Contributors
Brink Lindsey, the vice president for research at the Cato Institute, argues in "Where Do Libertarians Belong?" (page 22) that libertarians aren't well served by aligning with conservatives. But until sometime during the Bush administration, Lindsey considered himself a "conservative sympathizer." In 2006 Lindsey wrote an essay that argued for a liberal-libertarian coalition and popularized the term liberaltarian. He didn't invent the word, and he now says he finds the sound of it "grotesque." Still, he says, "it is a handy tag for liberals who appreciate key libertarian insights but who don't buy into the whole package."
Jonah Goldberg, editor at large for National Review Online, is the author of the bestselling Liberal Fascism (Doubleday). In his response to Lindsey's essay (page 28), he makes the case for a continued conservative-libertarian fusionism. Goldberg, a conservative himself, says he has drifted toward libertarianism over the years because "libertarians understand better than both liberals and conservatives that the government cannot love you."
In another reply to Lindsey (page 31), FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe argues that Tea Party activists make a positive contribution to libertarian politics. The funniest thing he's ever seen at a Tea Party event? A sign reading, "Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason." Kibbe, who has an economics degree from Grove City College and who once served as the senior economist for the Republican National Committee, thinks F.A. Hayek would have been a Tea Partier—but only with "proper attire," he says. "Like his mentor Ludwig von Mises, he would have always kept his jacket and tie on, without compromise."