In honor of #MLKDay2021

"The Libertarian Civil Rights Paradox” @ChrisALadd

“The Civil Rights Acts proposed to do something that libertarian ideology insisted was impossible –expand personal freedom by expanding central government power.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisladd/2016/09/17/the-libertarian-civil-rights-paradox/amp/

Goldwater made a fateful decision to break from the core of the Republican Party and oppose the 1964 Civil Rights Act. His decision alienated the black community and shone a glaring light on a fatal weakness in libertarian theory.

“Libertarianism protects personal liberty from being impaired by government. It creates weak states on the assumption that personal freedom will bloom in the absence of government intrusion.”

The black experience is a living reminder that government is not alone as a potential threat to personal liberty. It is possible, as in the Jim Crow South, to build a government so weak that no one’s personal liberties can be protected.

“The libertarianism Goldwater embraced had its eyes fixed firmly on Communism. In the fight against the tyranny of a totalitarian ideology, the right failed to recognize that tyranny can flourish under a weak state.”

The high-minded pursuit of personal freedom from government made Goldwater an accidental hero for segregationists.

In the most noxious irony of the 1964 election, Goldwater as standard-bearer of “personal liberty” earned the endorsement of segregationist Democrat Strom Thurmond..

Continue Reading: "The Libertarian Civil Rights Paradox” by @ChrisALadd

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisladd/2016/09/17/the-libertarian-civil-rights-paradox/amp/

“Lack of a moral dimension for liberty is a #libertarian Achilles heel and many wind up becoming apologists for imperiling the very freedom that they promote.”

— Shamara Riley, founder of Booker Rising.