I've seen a lot of concerns about the announcement I mentioned in the last post, but I'm genuinely curious about the answer to the title question.
So he's goofy obviously, which means he's not the best face for the movement from the perspective of many libertarians. That goofyness often entails lots of connecting the dots which doesn't always amount to full blown conspiracy theory, but his webs of connections are no different than a lot of what I've read from other libertarians about the Progressive Movement and the precedents it sets for modern politics (and those sorts of webs-of-connections type stories are served up by people ranging from Mises Institute affiliates to Steve Horwitz to Tea Partiers).
So is that really the libertarian concern?
Or is it the religious/pro-life thing? Because I know that bothers a lot of libertarians, but it certainly isn't enough for them to reject other pro-life libertarians (nor should it in my opinion - this is a really tough issue where the right answer pretty much depends on your priors about when life starts).
On a lot of the other issues, though, I don't really see a huge difference between Glenn Beck and most other libertarians out there.
What's more he is not just using throw-away lines. He promotes Hayek on his show and is a student of Mark Skousen - an Austrian economist.
I'm genuinely curious. If any media personality or politician was this invested in Keynesian economics, only differed from me on a social issue or two, and was just a little goofy and excitable it would be considerably better IMO than the suite of politicians and media personalities I have to choose from now (unless you consider Paul Krugman a media personality I guess).
Libertarians have prominent politicians like Paul Ryan and Ron and Rand Paul openly promoting their academic literature. Do you guys know how cool that is? I don't like politicians generally and I don't expect you to, but what exactly is it going to take to get you guys to actually say "we can work with this - life is messy and this looks messy but they're telling people to read Hayek for God's sake! I'm going to give this guy a word of encouragement!"
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
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Easy - GB's stance on war and foreign policy. That's a pretty huge deal breaker for many libertarians, including myself.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, but this seems overstated. My understanding is that he's long said that he does not want the U.S. to be the global policeman, he does not like interventionism, but he does think there are Islamist elements that want to hurt America and when they we should strike back, and it's Ron Paul's reticence on that that he has a concern with. Actually its among Beck's more sensible positions, IMO. But surely he's not the self-described libertarian that thinks that, is he?
DeleteThis is a good point. In my opinion the libertarian strategy relies heavily on appealing to anti-war, anti-drug war, young people.
DeleteAnd while Ron Paul is mild mannered enough to pull off that "personally against it, but publicly for it" stance that could appeal to both social conservatives and liberals, I don't know if Glenn Beck can pull that off.
If the strategy of libertarians is young people then Glenn Beck is probably the worst spokesman they could have.
If Glenn Beck talks about individual liberty people will hear "you're on your own" not the anti-tax rebelliousness that call up images of taxmen with guns.
Glenn Beck comes off like Father Coughlin.
During the 2000s Beck spent a lot of time cheerleading the Iraq War (that's about all I knew about him prior to him doing whatever he did at that rally in D.C.).
ReplyDeleteIf you have ever heard Beck talk about Hayek (I watched some material on YouTube just to get a feel for what he is saying) you'd understand why someone versed in Hayek would think that he's a bozo.
Plus there is the general theatrics of his schtick to consider.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but I think a lot of libertarians don't understand the extent to which well respected members of the libertarian community talking about Hayek come across as bozos.
DeleteCould be. Nevertheless, the guy comes off with all the earnestness of someone trying to sell vacuums door to door.
ReplyDeleteOK, maybe I misjudge him because all I know about him, I know from MSNBC and Comedy Central. But my impression is that he will further bias recruiting towards conspiracy theorists, survivalists, gold bugs and other people who will pull us even further apart from the mainstream. Yes, all ideologies have cooky ideas and cooks. But much of libertarianism and definitely many libertarian policies can be very mainstream. A great number of libertarian policies are advocated by one side of the aisle or the other and enjoy at least some moderate popular support. This is how libertarianism can win. People like Glenn Beck from what I can tell are all about the cooky ideas. And sure, we have some cooky ideas, but we need to advertise the fact that you can be a libertarian without wanting a return to the gold standard, private police forces or a ban on fractional reserve banking. Glenn Beck as the face of libertarianism is the opposite of that.
ReplyDeletere: "But my impression is that he will further bias recruiting towards conspiracy theorists, survivalists, gold bugs and other people who will pull us even further apart from the mainstream."
DeleteNo argument there, but then libertarians have a lot of those types!
re: "A great number of libertarian policies are advocated by one side of the aisle or the other and enjoy at least some moderate popular support. This is how libertarianism can win."
OK, but a lot of people have the impression that everyone else is about a third right or so. I'm not sure how this really helps libertarians.
I could just as easily say "look - these libertarians actually agree with we on the center-left on a lot of issues. This is how we on the center-left are ultimately going to win".
DeleteNobody thinks anyone else is completely crazy as long as we're all in the liberal tradition. I have a harder time seeing a path forward as a direct consequence of that common ground, though.
"No argument there, but then libertarians have a lot of those types!"
DeleteExactly. I want more "normal" people in the libertarian movement percentage-wise. Glenn Beck being that prominent as a libertarian runs counter to that objective.
"OK, but a lot of people have the impression that everyone else is about a third right or so. I'm not sure how this really helps libertarians."
AFAICT, this is what binds the existing parties together. They each have their cores which agree with each other on 80%, their supporters who agree with 50% and their electors who agree with 30%. (numbers made up) All I'm saying is that for libertarians to build such a coalition, we need to emphasize those things which are not quasi-universally thought to be nuts.
no normal person would be a libertarian
DeleteIf libertarians are going to have their version of Bill O'Reilly or Keith Olbermann, I don't think they/we want it to be Glenn Beck. Andrew Napolitano was fine for that role. Beck has too much Alex Jones in him.
ReplyDeleteThere are a number of other things that probably make libertarians suspicious of him. The earlier war hawk tendencies, his freaking out over Obama and ACORN (instead of nonpartisan cynicism), the fact that he's a Mormon doesn't help I guess.