ProgressNow , previously the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network, is a progressive 501(c)(4) advocacy organization in the United States. Founded in 2003, ProgressNow bills itself as a network of state based communications hubs which act as a marketing department for progressive ideas.
134-949: ProgressNow was created in 2003 as a response to the libertarian Independence Institute . It has since grown a subscriber base of more than 350,000 grassroots activists in Colorado. In 2006, ProgressNow began to expand its network outside of Colorado and has since created ProgressNow Partners Networks in twenty-one states: Alliance for a Better Minnesota, Alliance for a Better Utah, Battle Born Progress (formerly ProgressNow Nevada), Better Georgia, Better Idaho, Courage Campaign (California), Fuse Washington , Granite State Progress (New Hampshire), Keystone Progress (Pennsylvania), One Wisconsin Now , ProgressNow Arizona, ProgressNow Colorado, Progress Florida, ProgressIowa, Progress Michigan, Progress Missouri, ProgressNow New Mexico, Progress North Carolina, ProgressOhio, Progress Texas, and ProgressVirginia. As of 2015,
268-561: A liberal lifestyle , opposing big business and having a New Left opposition to imperialism and war . Right-libertarianism is described as having interest in economic freedom , preferring a conservative lifestyle , viewing private business as a "great victim of the state" and favoring a non-interventionist foreign policy, sharing the Old Right 's "opposition to empire". Although some libertarians such as Walter Block , Harry Browne , Leonard Read and Murray Rothbard reject
402-557: A non-interventionist foreign policy while supporting lower taxes and less government spending . As of 2020, 39% of Americans polled considered themselves "economically conservative". Because of its close proximity to the United States, the term has entered the lexicon in Canada. In many other countries, economic liberalism or simply liberalism is used to describe what Americans call fiscal conservatism. Fiscal conservatism
536-615: A 35% income tax rate for corporations. The 1993 Budget Act also cut taxes for fifteen million low-income families and 90% of small businesses. Additionally during the Clinton years, the PAYGO (pay-as-you-go) system originally introduced with the passing of the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 (which required that all increases in direct spending or revenue decreases be offset by other spending decreases or revenue increases and
670-498: A blogging workspace, 'The Big Tent', during the 2008 Democratic National Convention . In 2007, progressnow.org received multiple honors from the Golden Dot Awards (online political advocacy awards). In 2010, the book The Blueprint: How Democrats Won Colorado, and Why Republicans Everywhere Should Care by Adam Schrager and Rob Witwer described ProgressNow as the "crown jewel" of the progressive investors' effort to flip
804-749: A capitalist free-market position. However, libertarian intellectuals Noam Chomsky , Colin Ward and others argue that the term libertarianism is considered a synonym for anarchism and libertarian socialism by the international community and that the United States is unique in widely associating it with the capitalist free-market ideology. Modern libertarianism in the United States mainly refers to classical and economic liberalism. It supports capitalist free-market approaches as well as neoliberal policies and economic liberalization reforms such as austerity , deregulation , free trade , privatization and reductions in government spending in order to increase
938-535: A desire to win at least 5% of the vote so that the Libertarian Party candidates could get equal ballot access and federal funding , ending the two-party system . While some political commentators have described Senator Rand Paul and Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky as Republican libertarians or libertarian-leaning, they prefer to identify as constitutional conservatives . One federal officeholder openly professing some form of libertarianism
1072-651: A few friends formed the Libertarian Party in 1971. Attracting former Democrats , Republicans and independents , it has run a presidential candidate every election year since 1972. Over the years, dozens of libertarian political parties have been formed worldwide. Educational organizations like the Center for Libertarian Studies and the Cato Institute were formed in the 1970s and others have been created since then. Philosophical libertarianism gained
1206-456: A fiscal conservative and expressed his definition of the term at the 2007 British Conservative Party Conference, stating: To me, fiscal conservatism means balancing budgets – not running deficits that the next generation can't afford. It means improving the efficiency of delivering services by finding innovative ways to do more with less. It means cutting taxes when possible and prudent to do so, raising them overall only when necessary to balance
1340-462: A form of democratised Whig constitutionalism plus the free market . The point of difference comes with the influence of social liberalism " and the proper role of government. Some modern American libertarians are distinguished from the dominant libertarian tradition by their relation to property and capital . While both historical libertarianism and contemporary economic libertarianism share general antipathy towards power by government authority,
1474-592: A four year campaign to oppose Republican U.S. Senator Cory Gardner . A group of activists and ProgressNow came up with the concept of a cardboard cutout of Garner, and developed and participated in events, press conferences, and rallies with the stand-in from 2017 until Gardner's defeat in 2020. Libertarianism in the United States In the United States, libertarianism is a political philosophy promoting individual liberty . According to common meanings of conservatism and liberalism in
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#17327974930621608-461: A libertarian at heart. Paul was the Libertarian Party candidate for president in 1988. In the 1980s, libertarians such as Paul and Rothbard criticized President Reagan, Reaganomics and policies of the Reagan administration for, among other reasons, having turned the United States' big trade deficit into debt and the United States became a debtor nation for the first time since World War I under
1742-442: A major impact on the libertarian movement through his book The Conscience of a Conservative and his 1964 presidential campaign . Goldwater's speech writer Karl Hess became a leading libertarian writer and activist. The Vietnam War split the uneasy alliance between growing numbers of self-identified libertarians and traditionalist conservatives who believed in limiting liberty to uphold moral virtues. Libertarians opposed to
1876-563: A minimum and that it is only legitimate to the extent that people voluntarily support, leaving a significant imprint on libertarianism in the United States. The use of the term libertarianism to describe a left-wing position has been traced to the French cognate libertaire , a word coined in a letter French libertarian communist Joseph Déjacque wrote to anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in 1857. While in New York City, Déjacque
2010-533: A much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties". Libertarians have worked to implement their ideas through the Libertarian Party, the Free State Project , agorism , and other forms of activism. Since
