Balkinization  

Sunday, October 09, 2022

The Uneasy Libertarian-Racist Alliance

Andrew Koppelman

Only a few years after its greatest triumph, the Libertarian Party is collapsing, torn apart by an insurgency of alt-right sympathizers with racist tendencies.  Libertarianism, the idea that state power must be absolutely minimized, relies on ideas of individual rights that seem flatly inconsistent with racism.  And yet libertarian rhetoric has always had powerful attractions for those who wanted to resist racial equality.  How is that possible? 

There is in fact a deep connection, but it is one of psychology and political history rather than logic.

I explain in a new column at The Hill, here.

 


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