Whats the difference between Neo-Conservatives and Libertarians?
For one thing, Neoconservatism is defined by foreign policy and economic policy. Neocons and Libertarians would mostly agree on economic policy, but Libertarians have a more extreme vision of Lasis-Fair economics then Neocons do. Neocons as a movement don’t care about social policy, but have aligned themselves with christian conservatives, who disagree with Libertarians on social issues. Classical Libertarianism is opposed to forien adventureism as well. The modern libertarian party is a pretty diverse group, from people who only care about Legalizing marijuana to people who want to totaly deregulate big-bussness.
Dagnyscott: What I’ve generally heard is that libertarians would be called “liberal” in Europe; This is true, at least in France. However, I suspect that even French “liberals” would be considered largely pro-state in a US context. “True” libertarians just don’t exist here, at least no significantly. I guess that this has to do less with politics than with the fact that the entire history of the country is a long, bloody, slow evolution from being a bunch of warlord-run territories to one, single, sovereign country where the concept of state can no longer be dissociated from the one of nation.
My impression is neo-cons are puritanic authoritarians motivated by apocalyptic evangelical Christian end-times notions. Libertarianism has two sides and those who discuss it often focus on one and ignore the other: Social and Economic. Economic Libertarians are really into Ayn Rand and want everything privatized; whereas Social Libertarians want all laws involving prohibitions eliminated.
Libertarians usually aim for increased personal liberty and responsibility, decentralization of authority and influence, and genuinely free trade between autonomous individuals. Neocons are sophistic cryptofascist slime. They have no qualms about using any amount of public funds in pursuit of their worldwide plans for control, but bitch about public funds being used for disaster relief. Check out John Gray’s “Al-Qaeda and What it Means to be Modern.” The only broadly coherent belief among neocons is that of unwavering loyalty. They have a mental tribe, and anyone who is not in the tribe is the enemy. Just my utterly biased opinion.
