failed badly-and how often sume leadership of the con- Catchers," except usually it's -has that happened in recent servative and paleo ranks, leftists Mau-Mauing liberals. decades? It failed because Pat marginalize the Bush conser- We can say: 'Look, gang: you fought back hard, and nailed vatives and neocons, and have a choice, It's either Pat and named the enemy, so that make a tremendous splash at Buchanan or David Duke. If the truth plus his basic lik- the Republican convention. At you don't vote for us, baby, ability carried him through with maximum, he can knock Bush you're going to get Duke. And scarcely a scratch. In other out of the box-in the same how do you like them apples?' words, Pat has shown the way the Gene McCarthy did in unique capacity to battle 1968. By getting large (though Note: This personal endorse- against an elite smear cam- not winning) percentage of ment does not imply endorse- paign-and win! Pat is our votes in New Hampshire, ment of Buchanan by the leader. McCarthy forced Lyndon Center for Libertarian Studies, We can already hear the Johnson to retire and not run which is a non-partisan, non- small Modal voices bellyach- for reelection. Consider this: political organization. ing: But Buchanan's not a suppose that Pat gets 30 or purist, e.g., 'he's weak on free 40 percent of the vote in New Right-Wing trade." To this we say: Come Hampshire. Bush then faces a off it! To call for purity in a year of Pat on his neck through Populism: A Libertarian Party candidate the convention, perhaps an makes sense; the whole point independent Southern race by Strategy for the of a libertarian political party David Duke in November, and Paleo is to expound a consistent perhaps also a strong Demo- doctrine. But to expect liber- cratic challenger like Cuomo- Movement tarian purity in a real-world capped by an ever-deepening By Murray N. candidate comes close to im- 'recession" (read: depres- Rothbard becility. On television and in sion). Is it so crazy to envision Well, they finally got his column, Pat has expressed Bush, a few weeks after New David Duke. But he sure forceful views on hundreds if Hampshire, announcing that scared the bejesus out of not thousands of political, so- for the sake of his health, for them. It took a massive cam- cial, and cultural topics. Do the sake of Barbara's health paign of hysteria, of fear and we agree with every one of and blah blah, he has decided hate, orchestrated by all wings them? Of course not, and so not to run in '92? Would you of the Ruling Elite, from Offi- what? That misses the point. bet your life against this sce- cial Right to Left, from Presi- The point is that Pat Buchanan nario? And at that point of dent Bush and the official Re- is strongly infused with liber- course: Pat could actually win publican Party through the tarian principle, and that he is it. New York-Washington-run as close as any real-world We have a dream: and national media through the candidate could possibly come perhaps someday it will come local elites and down to local to paleo-libertarianism. All of to pass. (Hell, if 'Dr." King can left-wing activists. It took a us should be proud and de- have a dream, why can't we?) massive scare campaign, not lighted to work as hard as we Our dream is that, one day, only invoking the old bogey can for a Buchanan presi- we Buchananites can present images of the Klan and Hitler, dency. Mr. and Mrs. America, and all but also, more concretely, a What are the prospects the liberal and conservative virtual threat to boycott Loui- for a Buchanan race? At and centrist elites, with a siana, to pull out tourists and minimum, he can throw a big dramatic choice. We can, in conventions, to lose jobs by scare into Bush, build a the scintillating terms of Tom businesses leaving the state. movement for the future, as- Wolfe, 'Mau-Mau the Flak It took a campaign of slander January 1992 5 that resorted to questioning the picked up 55 percent of the an instructive metaphor for sincerity of Duke's conversion white vote; he lost in the runoff --what will eventusallybe the fate to Christ ianity-even c hal- because the fear campaign of Establishment Conserva- lenging him to name his 'official brought out a massive out- tism.) church." Even my old friend pouring of black voters. But A left-wing populist, Doug Bandow par- note the excite- former Governor Edwards is a ticipated in this ment; politics in long-time Cajun crook, whose cabal in the Wall Louisiana rose motto has been the rollicking Street Journal, from the usual laissez les bon temps roulez which virtually torpor that we ('let the good times roll"). He flipped its wig in have been used has always been allegedly anti-Duke hyste- to for decades hated by businsssmen and by ria, to the extent of and brought out conservative elites. But this attacking Duke for a turnout rate- was crisis time; and in crisis being governed by 80 percent-that the truth is revealed: there is self-interest(!)