[View here as a Twitter thread]
McLean’s thesis in Democracy in Chains: libertarianism is based in racism and libertarians have a “stealth” plan for subverting American democracy. Her book has aroused fury in libertarians. Let’s look at the facts..
1/ The “architect” of libertarianism is a Nobel-Prize winning economist James M. Buchanan. Libertarianism is extreme laissez-faire economics with minimal federal government intervention.
2/ The idea wasn’t new. Thomas Jefferson wanted a minimal federal government with power residing in the states. (At one point he suggested the federal government should be a committee.) The idea was based in individual liberty—local government allowed for more personal freedom.
3/ In the 19th century, states rights and “personal liberty” meant the freedom to own slaves, a contradiction that only made sense by claiming that blacks were subhuman. In the 1920s the economy was unregulated: no laws against insider trading, no minimum wage, etc.
4/ So Laissez-Faire is a fancy word for an old idea with deep roots in the Confederacy. McClean enrages libertarians by suggesting that Buchanan came up with the idea of libertarianism because he was resentful of Northern liberals telling white Southerners how to live.
5/ She also enrages the far right by suggesting that he intended to preserve power in the white Southern ruling elite (white Christian males). Specifically she says Buchanan was enraged over the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that desegregated schools.
6/ Buchanan began teaching economics in Virginia in 1950. In 1956, he founded a new school of economics at the University of Virginia. Virginia is famous for its massive resistance to the Brown decision. How to best fight against desegregation? Dismantle the federal government.
7/ Because the radical capitalistic right stoked anger, they found they were natural allies with groups like the KKK, who also stoked anger at the federal government. McLean also enraged libertarians by saying there was an actual conspiracy to bring down the federal government.
8/ This is NOT to say that all libertarians are racists and white nationalists. Those who are not racists, though, decided to join forces with white nationalists. In doing so, they enabled Trump—& yes, Putin. They may find they made the classic mistake in enabling dictators.
9/ According to HDD, those who enable tyrants often mistakenly believe they can control the tyrant. (I assume readers of this thread agree that Trump is a would-be authoritarian and Putin helped put him into the WH. Those who doubt should read Mueller’s latest indictment.)
11/ If they succeed, they intend to keep the power for themselves. Ultimately, Trump’s endgame and the Koch brothers endgame are not the same. It looks as if the falling out has begun.12/ For that matter, Trump may find that his endgame and Putin’s are also not the same.