2144-813: A particular emphasis. Deficit hawks emphasize balancing government budgets and reducing the size of government debt, viewing government debt as economically damaging and morally dubious since it passes on obligations on to future generations who have played no part in present-day tax and spending decisions. Deficit hawks are willing to consider tax increases if the additional revenue is used to reduce debt rather than increase spending. A second group put their main emphasis on tax cuts rather than spending cuts or debt reduction. Many embrace supply-side economics , arguing that as high taxes discourage economic activity and investment, tax cuts would result in economic growth leading in turn to higher government revenues. According to them, these additional government revenues would reduce
2278-632: A percentage of GDP are indicative of the process: Fiscal conservatism was rhetorically promoted during the presidency of Republican Ronald Reagan (1981–1989). During Reagan's tenure, the top personal income tax bracket dropped from 70% to 28% while payroll taxes and the effective tax rates on the lower two income quintiles increased. Reagan cut the maximum capital gains tax from 28% to 20%, though in his second term he raised it back up to 28%. He successfully increased defense spending, but conversely liberal Democrats blocked his efforts to cut domestic spending. Real GDP growth recovered strongly after
2412-427: A reintegration of libertarianism with concerns that are traditionally thought of as being concerns of the left. That includes concerns for worker empowerment, worry about plutocracy, concerns about feminism and various kinds of social equality". Konkin defined right-libertarianism as an "activist, organization, publication or tendency which supports parliamentarianism exclusively as a strategy for reducing or abolishing
2546-483: A second Libertarian League was founded in New York City as a political organization building on the Libertarian Book Club . Members included Sam Dolgoff , Russell Blackwell , Dave Van Ronk , Enrico Arrigoni and Murray Bookchin . This Libertarian League had a narrower political focus than the first, promoting anarchism and syndicalism. Its central principle, stated in its journal Views and Comments ,
2680-529: A significant measure of recognition in academia with the publication in 1974 of Harvard University professor Robert Nozick 's Anarchy, State, and Utopia , a response to John Rawls 's A Theory of Justice (1971). The book proposed a minimal state on the grounds that it was an inevitable phenomenon that could arise without violating individual rights . The book won a National Book Award in 1975. According to libertarian essayist Roy Childs , "Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia single-handedly established
2814-700: A storybook land". Paul expressed his disgust with the political culture of both major parties in a speech delivered in 1984 upon resigning from the House of Representatives to prepare for a failed run for the Senate and eventually apologized to his libertarian friends for having supported Reagan. By 1987, Paul was ready to sever all ties to the Republican Party as explained in a blistering resignation letter. While affiliated with both Libertarian and Republican parties at different times, Paul said he had always been
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#17327974930622948-468: A street for protest from its owners. The abolition of public amenities is a common theme in some modern American libertarian writings. During the 18th century and Age of Enlightenment , classical liberal ideas flourished in Europe and North America. For philosopher Roderick T. Long, libertarians "share a common – or at least an overlapping—intellectual ancestry. [Libertarians] [...] claim
3082-455: A term, libertarian or economic libertarian has the most colloquial acceptance to describe a member of the movement, with the latter term being based on both the ideology's primacy of economics and its distinction from libertarians of the New Left. According to Ian Adams: "Ideologically, all US parties are liberal and always have been. Essentially they espouse classical liberalism, that is
3216-508: A third-party candidacy, Perot received 18.9% of the popular vote (the largest percentage of any third-party candidate in modern history), largely on the basis of his central platform plank of limited-government, balanced-budget fiscal conservatism. While the mantle of fiscal conservatism is most commonly claimed by Republicans and libertarians , it is also claimed in some ways by many centrist or moderate Democrats who often refer to themselves as New Democrats . Although not supportive of
3350-581: Is Arshad Hasan , who previously led Democracy for America . Its founding board members included Wes Boyd , founder of MoveOn.org , Rob McKay, chairman of the board of the Democracy Alliance and president of the McKay Family Foundation, Jared Polis , elected in 2008 as the U.S. Congressman for Colorado’s 2nd District, and Ted Trimpa (the current chair), an attorney and government relations expert. The group co-sponsored
3484-555: Is Congressman Justin Amash , who represents Michigan's 3rd congressional district since January 2011. Initially elected to Congress as a Republican, Amash left the party and became an independent in July 2019. In April 2020, Amash joined the Libertarian Party and became the first member of the party in the House of Representatives. Following the 2022 Libertarian National Convention ,
3618-409: Is a political and economic philosophy regarding fiscal policy and fiscal responsibility with an ideological basis in capitalism , individualism , limited government , and laissez-faire economics. Fiscal conservatives advocate tax cuts , reduced government spending , free markets , deregulation , privatization , free trade , and minimal government debt . Fiscal conservatism follows
3752-469: Is also related to anti-capitalist , free-market anarchist strands such as left-wing market anarchism , referred to as market-oriented left-libertarianism to distinguish itself from other forms of libertarianism. Libertarianism includes anarchist and libertarian socialist tendencies, although they are not as widespread as in other countries. Murray Bookchin , a libertarian within this socialist tradition, argued that anarchists, libertarian socialists and
3886-449: Is based on consequentialism , only taking into account the consequences of actions and rules when judging them and holds that free markets and strong property rights have good consequences. The second type is based on deontological ethics and is the theory that all individuals possess certain natural or moral rights , mainly a right of individual sovereignty . Acts of initiation of force and fraud are rights-violations and that
4020-419: Is based on pollsters and researchers defining libertarian views as fiscally conservative and socially liberal (based on the common United States meanings of the terms) and against government intervention in economic affairs and for expansion of personal freedoms . Through 20 polls on this topic spanning 13 years, Gallup found that voters who are libertarian on the political spectrum ranged from 17 to 23% of
4154-416: Is described as one of the three female founding figures of the modern libertarian movement in the United States. Although influenced by the work of the 19th-century American individualist anarchists, themselves influenced by classical liberalism. Rothbard thought they had a faulty understanding of economics because they accepted the labor theory of value as influenced by the classical economists while he
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4288-461: Is divided over the use of conservatism as an alternative. Those who seek both economic and social liberty within a capitalist order would be known as liberals , but that term developed associations opposite of the limited government , low-taxation, minimal state advocated by the movement. Name variants of the free-market revival movement include classical liberalism , economic liberalism , free-market liberalism and neoliberalism . As
