From Libertarian to Alt-Right

That being said, a number of people have noted a pattern.  That pattern is that the path from Ron Paul to Trump is not that long.  Nor is this new.  Ron Paul was an ally of Lew Rockwell and Murray Rothbard, who were remarkably well-disposed toward Pat Buchanan, and worse.  In fact, a lot of people have noticed an ongoing journey from libertarianism (particularly the Mises Institute wing) to the Alt Right.  This has been noticed, among others, by libertarians who have not made the journey.  A number of them have looked for explanations why this should be.

Some have seen this simply as people who are looking for a way to be against the status quo.  Libertarianism was one such opportunity, but when it did not prove crazy enough, they turned to the Alt Right instead.  There probably is some truth in that, particularly among young, hard-core Alt Right types, but there aren’t all that many of them.  Another is that racism has been so pervasive in our society for so long that it was, after all, a bit naïve of libertarians to think they would be spared.  Another suggestion, this one by a more mainstream libertarian, is that libertarians in general have been a bit naïve on the subject of race, assuming that all social ills will resolve if only government stays out, and that any government attempt to interfere can only make things worse.  This has led honest, non-racist libertarians (or semi-libertarians) like Milton Friedman or Barry Goldwater or William Rehnquist to oppose anti-racist legislation, not out of ill-will, but out of a mistaken understanding of society.  That may be true, too, among the more mainstream, more intellectual wing of libertarianism. 

But I don’t think either of them really explains a lot of Tea Party semi-libertarians who ended up as Trump supporters.  The answer there, I think, is one that should make libertarians uneasy, one that shows how easy it is to mistake what one commenter called the distinction between being anti-state and anti-other.  

So what is the “other”?  Well, we are getting into jargon here, but this is basically the view of wanting to protect the sovereignty and autonomy of one’s own group from any outside infringement.  Its attitude toward government is ambivalent.  It basically sees government as having one role only – to protect “us” from “them.”  Government is always too impersonal and too rule-bound to ever really be part of “us.”  And thus government is always to be opposed when it meddles in matters among “us.”  So to that extent it looks anti-state.  But the state should not be under any constraints in its dealings with “them.”

This kind of psychology can explain a lot.  It explains why right wing movements are so often fiercely nationalist, and so fearful of anything that smacks of international cooperation.  They are seeking to protect the autonomy and sovereignty of their nation from infringement from outside nations.  It also explains why in the context of US politics, the same people are often strong supporters of states’ rights.  Again, they are seeking to protect the sovereignty and autonomy of their states from outside influences, including the federal government, which deserves one’s support against foreign nations, but look foreign when it starts to infringe on one’s state.  

It explains Donald Trump’s appeal when he denounces immigrant crime, and talks about black crime in the most thinly-veiled code words.  This creates the impression that his followers don’t really care how high the crime right is, so long as only white, native-born people are the ones committing it.  And I suspect this is actually true.  Crime committed by white people is an internal problem among Us that can be dealt with among Us without the need to involve the state.  The state is needed only when We are menaced by Them. 

It explains, I think, some of the fierce opposition from Trump supporters to Black Lives Matter.  Black Lives Matter is an attack on the state’s only true, legitimate function – protecting Us from Them.  It explains an attitude I have seen in conservative comments sections, condemning white, liberal urbanites who support Black Lives Matter.  At best, they are inauthentic in pretending to care about people outside their own group when no one can possibly care about outsiders.  At worst, they are race traitors for taking sides against their own.  And there is a deep resentment implying that the only reason we need a police force at all is to protect people like them – white people intruding into the black realm of urban areas, and if only young white liberals would stay in the suburbs where they belong, there would (presumably) be no need for a police force, because white people could handle internal crime on their own, and black people are sub-human and not worthy of the state’s protection. 

And I would say it should be considered in all criticisms of Black Lives Matter that ask about internal black crime in black neighborhoods.  This isn’t just “whataboutism,” it is an accusation that black people just want the police, as outsiders, to withdraw and leave black neighborhoods’ internal crime problems as a matter to be handled among Us.  And, in fairness to these critics, I am guessing that a lot of white liberals may be naïve on this matter, and that a lot of Black Lives Matter members probably do see things in these terms.