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Entry: Libertarianism's Divergent Roads Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/libertarianisms_divergent_roads#29540 Post contents: Susan H. wrote: >Getting ourselves tangled up in the bickering of left/right is exactly the wrong strategy for creating a real and lasting understanding of freedom. Susan, I think you’re missing what’s happening here. I myself am the very model of a modern cosmopolitan libertarian: I am an (occasionally strident) atheist, I’m an outspoken anarchist, I am married to the daughter of Asian immigrants, I have a couple of gays within my own family, I have a Ph.D. from an elite university, and I greatly prefer living in cosmopolitan, multi-cultural California to the provincial, Midwestern city I grew up in. (Raimondo too is not exactly a typical middle-American: he’s a gay guy who lives in San Francisco!) However, like Justin, I cheerfully supported and voted for Ron Paul and even sent him a few bucks. Those of us on the Ron Paul side of the great libertarian split are tolerant folks – everyone from people like Justin and myself to Heartland-Middle Americans have been welcome among the Paulistas. It only takes one side to start a fight. It is the anti-Paulistas, the so-called “Beltway libertarians,” who have been outspoken in their attacks against Ron Paul because he is not sufficiently “cosmopolitan.” Paul and his supporters, on the other hand, have not been attacking people like Justin and me for our being “cosmopolitan”: on the contrary, our support has been welcomed. Justin (and Ron Paul and I) did not create this split: it is the libertarian “Beltway crowd” who have chosen to start a jihad against anyone who does not meet their standards for being cosmopolitan. (As a matter of fact, none of the Beltway libertarians meet my criteria for “cosmopolitanism” – how many of them can read hundreds of Chinese characters as my kids and I can, for example? – but I do not denounce them for their lack of true cosmopolitanism.) Justin is not creating this split: he is just reporting on a split brought about by a group of libertarians with whom he has no affiliation. Those “cosmopolitan” libertarians are unwilling to associate with ordinary Americans. They are even reluctant to associate with truly cosmopolitan libertarians such as Raimondo and myself, simply because we are willing to associate with middle-Americans libertarians like Ron Paul. It only takes one side to start a fight. However, after seeing how those guys behave, I’ve come to think that perhaps it is just as well that they refuse to associate with me – the Beltway libertarians really are pitifully provincial, you know. Dave Miller in Sacramento Sent at: 2008 12 02