- hasn't been seen no fundamental difference be- presumably in since the nine- tween left-wing populism and contrast to all other teenth century, the system we have now. Left- politicians moti- when party poli- wing populism: rousing the vated by deep de- tics was fierce- masses to attack 'the rich," votion to the pub- ly partisan and amounts to more of the same: lic weal?! It took a ideological. high taxes, wild spending, lot of gall for One point massive redistribution of Bandow to do this, that has nowhere working and middle class in- since he is not been noted: pop- comes to the ruling coalition a sacramental ulism won in of: big government, big busi- Christian (where Louisiana, be- ness, and the New Class of one can point out cause in the first bureaucrats, technocrats, and that the person under attack primary the two winners were ideologues and their numerous was not received into the sac- Duke, a right-wing populist, and dependent groups. And so, in ramental Church), but a pietist Edwin Edwards, a left-wing the crunch, left-wing popu- one, who is opposed to any populist. Out in the cold were lism-phony populism-disap- sort of official creed or liturgy. th,e two Establishment candi- peared, and all crookery was So how can a pietist Christian dates: incumbent Governor forgiven in the mighty Edwards challenge the bona fides of Buddy Roemer, high-tax, high- coalition. It is instructive that another one? And in a world spend "reform" Democrat em- the Establishment professes to where no one challenges the braced by the Bush Adminis- believe in Edwards' teary Christian credentials of a tration in an attempt to stop the promises of personal reform Chuck Colson or a Jeb dread Duke; and the forgotten ('I'm 65 now; the good times Magruder? But logic went out man, Clyde Holloway, the offi- have mellowetj"), while refus- the window: for the entire Es- cial Republican candidate, a ing to believe in the sincerity tablishment, the ruling elite, good Establishment conserva- of David Duke's conversion. was at stake, and in that sort of tive, who got only five percent They said1 in the 60% when battle, all supposedly clashing of the vote. (Poor Human they gently chided the violent wings of the Establishment Events kept complaining dur- Left: 'stop using violence, work weld together as one unit and ing the campaign: why are the within the system." And sure fight with any weapons that media ignoring Clyde enough it worked, as the former might be at hand. Holloway? The simple answer New Left now leads the re- But even so: David Duke is that he never got anywhere: spectable intellectual classes.

6 January 1992 So why wasn't the Establish- note: TV pundits, who regularly priestcraft or State Church -ment willing to forgive and constituted the opinion-mold- have face lifts twice a year, forget when a right-wing radi- bitterly attacking Duke for his ers who apologized for that cal like David Duke stopped alleged face lift. And nobody rule. Now, in a more secular advocating violence, took off laughed!) age, we have technocrats, the Klan robes, and started 'social scientists," and media working within the system? If it What Is Right-Wing intellectuals, who apologize for was OK to be a Commie, or a Populism? the State system and staff the Weatherman, or whatever in The basic right-wing ranks of its bureaucracy. your wild youth, why isn't it OK populist insight is that we live Libertarians have often to have been a Klansman? Or in a statist country and a statist seen the problem plainly, but to put it more precisely, if it world dominated by a ruling as strategists for social change was OK for the revered Justice elite, consisting of a coalition they have badly missed the Hugo Black, or for the lion of of Big Government, Big Busi- boat. In what we might call the Senate, Robert Byrd, to ness, and various influential 'the Hayek model," they have have been a Klansman, why special interest groups. More called for spreading correct not David Duke? The answer is specifically, the old America of ideas, and thereby converting obvious: Black and Byrd be- individual liberty, private prop- the intellectual elites to liberty, came members of the liberal erty, and minimal government beginning with top philoso- elite, of the Establishment, has been replaced by a coali- phers and then slowly trickling whereas Duke continued to be tion of politicians and bureau- on down through the decades a right-wing populist, and crats allied with, and even to converting journalists and therefore anti-Establishment, dominated