4422-465: Is sometimes viewed as more humanitarian than thin libertarianism. Wendy McElroy has stated that she would leave the movement if thick libertarianism prevails. Stephan Kinsella rejects the dichotomy altogether, writing: "I have never found the thick-thin paradigm to be coherent, consistent, well-defined, necessary, or even useful. It's full of straw men, or seems to try to take credit for quite obvious and uncontroversial assertions". The Alliance of
4556-541: Is sufficient reason to oppose those acts. Deontological libertarianism is supported by the Libertarian Party . In order to become a card-carrying member, one must sign an oath opposing the initiation of force to achieve political or social goals. Prominent consequentialist libertarians include David D. Friedman , Milton Friedman , Friedrich Hayek , Peter Leeson , Ludwig von Mises and R. W. Bradford . Prominent deontological libertarians include Hans-Hermann Hoppe , Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard . In addition to
4690-417: Is the dominant form of libertarianism in the United States, compared to that of left-libertarianism . The latter is associated with the left-wing of the modern libertarian movement and more recently to the political positions associated with academic philosophers Hillel Steiner , Philippe Van Parijs and Peter Vallentyne that combine self-ownership with an egalitarian approach to natural resources ; it
4824-440: Is the economic philosophy of prudence in government spending and debt. The principles of capitalism , limited government , and laissez-faire economics form its ideological foundation. Fiscal conservatives advocate the avoidance of deficit spending , the lowering of taxes , and the reduction of overall government spending and national debt whilst ensuring balanced budgets . In other words, fiscal conservatives are against
4958-508: Is the political position that considers them to be originally unowned and therefore may be appropriated at-will by private parties without the consent of, or owing to, others. Followers of Samuel Edward Konkin III , who characterized agorism as a form of left-libertarianism and strategic branch of left-wing market anarchism , use the terminology as outlined by Roderick T. Long, who describes left-libertarianism as "an integration, or I'd argue,
5092-413: Is true that the word "liberal" once described persons who respected the individual and feared the use of mass compulsions. But the leftists have now corrupted that once-proud term to identify themselves and their program of more government ownership of property and more controls over persons. As a result, those of us who believe in freedom must explain that when we call ourselves liberals, we mean liberals in
5226-653: The Journal of Libertarian Studies published by the Mises Institute was dedicated to reviews of Kevin Carson 's Studies in Mutualist Political Economy . One variety of this kind of libertarianism has been a resurgent mutualism, incorporating modern economic ideas such as marginal utility theory into mutualist theory. Carson's Studies in Mutualist Political Economy helped to stimulate
5360-790: The 2016 presidential election , many Tea Party members eventually abandoned more libertarian-leaning views in favor of Donald Trump and his right-wing populism . Additionally, the Tea Party was considered to be a key force in Republicans reclaiming control of the House of Representatives in 2010. Texas Congressman Ron Paul's 1988 , 2008 and 2012 campaigns for the Republican Party presidential nomination were largely libertarian. Along with Goldwater and others, Paul popularized laissez-faire economics and libertarian rhetoric in opposition to interventionism and worked to pass some reforms. Likewise, California Governor and future President of
5494-476: The Black Power movement . Rothbard argued that the consensus view of American economic history, according to which a beneficent government has used its power to counter corporate predation, is fundamentally flawed. Rather, he argued that government intervention in the economy has largely benefited established players at the expense of marginalized groups, to the detriment of both liberty and equality. Moreover,
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5628-583: The Democratic and Republican parties while others are independent . Gallup found that voters who identify as libertarians ranged from 17 to 23% of the American electorate. Yellow , a political color associated with liberalism worldwide , has also been used as a political color for modern libertarianism in the United States. The Gadsden flag and Pine Tree flag , symbols first used by American revolutionaries , are frequently used by libertarians and
5762-572: The Foundation for Economic Education ) and the European immigrants Ludwig von Mises and Ayn Rand carried on the intellectual libertarian tradition. In fiction, one can cite the work of the science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein , whose writing carried libertarian underpinnings. Mencken and Nock were the first prominent figures in the United States to privately call themselves libertarians. They believed Franklin D. Roosevelt had co-opted
5896-713: The Liberal Party to create and expand the welfare state before and after World War II. Fiscal conservatism in Canada is generally referred to as blue Toryism when it is present within the Conservative Party of Canada . In Alberta, fiscal conservatism is represented by the United Conservative Party . In Ontario, fiscal conservatism is represented by the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario . The term
6030-665: The Mises Caucus , a paleolibertarian faction, became the dominant faction on the Libertarian National Committee. A variant of non-intellectual right-libertarianism that has been described as "growing in prominence", "changing the dynamics" of the conservative movement in the U.S., and even "largely defin[ing] the Republican coalition" in the 2020s, has been dubbed " Barstool conservatism ". First coined in 2021 by journalist Rod Matthew Walther,
6164-406: The Reagan administration . Rothbard argued that the presidency of Reagan has been "a disaster for libertarianism in the United States" and Paul described Reagan himself as "a dramatic failure". In the 21st century, libertarian groups have been successful in advocating tax cuts and regulatory reform. While some argue that the American public as a whole shifted away from libertarianism following
6298-581: The Tea Party movement (founded in 2009) which has become a major outlet for libertarian Republican ideas, especially rigorous adherence to the Constitution, lower taxes and an opposition to a growing role for the federal government in health care. However, polls show that many people who identify as Tea Party members do not hold traditional libertarian views on most social issues and tend to poll similarly to socially conservative Republicans. During
6432-523: The Vietnam War and its opposition . These radicals had long embraced a reading of American history that emphasized the role of elite privilege in shaping legal and political institutions, one that was naturally agreeable to many on the left, increasingly seeking alliances with the left, especially with members of the New Left, in light of the Vietnam War, the military draft and the emergence of
6566-671: The consent of the governed . That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it". According to American historian Bernard Bailyn , during and after the American Revolution , "the major themes of eighteenth-century libertarianism were brought to realization" in constitutions , bills of rights , and limits on legislative and executive powers, including limits on starting wars. According to Murray Rothbard ,
