver is an option as well.
Even on specific issues that seem to animate the more right-leaning corners of the libertarian world, Trump is either terrible or not clearly exceptional: He ruled as an inflationist and intends to continue to; he has no real concrete ideas for shrinking spending or government’s size and reach, and certainly didn’t do so in his first term, while vaguely and improbably promising Elon Musk will take care of it in a second; Trump can be expected to expand government spending and control in the name of allegedly pro-worker industrial policy that will likely have no better effect on America’s fortunes than past industrial policy efforts; while championing “free speech” for ideas and people he favors, he’s willing to punish peaceful expressive activities such as flag burning and peaceful economic activities such as drug sale with death (while improbably promising libertarians he’ll do something he could have done when he was previously president, freeing convicted Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht); he’s fanatically against free trade, a central tenet of free market economics, and his administration was responsible for what many libertarians never want us to forget was “COVID tyranny” and also for—even more destructive in many contrarians’ eyes—COVID vaccines. (One might, if one chooses, take seriously his various off-the-cuff plans to eliminate wide swaths of the current tax system and law in place of tariffs, but I don’t see much reason to.)
When it comes to foreign policy—which is generally the fallback for libertarians excusing their Trumpism—yes, he didn’t start new wars in new places. But he didn’t completely wind down or withdraw any sprawling existing U.S. commitments. He revved up the amount of bombing and civilian casualties at the start of his administration in Afghanistan and was slow to get out (an operation President Joe Biden concluded). He increased drone strikes in Pakistan and Somalia. He escalated our insanely destructive Saudi-aiding intervention in Yemen in violation of the War Powers Act. He claimed he was going to get U.S. troops out of Syria then changed his mind.
Even this week, he’s threatening to “blow to smithereens” Iran if he believes it harmed a domestic politician, and has long insisted that under no circumstances can Iran ever have a nuclear weapon. Trump the peacenik is largely an invention, or rationalization, of his antiwar fans who also like him for other reasons. In general, he kept both the expense and reach
Article from Reason.com
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