by, powerful corpo- other media opinion-molders. this time even more dangerous rate and Old Money financial And of course, ideas are the because 'within the system." elites (e.g. the Rockefellers, the key, and spreading correct It is fascinating that there Trilateralists); and the New doctrine is a necessary part of was nothing in Duke's current Class of technocrats and intel- any libertarian strategy. It program or campaign that could lectuals, including Ivy League might be said that the process not also be embraced by paleo- academics and media elites, takes too long, but a long- conservatives or paleo-liber- who constitute the opinion- range strategy is important, tarians: lower taxes, disman- molding class in society. In and contrasts to the tragic fu- tling the bureaucracy, slashing short, we are ruled by an up- tility of official conservatism the welfare system, attacking dated, twentieth-century coali- which is interested only in the affirmative action and racial tion of Throne and Altar, ex- lessor-of-two-evils for the cur- set-asides, calling for equal cept that this Throne is various rent election and therefore rights for all Americans, in- big business groups, and the loses in the medium, let alone cluding whites: what's wrong Altar is secular, statist intellec- the long, run. But the real error with any of that? And of course tuals, although mixed in with is not so much the emphasis the mighty anti-Duke coalition the secularists is a judicious on the long run, but on ignor- did not choose to oppose Duke infusion of Social Gospel, ing the fundamental fact that on any of these issues. Indeed, mainstream Christians. The the problem is not jusf We/- even the most leftist of his op- ruling class in the State has lectual error. The problem is ponents grudgingly admitted always needed intellectuals to that the intellectual elites that he had a point. Instead, apologize for their rule and to benefit from the current sys- the Establishment concen- sucker the masses into sub- tem; in a crucial sense, they trated on the very 'negative servience, Le., into paying the are part of the ruling class. campaigning" that they profess taxes and going along with The process of Hayekian con- to abhor (especially when di- State rule. In the old days, in version assumes that every- rected against them). (Ironic most societies, a form of one, or at least all intellectu- I January 1992 7 als, are interested solely in ping the mask off elites is and paleos is ZI strategy of the truth, and that economic 'negative campaigning" at its "right-wing populism," that is: self-interest never gets in the finest and most fundamental. to expose and denounce this way. Anyone at all acquainted This two-pronged strat- unholy alliance, and to call for with intellectuals or academ- egy is (a) to build up a cadre getting this preppie- ics should be disabused of this of our own libertarians, mini- underclass-liberal media alli- notion, and fast. Any libertar- mal-government opinion- ance off the backs of the rest ian strategy must recognize moliders, based on correct of us: the middle and working that intellectuals and opinion- ideas; and (b) to tap the classes. molders are part of the fun- masses directly, to short-cir- damental problem, not just cuil the dominant media and A Right-Whig Populist because of error, but because intellectual elites, to rouse the Program their own self-interest is tied masses of people against the A right-wing populist into the ruling system. elites that are looting them, program, then, must concen- Why then did Commu- and confusing them, and op- trate on dismantling the cru- nism implode? Because in the pressing them, both socially cial existing areas of State and end the system was working and economically. But this elite rule, and on liberating so badly that even the str4ategymust fuse the abstract the average American from the nomenklatura got fed up and and the concrete; it must not most flagrant and oppressive threw in the towel. The Marx- simply attack elites in the ab- features of that rule. In short: ists have correctly pointed out stract, but must focus specifi- 1. Slash taxes - All that a social system collapses cally on the existing statist taxes, sales, business, prop- when the ruling class becomes system, on those who right erty, etc., but especially the demoralized and loses its will now constitute the ruling most oppressive politically to power; manifest failure of cli~sses. and personally: the income the Communist system Libertarians have long tax. We must work toward re- brought about that demoral- been puzzled about whom, peal of the income tax and ization. But doing nothing, or about which groups, to reach abolition of tho IRS. relying only on educating the