6700-600: The elections gave the Republicans a majority in the House of Representatives , newly minted Speaker of the House Gingrich pushed aggressively for reduced government spending which created a confrontation with the White House that climaxed in the 1995–1996 government shutdown . After Clinton's re-election in 1996, they were able to cooperate and pass the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 which lowered
6834-591: The fall of the Soviet Union , citing the success of multinational organizations such as NAFTA and the increasingly interdependent global financial system , others argue that libertarian ideas have moved so far into the mainstream that many Americans who do not identify as libertarian now hold libertarian views. Circa 2006 polls find that the views and voting habits of between 10 and 20 percent (increasing) of voting age Americans may be classified as "fiscally conservative and socially liberal, or libertarian". This
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#17327974930626968-428: The political spectrum (especially the left–right political spectrum ) whilst denying any association with both the political right and left, other libertarians such as Kevin Carson , Karl Hess , Roderick T. Long and Sheldon Richman have written about libertarianism's left-wing opposition to authoritarian rule and argued that libertarianism is fundamentally a left-wing position. Rothbard himself previously made
7102-453: The robber baron period, hailed by the right and despised by the left as a heyday of laissez-faire , was not characterized by laissez-faire at all, but it was in fact a time of massive state privilege accorded to capital. In tandem with his emphasis on the intimate connection between state and corporate power , he defended the seizure of corporations dependent on state largesse by workers and others. This tradition would continue through
7236-410: The state as an unnecessary evil; minarchists such as Nozick who recognize the necessary need for a minimal state, often referred to as a night-watchman state ; and classical liberals who support a minimized small government and a major reversal of the welfare state . The major libertarian party in the United States is the Libertarian Party . However, libertarians are also represented within
7370-554: The state , typically opposes Counter-Economics , either opposes the Libertarian Party or works to drag it right and prefers coalitions with supposedly ' free-market ' conservatives ". While holding that the important distinction for libertarians is not left or right, but whether they are "government apologists who use libertarian rhetoric to defend state aggression", Anthony Gregory describes left-libertarianism as maintaining interest in personal freedom , having sympathy for egalitarianism and opposing social hierarchy , preferring
7504-536: The subjective theory of value ; the libertarianism developed in the 1970s by Robert Nozick and founded in American and European classical liberal traditions; and the libertarianism associated with the Libertarian Party , which was founded in 1971, including politicians such as David Nolan and Ron Paul . The right-libertarianism associated with people such as Murray Rothbard and Robert Nozick, whose book Anarchy, State, and Utopia received significant attention in academia according to David Lewis Schaefer,
7638-483: The 1982 recession, growing at an annual rate of 3.4% for the rest of his time in office. Unemployment dropped after peaking at over 10.7% percent in 1982, and inflation decreased significantly. Federal tax receipts nearly doubled from $ 517 billion in 1980 to $ 1,032 billion in 1990. Employment grew at about the same rate as population. According to a United States Department of the Treasury nonpartisan economic study,
7772-731: The 19th century, libertarian philosophies included libertarian socialism and anarchist schools of thought such as individualist and social anarchism . Key libertarian thinkers included Benjamin Tucker , Lysander Spooner , Stephen Pearl Andrews and William Batchelder Greene , among others. While most of these anarchist thinkers advocated for the abolition of the state, other key libertarian thinkers and writers such as Henry David Thoreau , Ralph Waldo Emerson and Spooner in No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority argued that government should be kept to
7906-486: The 19th century, the term libertarian has referred to advocates for freedom of the will, or anyone who generally advocated for liberty, but its long association with anarchism extends at least as far back as 1858, when it was used for the title of New York anarchist journal Le Libertaire . In the late 19th century (around the 1880s and 1890s), Anarchist Sébastien Faure used the term libertarian to differentiate between anarchists and authoritarian socialists . While
8040-456: The 20th and 21st centuries, being taken up by the left-libertarian, free-market anti-capitalism of both Samuel Edward Konkin III 's agorism and left-wing market anarchism . During the mid-20th century, many with Old Right or classical liberal beliefs began to describe themselves as libertarians. Important American writers such as Rose Wilder Lane , H. L. Mencken , Albert Jay Nock , Isabel Paterson , Leonard Read (the founder of
8174-448: The American beer industry by making it legal to sell malt , hops and yeast to American home brewers for the first time since the effective 1920 beginning of Prohibition in the United States . This Carter deregulation led to an increase in home brewing over the 1980s and 1990s that by the 2000s had developed into a strong craft microbrew culture in the United States, with 3,418 micro breweries, brewpubs and regional craft breweries in
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#17327974930628308-789: The British Labour Party rather than liberal parties. Many liberal parties in Western Europe tend to adhere to classical liberalism , with the Free Democratic Party in Germany being one example. The Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom have a classical liberal and a social liberal wing of the party. In many countries, liberalism or economic liberalism is used to describe what Americans call fiscal conservatism. Fiscal conservatism in
8442-508: The CBO estimated that the Bush tax cuts added about $ 1.5 trillion to deficits and debt from 2002 to 2011 and it would have added nearly $ 3 trillion to deficits and debt over the 2010–2019 decade if fully extended at all income levels. A third group makes little distinction between debt and taxes. This group emphasizes reduction in spending rather than tax policy or debt reduction. They argue that
8576-601: The Levellers, who held similar views. Also influential were the English Cato's Letters during the early 1700s, reprinted eagerly by American colonists who already were free of European aristocracy and feudal land monopolies. In January 1776, only two years after coming to America from England, Thomas Paine published his pamphlet Common Sense calling for independence for the colonies. Paine promoted classical liberal ideas in clear and concise language that allowed
8710-630: The Libertarian Left is a left-libertarian organization that includes a multi-tendency coalition of agorists , geolibertarians , green libertarians , left-Rothbardians , minarchists , mutualists and voluntaryists . The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded as the Charles Koch Foundation in 1974 by Ed Crane , Murray Rothbard and Charles Koch , chairman of
8844-532: The New Deal, but by the mid-1930s the word liberalism had been widely used to mean social liberalism . The word liberal had ceased to refer to the support of individual rights and limited government and instead came to denote left-leaning ideas that would be seen elsewhere as social-democratic . American advocates of classical liberalism bemoaned the loss of the word liberal and cast about for others to replace it. In August 1953, Max Eastman proposed
