Give Me Liberty or Give Me Something Better, by James Miller.
There is no libertarian moment.
Contrary to popular opinion, the self-styled “liberty movement” is not ushering in a new era of freedom. Friedrich Hayek’s books aren’t flying off the shelf. Rand Paul’s sclerotic presidential campaign isn’t months away from downing Hillary Clinton. Libertarianism as a philosophy is still relegated to all-male conferences and basement-dweller Facebook pages.
Four years ago, libertarianism was all the rage in non-PC quarters. What happened?
A little thing called frustrated nationalism got in the way.
Donald Trump lit the fuse of the 21st century’s biggest powder keg: uncontrolled migration from the Third World into the West. His nonpareil presidential campaign finally brought attention to the loss of sovereignty and cultural cohesion that Western countries are experiencing by welcoming untold numbers of foreigners. …
Trump won the GOP primary contest by proposing to ban Muslim immigration, “bomb the shit” out of ISIS, and build an actual wall along the Mexican border. Libertarians decry all these measures as authoritarian, racist, and fascistic. They don’t seem to realize that nobody is listening to them. By and large, the Republican electorate supports these measures. …
With their individual fetishism, libertarians have a difficult time accepting the idea of collective action [such as borders and countries]. …
Man has a proclivity for safety, not liberty. Human history is littered with war after war, conflict after conflict. Whatever liberty we eke out of our constant warring state is always in danger of being lost. As philosopher John Gray noted, “To think of humans as freedom-loving, you must be ready to view nearly all of history as a mistake.”
The times are changing:
Most important, after years of dissolution, the feeling of belonging seems to be making a comeback. It’s great being an empowered individual, but autonomy must be tempered with a devotion to a larger body, whether it be family, town, or country.
Libertarianism is predicated upon the idea that everyone can exist within their own sphere. It doesn’t acknowledge the bonds we have that turn life into more than just a dog-eat-dog struggle.
See Why Trump is more popular than Libertarianism:
Libertarianism is a coward’s ideology. It’s an attempt by white males to argue in their own interest by ideological means instead of arguing plainly for what’s in the interest of their own blood and culture like every other ethnic group does.
UPDATE: Speaking of liberty, see this map of the world with economic freedom.