out to. The simple answer: 2. Slash welfare. Get rid elites in correct ideas, will everyone, is not enough, be- of underclass rule by abolish- mean that our own statist cause to be relevant politi- ing the welfare system, or, system will not end until our cally, we must concentrate short of abollition, severely entire society, like that of the strategically on those groups cutting and restrict it. Soviet Union, has been re- who are most oppressed and 3. Abolish racial or duced to rubble. Surely, we who also have the most social group privileges. Abolish af- must not sit still for that. A leverage. firmative action, set aside ra- strategy for liberty must be far The reality of the current cial quotas, etc., and point out more active and aggressive. system is that it constitutes that the root of such quotas is Hence the importance, an unholy alliance of "corpo- the entire 'civil rights" struc- for libertarians or for minimal rate liberal" Big Business and ture, which tramples on the government conservatives, of media elites, who, through big property rights of every having a one-two punch in government, have privileged American. their armor: not simply of and caused to rise up a para- 4. Taks Back the spreading correct ideas, but Eiitic Underclass, who, among Streets: Crush Criminals. And also of exposing the corrupt !hem all, are looting and op- by this I mean, of course, not ruling elites and how they pressing the bulkof the middle 'while collar criminals" or 'in- benefit from the existing sys- ;and working classes in side traders" but violent street tem, more specifically how America. Therefore, the criminals-robbers, muggers, they are ripping us off. Rip- 'proper strategy of libertarians rapists, murderers. Cops must

8 January 1992 ~ ~~ )e unleashed, and allowed to ental control. In the long run, heir paleo or traditionalist or administer instant punish- his means ending public ither partners in a populist ment, subject of course to li- chools, and replacing them :oalition, For example, on ability when they are in error. ~y private schools. But we amily values, take such vexed 5. Take Back the nust realize that voucher and ,roblems as pornography, Streets: Get Rid of the Bums. wen tax credit schemes are wostitution, or abortion. Here, Again: unleash the cops to lot, despite Milton Friedman, iro-legalization and pro- clear the streets of bums and ransitional demands on the :hoice libertarians should be vagrants. Where will they go? lath to privatized education; willing to compromise on a Who cares? Hopefully, they nstead, they will make matters jecentralist stance; that is, to will disappear, that is, move vorse by fastening govern- md the tyranny of the federal from the ranks of the petted nent control more totally upon :ourts, and to leave these and cosseted bum class to the he private schools. Within the Iroblems up to states and ranks of the productive mem- Iublic school system, the only jetter yet, localities and bers of society. ;ound alternative is decen- ieighborhoods, that is, to 6. Abolish the Fed; At- ralization, and back to local, 'community standards." tack the Banksters. Money and :ommunity neighborhood banking are recondite issues. :ontrol of the schools. Alternative Libertarian But the realities can be made Further: We must reject Strategies vivid: the Fed is an organized mce and for all the Modal A. Corridors of Power cartel of banksters, who are Abertarian view that all gov- There are two alter- creating inflation, ripping off xnment-operated resources native strategies to the fore- the public, destroying the nust be cesspools. We must going for the libertarian savings of the average Ameri- :ry, short of ultimate movement. One is the Koch- can. The hundreds of billions xivatization, to operate gov- Crane strategy, the strategy of taxpayer handouts to S&L xnment facilities in a manner of the Cat0 Institute, Citizens banksters will be chicken-feed nost conducive to a business, for a Sound Economy, et al. It compared to the coming col- 3r to neighborhood control. is the antipode of a right-wing lapse of the commercial But that means: that the pub- populist strategy: it is the banks. lic schools must allow prayer, strategy of cozying up to the 7. America First. A key and we must abandon the Corridors of Power, of lobby- point, and not meant to be absurd leit-atheist interpreta- ing and influencing the top seventh in priority. The tion of the First Amendment elites, of nudging them gently American economy is not only that "establishment of religion" onto a more libertarian path. in recession; it is stagnating. means not allowing prayer in It is clear that this strategy, The average family is worse public schools, or a creche in pursued by Koch, et al. since off now