8978-552: The Reagan administration's policies after Reagan's election in 1980 and later recalled being the only Republican to vote against Reagan budget proposals in 1981, aghast that "in 1977, Jimmy Carter proposed a budget with a $ 38 billion deficit, and every Republican in the House voted against it. In 1981, Reagan proposed a budget with a $ 45 billion deficit – which turned out to be $ 113 billion – and Republicans were cheering his great victory. They were living in
9112-416: The Right [today] are run by economically liberal conservatives who, in varying degrees, have marginalized social , cultural , and national conservatives ". Academics as well as proponents of the capitalist free-market perspectives note that libertarianism has spread beyond the United States since the 1970s via think tanks and political parties and that libertarianism is increasingly viewed as
9246-429: The United Kingdom was arguably most popular during the premiership of Conservative Margaret Thatcher . After a number of years of deficit spending under the previous Labour government, Thatcher advocated spending cuts and selective tax increases to balance the budget. As a result of the deterioration in the United Kingdom's public finances—according to fiscal conservatives caused by another spate of deficit spending under
9380-517: The United States Ronald Reagan appealed to cultural conservative libertarians due its social conservatism and in a 1975 interview with Reason stated: "I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism". However, many libertarians are ambivalent about Reagan's legacy as president due its social conservatism and how the Reagan administration turned the United States' big trade deficit into debt, making
9514-473: The United States after liberalism associated with the New Deal ; the libertarianism developed in the 1950s by anarcho-capitalist author Murray Rothbard , who based it on the anti-New Deal Old Right and 19th-century libertarianism and American individualist anarchists such as Benjamin Tucker and Lysander Spooner while rejecting the labor theory of value in favor of Austrian School economics and
9648-543: The United States forms the historical foundation for modern fiscal conservatism. Kathleen G. Donohue argues that classical liberalism in the 19th century United States was distinct from its counterpart in Britain: [A]t the center of classical liberal theory [in Europe] was the idea of laissez-faire . To the vast majority of American classical liberals, however, laissez-faire did not mean no government intervention at all. On
9782-572: The United States . In the United States, the term liberalism has become associated with the welfare state and expanded regulatory policies created as a result of the New Deal and its offshoots from the 1930s onwards. Fiscal conservatives formed one of the three legs of the traditional American conservative movement that emerged during the 1950s together with social conservatism and national defense conservatism. Many Americans who are classical liberals also tend to identify as libertarian , holding more cultural liberal views and advocating
9916-652: The United States a debtor nation for the first time since World War I. Ron Paul was affiliated with the libertarian-leaning Republican Liberty Caucus and founded the Campaign for Liberty , a libertarian-leaning membership and lobbying organization. Rand Paul is a Senator who continues the tradition of his father Ron Paul, albeit more moderately as he has described himself as a constitutional conservative and has both embraced and rejected libertarianism. Since 2012, former New Mexico Governor and two-time Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson has been one of
10050-427: The United States by the end of 2014. Public debt as a percentage of GDP fell rapidly in the post-World War II period and reached a low in 1974 under Richard Nixon . Debt as a share of GDP has consistently increased since then, except under Carter and Bill Clinton . The United States national debt rose during the 1980s as Ronald Reagan cut tax rates and increased military spending. The numbers of public debt as
10184-434: The United States, libertarianism has been described as conservative on economic issues ( fiscal conservatism ) and liberal on personal freedom ( cultural liberalism ), often associated with a foreign policy of non-interventionism . Broadly, there are four principal traditions within libertarianism, namely the libertarianism that developed in the mid-20th century out of the revival tradition of classical liberalism in
10318-619: The board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries , the second largest privately held company by revenue in the United States. In July 1976, the name was changed to the Cato Institute. Fiscal conservatism Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Miscellaneous Other In American political theory , fiscal conservatism or economic conservatism
10452-430: The budget, and only in combination with spending cuts. It means when you run a surplus, you save it; you don't squander it. And most importantly, being a fiscal conservative means preparing for the inevitable economic downturns – and by all indications, we've got one coming. While the term "fiscal conservatism" would imply budget deficits would be lower under conservatives (i.e., Republicans), this has not historically been
10586-429: The burden on the taxpayer, writing "it is to the property of the citizen, and not to the demands of the creditor of the state, that the first and original faith of civil society is pledged. The claim of the citizen is prior in time, paramount in title, superior in equity. The fortunes of individuals, whether possessed by acquisition or by descent or in virtue of a participation in the goods of some community, were no part of
10720-400: The case. Economists Alan Blinder and Mark Watson reported in 2016 that budget deficits since WW2 tended to be smaller under Democratic Party presidents, at 2.1% potential GDP versus 2.8% potential GDP for Republican presidents, a difference of about 0.7% GDP. They wrote that higher budget deficits should theoretically have boosted the economy more for Republicans, and therefore cannot explain
10854-468: The consequentialist libertarianism as promoted by Hayek, Mark Bevir holds that there is also left and right libertarianism. Left-libertarianism and right-libertarianism is a categorization used by some political analysts, academics and media sources in the United States to contrast related yet distinct approaches to libertarian philosophy. Peter Vallentyne defines right-libertarianism as holding that unowned natural resources "may be appropriated by
10988-479: The contrary, they were more than willing to see government provide tariffs, railroad subsidies, and internal improvements, all of which benefited producers. What they condemned was intervention in behalf of consumers. Economic liberalism owes its ideological creation to the classical liberalism tradition in the vein of Adam Smith , Friedrich Hayek , Milton Friedman , Ayn Rand , and Ludwig von Mises . They provided moral justifications for free markets. Liberals of
11122-486: The creditor's security, expressed or implied. ... [T]he public, whether represented by a monarch or by a senate, can pledge nothing but the public estate; and it can have no public estate except in what it derives from a just and proportioned imposition upon the citizens at large". Although all fiscal conservatives agree generally on a smaller and less expensive government, there are disagreements over priorities. There are three main factions or subgroups, each advocating for
