Fusionism is a political theory created by Frank Meyer in the 1960s that argued for a libertarian-conservative coalition. The argument is that freedom is good, but we also need virtue and you can’t really coerce virtue. Thus, Meyer argued that people who like freedom need to form a coalition with people who like virtue. In American history, there are other factors behind libertarian-conservative fusionism. For example, libertarians and conservatives were both anti-communist and both reacted against the growing administrative state.
Still, the marriage is a bad one. Libertarians may get a few policy victories from the Right (e.g., airline deregulation in the 1970s), but those are outweighed by massively bad policies promoted by conservatives. These policy disasters would include the drug war, mass incarceration, anti-immigration laws, the Iraq War, the defense of qualified immunity for police, and anti-LGBT policies such as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Today, we see another area in which conservatives have taken anti-libertarian positions and openly say that virtue should be coerced - the culture wars. Ron DeSantis has signed bills that restrict medical procedures for trans youth, promoted regulations regarding bathroom use, and pronoun use in schools. Some of these bills directly violate freedom of speech and expression. Let’s look at the text of SB 1438, which was just approved. The bill initially says that public establishments can loose their license if they show actual sex acts to minors , but then veers off into really bad territory. You are in trouble if a child sees material that:
Predominantly appeals to a prurient, shameful, or morbid interest;
Is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community of this state as a whole with respect to what is suitable material or conduct for the age of the child present;
Taken as a whole, is without serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for the age of the child present.
This is a formula for the majority to bully sexual minorities. A state with a socially conservative population could deem any material on LGBT issues not “age appropriate” or “without serious literary” merit and it’s up to the defendant to argue otherwise in court. Read the bill closely and it has language that allows state majorities to over turn local schools (“state as a whole”). Scanning conservative news outlets, I don’t see many folks calling out the State of Florida on Constitutional grounds.
The point here is not to focus on the merits of this particular bill, but to locate it in a larger pattern. Conservatives frequently promote policies that most libertarians are opposed to. I am not opposed to alliances with conservatives on specific issues, but there doesn’t seem to be much ground for Meyer’s vision of a coalition based on voluntary virtue. Instead, freedom is applied very selectively in conservative policies. For many conservatives, states are allowed to force you to do things if you are deemed a threat, a deviant, or morally suspect.
The deep issue is that conservativism is usually about things other than freedom, like anti-Leftism, traditional ideas of gender and family, or national security. If that’s the case, libertarian-conservative marriage is likely to end in divorce.
Bottom line: When libertarians see conservatives, they should swipe left.
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Generally in agreement. However kids and libertarianism are always a tricky subject. Libertarianism works best when you can get parties to voluntarily consent to things on an individual level, but that creates a tricky situation for minors who haven’t yet developed the mental faculties to make such long lasting decisions either way. If we leave all of this up to the parents, that has its problems. If you leave it up to the doctors and social workers, that has its problems. Leave it up to the child, that has its problems. No good answers here I think.
We have a similar situation in the UK. The "new right" is more aligned with the Tory tradition than it might seem... https://capx.co/the-poetry-of-society-and-the-devil-of-reform-national-conservatism-and-the-tory-tradition/