than it was two de- a schoolyard or a public the early 1980s, is precisely cades ago. Come home square at Christmas. We must the analog of the strategy pur- America. Stop supporting return to common sense, and sued by Official Washington bums abroad. Stop all foreign original intent, in constitutional conservatism during this same aid, which is aid to banksters interpretation. era, and starting also at the and their bonds and their ex- So far: every one of these beginning of the Reagan ad- port industries. Stop right-wing populist programs ministration. As in the case of gloabaloney, and let's solve is totally consistent with a Official Conservatism, the our problems at home. hard-core libertarian position. strategy has been successful 8. Defend Family Val- But all real-world politics is in terms of acquiring respect- ues. Which means, get the coalition politics, and there are ability, official contacts, jobs State out of the family, and other areas where libertarians in Washington, and in gen- replace State control by pa- might well compromise with eral, pleasant associations January 1992 9 ~~ ~ and perhaps even contracts power to the State and its the existing system of State with Power. But it has been elites. But Fabian libertarians capitalism. These upper- spectacularly unsuccessful in or limited-government con- middle-class yuppies are the achieving any significant gains s13rvativeswould be pushing weakest possible reed for any for libertarian principle. On the principles that are very much libertarian, or any limited gov- contrary: all that this Corridor a!gainstthe grain of the ruling ernment, strategy. of Power strategy has accom- elites: and hence the Fabian Of cour,se, the Koch- plished is to defang both the success story in British so- Crane types often choose this conservative and the libertar- cialism is irrelevant to today. path not just for strategic ian movement, and to make To the contrary, the likelihood reasons, but because they them lapdogs of Power. The is precisely what did happen: themselves lean toward marginal influence of libertar- that would-be Fabian, gradu- cultural and social leftism: to- ians has been to find some ahst, and respectable, con- ward egalitarianism, and technical ways to make the servatives and toward a liber- workings of the State a bit libertarians, will tine lifestyle. more efficient, or a bit less find themselves Hence, they are inefficient. And that hurts coopted, and get hardly the sort rather than helps the cause of Fabianized in the to lead the liberty. wrong direction. charge .against The more thoughtful ad- The much- the cultural and vocates of this path have heralded Koch- social decay called it the Fabian strategy. Crane strategy of which agitates Look, they have said, the appealing to 'fis- the American Fabian Society was brilliantly cally conserva- public almost successful at a gradual, re- tive, socially as much as spectable approach. Instead liberal" yuppies more directly of being militant and con- is part and par- political issues, fronting the State, as the radi- cel of the same while their left- cal Marxists would do, the misguided and ist egalitar- Fabians insinuated them- disastrous strat- ianism inclines selves into Power and nudged egy. Upper-mid- them to support it along, gradually and inexo- dle class yuppie the 'anti-dis- rably, into collectivism. Isn't suburbanites crimination" this similarly a surer path for may be lots of fun at cocktail laws that trample on the rights conservatives or libertarians? parties, but they are precisely of private property. Well, the path may be more the wrong class for a libertar- comfortable and certainly ian strategy to covet. For, of B. The Libertarian Party more lucrative personally for all the groups and classes in The other alternative the right-wing Fabians. But the society, they are most com- strategic route for libertarians Fabian strategy overlooks a fortable and the least dis- is to separate thiemselves out crucial point. Apart from the gruntled, the least likely to from the mainstream, and to fact that the radical Marxists nurse a deep grievance form and develop a self-con- were right in regarding against the State. And even if, scious movement, functioning Fabianism as a sellout of over a couple of martinis, they as a combination of philo- Marxist principle, the Fabians should tell the Catoites: 'Yes, sophic debating society and were only gently nudging the we really agree with you on social club. This is precisely State in a direction where it most issues," they are least what libertarians did in the was happily willing and eager IikeEy to do anything about it, 1970s, except in the guise of to go: advancing even more to rock the boat and oppose a political party.