11256-492: The debt in the long term. They also argue for reducing taxes even if it were to lead to short term increases in the deficit. Some supply-siders have advocated that the increases in revenue through tax cuts make drastic cuts in spending unnecessary. However, the Congressional Budget Office has consistently reported that income tax cuts increase deficits and debt and do not pay for themselves. For example,
11390-572: The electorate. While libertarians make up a larger portion of the electorate than the much-discussed "soccer moms" and "NASCAR dads", this is not widely recognized as most of these vote for Democratic and Republican party candidates, leading some libertarians to believe that dividing people's political leanings into "conservative", "liberal" and "confused" is not valid. In the United States, libertarians may emphasize economic and constitutional rather than religious and personal policies, or personal and international rather than economic policies such as
11524-400: The establishment was withholding it. They argue this shift in concerns helped cause Thatcherism and was incorporated into Thatcherism's appeal. Since the resurgence of neoliberalism in the 1970s, this form of libertarianism has spread beyond North America and Europe, having been more successful at spreading worldwide than other conservative ideas. It has been noted that "[m]ost parties of
11658-502: The first person who discovers them, mixes her labor with them, or merely claims them—without the consent of others, and with little or no payment to them". He contrasts this with left-libertarianism, where such "unappropriated natural resources belong to everyone in some egalitarian manner". Similarly, Charlotte and Lawrence Becker maintain that left-libertarianism most often refers to the political position that holds natural resources are originally common property while right-libertarianism
11792-636: The general public to understand the debates among the political elites. Common Sense was immensely popular in disseminating these ideas, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. Paine would later write the Rights of Man and The Age of Reason and participate in the French Revolution . Paine's theory of property showed a "libertarian concern" with the redistribution of resources. Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary In
11926-539: The government expanding beyond its means through debt, but they will usually choose debt over tax increases. They strongly believe in libertarian principles such as individualism and free enterprise , and advocate deregulation , privatization , and free trade . In his Reflections on the Revolution in France , Edmund Burke argued that a government does not have the right to run up large debts and then throw
12060-496: The greater GDP growth under Democrats. As a result of the expansion of the welfare state and increased regulatory policies by the Roosevelt administration beginning in the 1930s, in the United States the term liberalism has today become associated with modern rather than classical liberalism. In Western Europe, the expanded welfare states created after World War II were created by socialist or social-democratic parties such as
12194-462: The growth of new-style mutualism, articulating a version of the labor theory of value incorporating ideas drawn from Austrian economics. In 2022, the term kremlintarian emerged as a description of an individual claiming libertarian identity while defending the behavior of totalitarian regimes. There are broadly two ethical viewpoints within libertarianism, namely consequentialist libertarianism and deontological libertarianism . The first type
12328-471: The label libertarian and harshly denounced the libertarian movement as the "hippies of the right". Nonetheless, philosopher John Hospers , a one-time member of Rand's inner circle, proposed a non-initiation of force principle to unite both groups—this statement later became a required pledge for candidates of the Libertarian Party and Hospers himself became its first presidential candidate in 1972. Along with Isabel Paterson and Rose Wilder Lane , Rand
12462-519: The latter exempts power wielded through free-market capitalism . Historically, libertarians including Herbert Spencer and Max Stirner have to some degree supported the protection of an individual's freedom from powers of both government and private property owners. In contrast, while condemning governmental encroachment on personal liberties, some modern American libertarians support freedoms based on private property rights. Anarcho-capitalist theorist Murray Rothbard argued that protesters should rent
12596-399: The left should reclaim libertarian as a term, suggesting these other self-declared libertarians to rename themselves propertarians instead. Although all libertarians oppose government intervention, there is a division between those anarchist or socialist libertarians as well as anarcho-capitalists such as Rothbard and David D. Friedman who adhere to the anti-state position, viewing
12730-442: The legitimacy of libertarianism as a political theory in the world of academia". British historians Emily Robinson, Camilla Schofield, Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and Natalie Thomlinson have argued that by the 1970s Britons were keen about defining and claiming their individual rights, identities and perspectives. They demanded greater personal autonomy and self-determination and less outside control. They angrily complained that
12864-568: The libertarian creed emerged from the classical liberal challenges to an "absolute central State and a king ruling by divine right on top of an older, restrictive web of feudal land monopolies and urban guild controls and restrictions" as well as the mercantilism of a bureaucratic warfaring state allied with privileged merchants. The object of classical liberals was individual liberty in the economy, in personal freedoms and civil liberty, separation of state and religion and peace as an alternative to imperial aggrandizement. He cites Locke's contemporaries,
12998-513: The libertarian-leaning Tea Party movement . Although libertarian continues to be widely used to refer to anti-state socialists internationally, its meaning in the United States has deviated from its political origins to the extent that the common meaning of libertarian in the United States is different from elsewhere. The Libertarian Party asserts the following core beliefs of libertarianism: "Libertarians support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters. They advocate
13132-473: The major tax bills enacted under Reagan caused federal revenue to fall by an amount equal to roughly 1% of GDP. Although Reagan did not offset the increase in federal government spending or reduce the deficit, his accomplishments are more notable when expressed as a percent of the gross domestic product. Federal spending fell from 22.2% of the GDP to 21.2%. By the end of Reagan's second term, the national debt held by
13266-423: The market and property. In a 1975 interview with Reason , California Governor Ronald Reagan appealed to libertarians when he stated to "believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism". Ron Paul was one of the first elected officials in the nation to support Reagan's presidential campaign and actively campaigned for Reagan in 1976 and 1980. However, Paul quickly became disillusioned with
13400-462: The organization from conservatives. The burning of a draft card in protest to a conservative proposal against draft resistance sparked physical confrontations among convention attendees, a walkout by a large number of libertarians, the creation of libertarian organizations like the Society for Individual Liberty and efforts to recruit potential libertarians from conservative organizations. The split
