July, 2007

Fighting Pessimistic Bias

by Brink Lindsey

July 25th, 2007

In his post on “Escape from Freedom,” Julian offers some interesting observations and speculations about various ways in which freedom’s momentum could be throttled or reversed. Of course one must always keep such dark possibilities in mind — eternal vigilance and all that.
But I really think that, while I may be a cockeyed optimist, [...]

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Why Worry about Entitlements?

by Brink Lindsey

July 25th, 2007

Matt observes that entitlement spending has been rising over the past few decades, and that I think the past few decades have been pretty good ones. So, he asks, why should I worry about the continued growth of entitlements?
C’mon, Matt, you can do better than that. I think you’ll grant as well that recent times [...]

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The Libertine Center

by Julian Sanchez

July 24th, 2007

I think Jonah is on to something in his last post, but his use of of wacky leftist Hollywood millionaires to make his point, even if an admitted caricature, is probably a red herring. I wrote a review about a year back of an excellent book called Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put [...]

Read: The Libertine Center

Escape from Freedom

by Julian Sanchez

July 24th, 2007

As I mentioned in my previous post, I find Brink Lindsey’s argument for the tendency of broad affluence to promote libertarian values much more plausible as macro-level historical analysis than near-term punditry.  Encomia are tedious, though, so let me try to play devil’s advocate here as well, starting where the case seems strongest, on the [...]

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Can Conservatives Rediscover the Cultural Center?

by Brink Lindsey

July 23rd, 2007

In his most recent post, Jonah makes the point that our expanded cultural freedom has had very different consequences for people at the top and bottom of the socioeconomic scale. I agree, and I said so in my book.
It’s not just that the rich have the money to buy their way out of jams. More [...]

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Getting Cloudy

by Matthew Yglesias

July 23rd, 2007

Brink Lindsey raises a valid issue — the public’s demand for more health care benefits seems to be colliding with its distaste for a large increase in tax revenues. The circle could be squared by having Medicaid and Medicare implement cost-saving measures, but that seems unlikely as well. And it’s true, none of the possible [...]

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Matt’s Crystal Ball

by Brink Lindsey

July 23rd, 2007

Surveying the future of social democracy in America, Matt sees bright prospects for increased government involvement in health care and preschool education. I think this is a plausible forecast. As I’ve argued, there are strong pressures that work to ensure that our relatively competitive and entrepreneurial economy stays that way. Which means that economic growth [...]

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Libertine Elites Put Poor in Peril

by Jonah Goldberg

July 20th, 2007

As I’ve been concentrating mostly on where I disagree with Brink, let me say that I do agree with the basic thesis that wealth creates a libertarianish ethos. The richer you get, the less you think you need the government because – duh – you need the government less. People who can afford to use [...]

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A Libertarian Center By Definition?

by Julian Sanchez

July 19th, 2007

Brink’s latest post makes a distinction I think is key, because the long term trend he’s describing is significantly more defensible than the thesis that there’s a “libertarian center” in contemporary politics; a claim that’s both distinct and more problematic. All words are greased hogs, and political words especially. Imagine trying to parse for [...]

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Cyclical versus Secular Change

by Brink Lindsey

July 19th, 2007

A recurring criticism of my “libertarian center” thesis — see Jonathan Chait, or Ramesh Ponnuru, or Jonah and Peter Beinart in a recent “What’s Your Problem” segment — is that it’s obviously wrong because it’s at odds with current political trends. In recent years, the argument goes, politicians have been winning elections by stressing [...]

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Liberals: Wrong on More Than Just Economics

by Jonah Goldberg

July 18th, 2007

Brink asks:
What constraints do you see on possibilities for a leftward push for collectivism or a rightward push for traditionalism? Is anything like European-style social democracy (which even now, on its home turf, has retreated considerably from its earlier ambitions) in the cards?
If I may beat a dead horse just a bit more, I think [...]

Read: Liberals: Wrong on More Than Just Economics

Depends on What You Mean by “Social Democracy”

by Matthew Yglesias

July 18th, 2007

Brink raises the issue of whether or not a “European-style social democracy” is likely to emerge in the United States. In my view it depends on what one means. As he notes, contemporary European social democrats have substantially reined in their ambitions, privatizing state-owned firms and the like. It seems exceedingly unlikely that the U.S. [...]

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The Libertarian Ethos Constrains the Left and Right

by Brink Lindsey

July 18th, 2007

Jonah, Matt, and Julian have done a good job of exposing the major vulnerabilities in my essay – vulnerabilities to both objection and confusion. So let me see if I can clarify my argument and, in so doing, answer at least some of their objections.
First, what do I mean when I say that American society [...]

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First We Take Manhattan, Then We Take Berlin

by Julian Sanchez

July 16th, 2007

Reason contributing editor Julian Sanchez spots several ambiguities in Brink Lindsey’s argument leading him to doubt the conclusion that America has become more libertarian in a meaningful sense. “To speak confidently about America’s growing libertarianism,” Sanchez writes, “we need to establish that at least some of the changes Lindsey lauds are driven by a shared conception of justice” that leans increasingly libertarian. Yet Sanchez is unimpressed by the polling data Lindsey recruits to his cause. There is no doubt we now have more choice due to increasing abundance, but “the conception of freedom that has always centrally concerned libertarians has been the freedom from restraints on choice, not the variety of available options.” But, Sachez argues, “much of the plausibility of Lindsey’s thesis relies on [the] conflation” of these two conceptions of freedom.

Read: First We Take Manhattan, Then We Take Berlin

The Unlibertarian Center

by Matthew Yglesias

July 12th, 2007

Atlantic Monthly associate editor Matthew Yglesias joins Brink Lindsey in thinking that the relaxation of traditional social strictures over the past few deacades is a good thing, but he doesn’t see anything libertarian about it, citing the role of Civil Rights Act and other intrusive anti-discrimination laws in bringing about the shift. Yglesias concedes that the economy has in some ways become less regulated, but argues that this didn’t signal an “ideological triumph.” Furthermore, he argues, “libertarians interested in practical politics might want to consider that a federal commitment to health security and retirement security isn’t going away,” and suggests that Lindsey himself may have explained why.

Read: The Unlibertarian Center

The Brink Lindsey Project

by Jonah Goldberg

July 11th, 2007

National Review Online editor-at-large and LA Times columnist Jonah Golberg offers a critical assessment of what he calls “the Brink Lindsey Project” — “a new fusionism which will make us stuffy conservatives lighten up and make pie-eyed liberals give up their enduring weakness for Gosplans.” According to Goldberg, Lindsey’s “libertarian centrism” involves a suspiciously convenient confluence of forces. “His definition of libertarian centrism is really Lindseyan centrism,” Goldberg argues. “And by writing his own priorities into the grand sweep of history, he misdiagnoses the nature of the liberal-conservative divide.”

Read: The Brink Lindsey Project

The Libertarian Center

by Brink Lindsey

July 9th, 2007

In this month’s lead essay Cato vice president for research Brink Lindsey elaborates his argument in The Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed America’s Politics and Culture that the culture wars are over and a vaguely libertarian consensus is the result. While recognizing that principled libertarianism doesn’t have a significant constituency, Lindsey argues that the soft libertarian synthesis constrains the Democrats and Republicans as they seek to cobble together working political majorities.

Read: The Libertarian Center