LO January1992 Different strategies are lution within the old form. At LP caught on, its political -required by different social that point, in despair by the campaigns succeeded, by the conditions, and a key point we end of the 195Os, those of us time of the well-financed 1980 should acknowledge is that, resisting this trend felt it im- campaign, to educate the by forming a separate sect, perative to separate ourselves media and politically inter- the Libertarian Party per- out from a Right-wing that had ested Americans on what formed an important, neces- been captured from under us. 'libertarianism" is all about. sary, and laudable function It became vital to separate the So that: by the early 1980% during the 1970s. From the two sharply in our minds and most politically aware Ameri- 1930s through the first half of in the minds of the public, and cans could tell you what lib- the 1950s, libertarians func- also to stop giving libertarian ertarianism was, and also, tioned as an important ideo- and limited government cover while they did not necessarily logical ginger group within the to a movement that had been agree with it, they treated lib- broad coalition that we now transformed into virtually their ertarianism as a creed worthy know as the 'Old," or Original, opposite. of respect and attention. Right: a coalition forged in Finally, by the end of the All this was accom- reaction against the horrors 1960s, a split in Young plished by the Libertarian of the New Deal, both domes- Americans for Freedom over Party, and nothing can take tic and foreign. Libertarians the draft caused the growing those achievements away felt themselves to be an 'ex- libertarian wing of YAF to be from it. But after the early treme" and consistent wing of expelled or to get out volun- 1980s, as Kochian money the Right, and they functioned tarily. That wing, now ready turned to a soft-core, Corridors within the broader coalition for independent libertarian of Power strategy and left the happily and harmoniously as political action, formed the LP, the Libertarian Party be- friends and as ideological and Libertarian Party in 1971, and gan to become increasingly political allies. Unfortunately, it quickly caught on as a means irrelevant. Even though most that Old Right coalition, de- of providing an independent Americans had heard of liber- voted to liberty, private prop- home for libertarians. At first, tarianism and even respected erty, free markets, and an anti- the LP was dominated by a its doctrine, the Party wasn't interventionist, America First neo-Randian, pro-war group, winning adherents, let alone foreign policy, began to col- distinguishable from the Na- elections. More and more 'real lapse during the late 1950s, tional Review right largely by world" people left the LP, as death and retirement in favoring civil liberties. At the which therefore became in- leadership ranks (84. Bob 1975 LP convention, however, creasingly flaky, increasingly Taft, Colonel McCormick), left those of us who were dedi- libertine and culturally leftist, a vacuum at the top that was cated 'isolationists" captured and above all, increasingly filled by the burgeoning "New" the Party, and from then on, irrelevant. The Ron Paul Right, headed by Bill Buckley the LP was able (1) to develop Presidential campaign of 1988 and National Review. That libertarianism as a self-con- was a last, desperate attempt New Right, while in early days scious creed separate and to transform the Libertarian paying lip service to the forms distinct from Buckleyite con- Party into a real-world, 'real of the Old Right, transformed servatism and a fortiori from people" organization, into a it within a few years into a the increasingly statist, pro- party that middle-class and global-crusading, war-mon- civil rights, and neo-con working-class people could gering, and basically pro-state dominated Right of the late feel at home in. The effort was , movement. Unfortunately, 1970s and after; (2) the LP a noble one that failed; the many libertarians were at that was able to educate its own numbers simply weren't there, time sucked in to became ap- members and develop a prin- and when this failure became pendages to this statist revo- cipled 'cadre," and (3), as the evident, the 'real world," or January 1992 11 what might be called the n43w, revivified reincarnation cus never went beyond a gal- -'proto-paleo," faction of the of the Grand Old Right of my lant handful. party walked out, and what's youth. Who says 'you can't go left of the LP is now spiraling home again?" The Lesson. of Joe downward into oblivion. In my days in the Liber- McCarthy It is a happy coincidence tarian Party, one of my hap- Quick: Who was the most that just when the LP fell apart piest associations was with the hated, the most smeared, the in 1989, the collapse of Com- hlead of the Arizona Party, most universally reviled, man munism made the Cold War long-time political consultant in American political life, obsolete, and gave us hope Emil Franzi, one before David that many conservatives of the most as- Duke? You're would now rejoin us in an anti- tute political right: it was interventionist, anti-global minds in the LP. 