13534-503: The organization reported that it had an email list of over four million names. The first chairman was Rollie Heath , a Boulder executive who gained office as the 18th district's state senator in 2008. Heath was followed by Dr. Albert Yates, the former president of Colorado State University . The founder of ProgressNow is Michael Huttner , a Brown University and University of California Hastings College of Law graduate and lawyer turned political strategist. The current executive director
13668-560: The previous Labour government, the late-2000s recession and by the European sovereign debt crisis —the Cameron–Clegg coalition (Conservative–Liberal Democrats) embarked on an austerity programme featuring a combination of spending cuts and tax rises in an attempt to halve the deficit and eliminate the structural deficit over the five-year parliament. In Canada, the rise of the socialist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation pushed
13802-424: The public faces of the libertarian movement. The 2016 Libertarian National Convention saw Johnson and Bill Weld nominated as the 2016 presidential ticket and resulted in the most successful result for a third-party presidential candidacy since 1996 and the best in the Libertarian Party's history by vote number. Johnson received 3% of the popular vote, amounting to more than 4.3 million votes. Johnson expressed
13936-415: The public increased by almost 60% and the total debt equalled $ 2.6 trillion. In fewer than eight years, the United States went from being the world's largest creditor nation to the world's largest debtor nation. In the 1992 presidential election, Ross Perot , a successful American businessman, ran as a third-party candidate. Despite significant campaign stumbles and the uphill struggles involved in mounting
14070-453: The role of the private sector in the economy and society. This is unlike the common meaning of libertarianism elsewhere, with libertarianism being used to refer to the largely overlapping right-libertarianism , the most popular conception of libertarianism in the United States, where the term itself was first coined and used by Joseph Déjacque to refer to a new political philosophy rejecting all authority and hierarchies, including
14204-469: The same philosophical outlook as classical liberalism . This concept is derived from economic liberalism. The term has its origins in the era of the American New Deal during the 1930s as a result of the policies initiated by modern liberals , when many classical liberals started calling themselves conservatives as they did not wish to be identified with what was passing for liberalism in
14338-777: The same point, rejecting the association of statism with the left. Thin and thick libertarianism are two kinds of libertarianism. Thin libertarianism deals with legal issues involving the non-aggression principle only and would permit a person to speak against other groups as long as they did not support the initiation of force against others. Walter Block is an advocate of thin libertarianism. Jeffrey Tucker describes thin libertarianism as "brutalism" which he compares unfavorably to "humanitarianism". Thick libertarianism goes further to also cover moral issues. Charles W. Johnson describes four kinds of thickness, namely thickness for application, thickness from grounds, strategic thickness and thickness from consequences. Thick libertarianism
14472-400: The seventeenth century English Levellers and the eighteenth century French Encyclopedists among their ideological forebears; and [...] usually share an admiration for Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine ". The United States Declaration of Independence was inspired by Locke in its statement: "[T]o secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from
14606-608: The somewhat fiscally conservative Third Way advocating Democratic Leadership Council , is a prime example of this as his administration along with the Democratic-majority congress of 1993 passed on a party-line vote the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 which cut government spending, created a 36% individual income tax bracket, raised the top tax bracket which encompassed the top 1.2% earning taxpayers from 31% to 39.6% and created
14740-527: The state. In October 2013, ProgressNow Colorado released a controversial series of advertisements promoting Obamacare . According to the Denver Post , one advertisement "features a woman flashing a thumbs up with one hand and holding a packet of birth-control pills in the other. She is wrapped in a man's arm next to text that includes the sentence 'Let's hope he's as easy to get as this birth control.'" In response to inquiries about whether taxpayer funding
14874-571: The successful period of economic growth known as the Roaring Twenties . However, his actions may have been due more to a sense of federalism than fiscal conservatism as Robert Sobel notes: "As Governor of Massachusetts, Coolidge supported wages and hours legislation, opposed child labor, imposed economic controls during World War I, favored safety measures in factories, and even worker representation on corporate boards". Contrary to popular opinion, then-Republican President Herbert Hoover
15008-468: The term libertarian socialist to avoid anarchism's negative connotations and emphasize its connections with socialism . The revival of free-market ideologies during the mid-to-late 20th century came with disagreement over what to call the movement. While many of its adherents prefer the term libertarian , many conservative libertarians reject the term's association with the 1960s New Left and its connotations of libertine hedonism . The movement
15142-462: The term libertarian has been largely synonymous with anarchism , its meaning has more recently diluted with wider adoption from ideologically disparate groups. As a term, libertarian can include both the New Left and libertarian Marxists (who do not associate with a vanguard party ) as well as extreme liberals (primarily concerned with civil liberties ). Additionally, some anarchists use
15276-512: The term libertarian was Murray Rothbard , who started publishing libertarian works in the 1960s. Before the 1950s, H.L. Mencken and Albert Jay Nock had been the first prominent figures in the United States to privately call themselves libertarians. In the 1950s, Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand developed a philosophical system called Objectivism , expressed in her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged as well as other works which influenced many libertarians. However, she rejected
15410-418: The term describes a movement whose primary base of support is young non-religious males, and combines total opposition to political correctness and " wokism " with the more traditional libertarian opposition to controls on the pursuits of pleasure (sex, gambling, pornography, alcohol). Anti-capitalist libertarianism has recently aroused renewed interest in the early 21st century. The Winter 2006 issue of
15544-438: The terms New Liberalism and liberal conservative which were not eventually accepted. In May 1955, the term libertarian was first publicly used in the United States as a synonym for classical liberal when writer Dean Russell (1915–1998), a colleague of Leonard Read and a classical liberal himself, proposed the libertarian solution and justified the choice of the word as follows: Many of us call ourselves "liberals." And it
15678-472: The time, in contrast to modern ones, disliked government authority and preferred individualism . They saw free market capitalism as the preferable means of achieving economic ends. In the early 20th century, fiscal conservatives were often at odds with progressives who desired economic reform. During the 1920s, Republican President Calvin Coolidge 's pro-business economic policies were credited for