'Tailgunner America First foreign policy. (A 'proto-paleo" Joe" McCarthy. Happily, we became aware if there ever was Why is that? Joe that there was indeed a wing one, Franzi is McCarthy was of conservatives, unfortu- also long out of not a Ku Kluxer, nately all too small among the the LP.) Franzi he was not a Official leadership in New York broke down LP Nazi, he was and Washington, who agreed members into not a libertarian, with us that the time had come three sociologi- he was not even for a resurgent isolationism. cal categories: a conserva- And it also turned out that 'Murray, there tive. One thing these 'paleo-conservatives," a are three types quickly forgot- generation younger than the of people in ten amidst the 'traditionalists" of twenty and the Libertarian anti-McCarthy thirty years ago, were tren- Party: the hip- hysteria of the chant and hard-core critics of pies, the prep- 1950s was that the welfare state, scorners of pies, and the Joe McCarthy the Official Conservative rednecks." As was a moderate, scramble for government jobs, lhe self-pro- or liberal, Re- and bitterly anti-statist in their [claimed leader publican. In ad- basic outlook. Hence, the now ef the Redneckcaucus, Franzi dition, McCarthy did not create famous rapprochement with left no doubt where he himself the frenetic anti-Communist the paleo-conservatives, the stood. The "hippies" of course world view: indeed, it was a creation of a new 'paleo-liber- were the people we have view that he absorbed out of tarian" movement as a way to dubbed the Modals; the our political culture, a view separate ourselves out from 'preppies" (or wannabee created and totally shared by the flakes and cultural leftists preppies) were the Koch- conservatives, centrists, and who constitute the LP and Crane machine. The Cold War liberals. Indeed, one 'Modal Libertarians," and the 'rednecks" were the real of the most common, and re- happy fusion with the people. In a sense the strat- vealing, lines about McCarthy paleocons into a new 'paleo" egy we are now proclaiming is was: "We agree with his goals movement. For myself, after a strategy of Outreach to the [ant i-Communism], but we thirty-five years in the ideo- Rednecks. And there really don't agree with his means." logical wilderness, first allied are virtually no rednecks in Indeed, when McCarthy con- with the New Left and then in the Libertarian Party. Truly, fronted the Army and the en- a sectarian LP, I am happy to even at best, there were never tire Center in those famous be once again at home in a very many: the Redneck Cau- hearings, nobody disputed all

12 January 1992 ~ ~~ the arrows that he drew of there was a sense of dyna- LP: 'Thank you . . . and Soviet Communism encircling mism, of fearlessness, and of goodbye!" with the emphasis the United States and putting open-endedness, as if, whom on the final word. For sensible us in imminent peril. It was in would he subpoena next? The people and paleo-libertarians, fact true: except for the minor- sainted Eleanor Roosevelt? the time has come to re-enter ity of Communists and fellow- With Big Business, the the real world, and to help travelers, everyone agreed on military, liberal intellectuals, forge a coalition that will cre- McCarthy's basic world view. Rockefeller Republicans, the ate a successful right-wing The problem was that media, all ranged against him, populist movement which will, McCarthy, in his crusade, was McCarthy was finally brought by necessity, be in large part a right-wing populist. He was low. He had almost no move- libertarian. not content with attacking ment behind him; he had no To go over the heads of Communist infiltrators in the political infrastructure. And the media and political elites, abstract; he took the alleged Joe McCarthy was, unfortu- to reach the working and danger seriously; and insisted nately, not suited for the new middle class directly, to on naming names, in naming medium-television-that he spread the ideas of liberty and and exposing these whom he had been using so effectively the knowledge of how they considered the enemy. to reach the masses directly. have been oppressed, re- The fascinating, the ex- He was a 'hot" person for a quires inspiring and charis- citing, thing about Joe 'cool" medium; his jowls, and matic political leadership. It McCarthy was precisely his his heavy beard, wrecked his requires, in addition to intel- 'means"-his right-wing standing with an image-bound lectual cadre, political leaders populism: his willingness and public. And above all, by get- who will be knowledgeable, ability to reach out, to short- ting the U.S. Senate-an in- courageous, dynamic, exciting circuit the power elite: liber- stitution which McCarthy, not and effective in mobilizing and als, centrists, the media, the a libertarian, loved and re- building a movement. It re- intellectuals, the Pentagon, vered-to censure him, they quires leadership able to seize Rockefeller Republicans, and broke Joe's heart, and he was the moment to act, leadership reach out and whip up the finished from then on. with the moxie and the forti- masses directly. And that, tude to surmount the slanders above all, was what they What Is To Be Done? and smears that will inevitably hated. And that's why they had Libertarians are now split be directed against it. It re- to destroy him, why of all the into paleos and modals. The quires ideological and politi- anti-Communists in the coun- Libertarian Party, now irrel- cal 'entrepreneurs" in the best try, they had to make hisname evant and inexorably Modal- sense, leadership that is will- a dictionary term dominated, is History. It is ing and able to forge a paleo ('McCarthyism") for political finished, over, kaput. It is coalition to split off heartland evil. Centrist politics, elitist vanishing into the dustbin of and paleo-conservatives from politics, is deliberately boring history. For those good people Official and neo-conserva- and torpid. The people get put still devoted to, or trapped in, tives, to raise the banner and to sleep, as a Bush faces a the LP, it is time to realize that to build a real-world movement Dukakis, or, as it looked for a the LP has accomplished its in which, as in the days of the while, Bush waltzes around historic task-to develop lib- Old Right, libertarianscan play with a Clinton or a Kerrey. But ertarianism and to win public a valuable part. right-wing populist politics is recognition of the doctrine- Some of my friends are rousing, exciting, ideological, and its time is long over. To stressing a patient, local, and that is precisely why the paraphrase Nathaniel grass-roots strategy. Grass- elites don't like it: let sleeping Branden's farewell to Ayn roots activity is fine and nec- dogs lie. With Joe McCarthy Rand, it is time to say to the essary. But what this idea ig- January 1992 13 ~ nores is that gross-roots ac- weighty matters as taxes, the 1. A Saddam Replay. tivity is, let’s face it, inher- budget, interest rates, and civil Saddam is still there; every- ently plodding and boring. And rights. Open internecine war- thing is in place; he’s already that therefore, it will never get fare has broken out over the been established Another off the ground, unless it is universally hated John Hitler, indeed Worse Than sparked, and vivified, and Sununu. Things are spinning Hitler. So you can send the energized by high-level, pref- out of control. And the key bombs and missiles again erably presidential, political election is coming up. What to easily. The media just go back campaigns. What we need to do? What to do? into their accustomed act. Of build a new paleo movement, Why, of course, George. course, there is a little hitch: particularly at this stage, is a Lot’s face it: The time has cranking up an Operation presidential candidate, some- come for ANOTHER WAR! Desert Storm, II: The Sequel, one whom all wings of anti- War! You shine might remind ev- Establishment rightists can there, George; eryone that the get behind, with enthusiasm. you can get the first Glorious And while Howard Phillips’ fl,ags a wavin’, Victory was a bit Taxpayers Party may eventu- and the missiles of a botch. How ally play an important role, at a flyin’. You can many sequels this point we can simply say pick name Op- can you get that the Taxpayer Party has erations and away with, with- not yet been fully formed and dragoon the me- out looking fool- that right now he has no presi- dia again. You ish? dential candidate. The arena can refurbish 2. The Libyan of action now is to find some- your civil rights Card. Ahh, Libya! one to lead a people’s revolu- image with Gen- You have now tion against the crumbling eral Colin Powell brought the Lib- George Bush in the New at your side, yan hit men back Hampshire and other Repub- you can bring into the public lican presidential primaries- Stormin’ Norman consciousness, and to take that fight on to the out of retirement indicting them Republican convention, hop- to look satisfy- for that Pan ing at most to win in ’92, and ingly military on Am explosion in at the least to build a powerful TV. You can be- Scotland. If ne- movement for ‘96, and be- devil your en- cessary, you yond. 0 emies, and send your poll can revive the scare about ratings up to 90 percent again. the “four bearded Libyan hit It’s Time for a So all you need is an Enemy, men” who had penetrated the and you can get another swift, United States to assassinate War! massive, gook-destroying, President Reagan. Remem- by M.N.R. feel-good-about-America vic- ber that one? Also, you have Suddenly, everyone tory, maximizing the glow of already established Colonel agrees that George Bush is glory for Election Day. So you Khadaffy as the previous mired in deep doo-doo. Un- need an Enemy, another Stalin Hitler, and a nutty one at that. happy and inattentive at best or preferably another Hitler, And it wouldn’t take much to about domestic affairs, he who seems able to provide a bomb Libya back to the Stone finds the economy bogged suitable hate object and Age, since it’s pretty much down in an increasingly grim punching bag for another there already. Of course, our recession, and he waffles in century or so. So let’s go down bombers already did murder abject confusion about such the list. the Colonel’s little baby, so 14 January 1992