15812-441: The top capital gains tax rate from 28% to 20% and the 15% rate to 10%. After this combination of tax hikes and spending reductions, the United States was able to create budget surpluses from fiscal years 1998–2001 (the first time since 1969) and the longest period of sustained economic growth in United States history. American businessman, politician and former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg considers himself
15946-462: The true cost of government is the level of spending not how that spending is financed. Every dollar that the government spends is a dollar taken from workers, regardless of whether it is from debt or taxes. Taxes simply redistribute purchasing power; it does so in a particularly inefficient manner, reducing the incentives to produce or hire and borrowing simply forces businesses and investors to anticipate higher taxes later on. Classical liberalism in
16080-417: The uncorrupted classical sense. At best, this is awkward and subject to misunderstanding. Here is a suggestion: Let those of us who love liberty trade-mark and reserve for our own use the good and honorable word "libertarian". Subsequently, a growing number of Americans with classical liberal beliefs in the United States began to describe themselves as libertarian . The person most responsible for popularizing
16214-491: The war joined the draft resistance and peace movements and organizations such as Students for a Democratic Society . They began founding their own publications like Rothbard's The Libertarian Forum and organizations like the Radical Libertarian Alliance. The split was aggravated at the 1969 Young Americans for Freedom convention when more than 300 libertarians coordinated to take control of
16348-482: The wide range tax cut policies that were often enacted during the Reagan and Bush administrations, the New Democrat coalition's primary economic agenda differed from the traditional philosophy held by liberal Democrats and sided with the fiscal conservative belief that a balanced federal budget should take precedence over some spending programs. Former President Bill Clinton , who was a New Democrat and part of
16482-500: The word liberal for his New Deal policies which they opposed and used libertarian to signify their allegiance to individualism . In 1923, Mencken wrote: "My literary theory, like my politics, is based chiefly upon one idea, to wit, the idea of freedom. I am, in belief, a libertarian of the most extreme variety". As of the mid-20th century, no word was used to describe the ideological outlook of this group of thinkers. Most of them would have described themselves as liberals before
16616-549: Was "equal freedom for all in a free socialist society". Branches of the Libertarian League opened in a number of other American cities, including Detroit and San Francisco. It was dissolved at the end of the 1960s. The 1960s also saw an alliance between the nascent New Left and other radical libertarians who came from the Old Right tradition like Murray Rothbard , Ronald Radosh and Karl Hess in opposition to imperialism and war , especially in relation to
16750-582: Was a student of neoclassical economics and supported the subjective theory of value . Rothbard sought to meld 19th-century American individualists' advocacy of free markets and private defense with the principles of Austrian economics, arguing that there is a "scientific explanation of the workings of the free market (and of the consequences of government intervention in that market) which individualist anarchists could easily incorporate into their political and social Weltanschauung". Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater 's libertarian-oriented challenge to authority had
16884-495: Was a unifying cause for a significant caucus of Republicans through even the presidencies of Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower . Barry Goldwater was a famous champion of both the socially and fiscally conservative Republicans. In 1977, Democratic President Jimmy Carter appointed Alfred E. Kahn , a professor of economics at Cornell University , to be chair of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). He
17018-442: Was able to serialize his book L'Humanisphère, Utopie anarchique ( The Humanisphere: Anarchic Utopia ) in his periodical Le Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement Social ( Libertarian: Journal of Social Movement ), published in 27 issues from June 9, 1858, to February 4, 1861. Le Libertaire was the first libertarian communist journal published in the United States as well as the first anarchist journal to use libertarian . Tucker
17152-411: Was finalized in 1971 when conservative leader William F. Buckley Jr. attempted to divorce libertarianism from the movement, writing in a New York Times article as follows: "The ideological licentiousness that rages through America today makes anarchy attractive to the simple-minded. Even to the ingeniously simple-minded". As a result of the split, a small group of Americans led by David Nolan and
17286-420: Was not a fiscal conservative. He promoted government intervention during the early Great Depression , a policy that his successor, Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt , continued and increased despite campaigning to the contrary. Coolidge's economic policies are often popularly contrasted with the New Deal deficit spending of Roosevelt and Republican Party opposition to Roosevelt's government spending
17420-540: Was part of a push for deregulation of the industry, supported by leading economists, leading think tanks in Washington, a civil society coalition advocating the reform (patterned on a coalition earlier developed for the truck-and-rail-reform efforts), the head of the regulatory agency, Senate leadership, the Carter administration and even some in the airline industry. This coalition swiftly gained legislative results in 1978. The Airline Deregulation Act ( Pub.L. 95–504 )
17554-568: Was signed into law by President Carter on October 24, 1978. The main purpose of the act was to remove government control over fares, routes and market entry of new airlines from commercial aviation . The CAB's powers of regulation were to be phased out, eventually allowing market forces to determine routes and fares. The Act did not remove or diminish the Federal Aviation Administration 's regulatory powers over all aspects of airline safety. In 1979, Carter deregulated
17688-615: Was the first American born to use libertarian . By around the start of the 20th century, the heyday of individualist anarchism had passed. Moving into the 20th century, the Libertarian League was an anarchist and libertarian socialist organization. The first Libertarian League was founded in Los Angeles between the two World Wars. It was established mainly by Cassius V. Cook, Charles T. Sprading, Clarence Lee Swartz , Henry Cohen, Hans F. Rossner and Thomas Bell. In 1954,
17822-401: Was used for the advertising campaign, the executive director of ProgressNow Colorado said, "I know some people are saying this is a taxpayer-funded campaign...but that is just not the case." ProgressNow said the series of advertisements was paid for with donations and individual contributions, and the organization denied association with state agencies. ProgressNow Colorado was notably a part of
17956-543: Was very popular with deficit hawks ) had gone into effect and was used regularly until the system's expiration in 2002. In the 1994 midterm elections , Republicans ran on a platform that included fiscal responsibility drafted by then-Congressman Newt Gingrich called the Contract with America which advocated such things as balancing the budget, providing the President with a line-item veto and welfare reform . After
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