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Paleolibertarianism (also known as the "Paleo strategy") is a right-libertarian political activism strategy aimed at uniting libertarians and paleoconservatives.[1] It was developed by American anarcho-capitalist theorists Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockwell in the American political context after the end of the Cold War. From 1989 to 1995, they sought to communicate libertarian notions of opposition to government intervention by using messages accessible to the working class and middle class people of the time. They combined libertarian free market views with the cultural conservatism of paleoconservatism, while also opposing protectionism. The strategy also embraced the paleoconservative reverence for tradition and religion. This approach, usually identified as right-wing populism, was intended to radicalize citizens against the state.[2][3][4] The name they chose for this style of activism evoked the roots of modern libertarianism, hence the prefix paleo. That founding movement was American classical liberalism, which shared the anti-war and anti-New Deal sentiments of the Old Right in the first half of the 20th century. Paleolibertarianism is generally seen as a right-wing ideology.
The paleolibertarian strategy was expected to shift the libertarian movement away from the influence of public policy-oriented libertarian organizations based in Washington, D.C. (who were accused of giving up on communicating the complete libertarian message and of adopting the political and cultural values inside the Beltway to gain acceptance among the political elite[2][5]); and to simultaneously shift American right-wing politics away from the neoconservative movement and its promotion of hawkish or interventionist foreign policy usually characterized as imperialist by libertarian thinkers.[3][third-party source needed]
- ^ Hughes, Tristan (2023). "A space for freedom: the Paleolibertarian coalition". Journal of Political Ideologies: 1–20. doi:10.1080/13569317.2023.2296403.
- ^ a b «The word "paleolibertarian" was mine too, and the purpose was to recapture the political edge and intellectual rigor and radicalism of the pre-war libertarian right. There was no change in core ideology but a reapplication of fundamental principles in ways that corrected the obvious failures of the Reason and National Review crowd. [...] To some extent, I would say the present decline in the moral legitimacy of the executive state represents a paleoization, if you will, a systematic radicalization of the middle class. [...] all the real political dissidents and radicals, the people who are raising fundamental objections to the status quo of the American civil project, are on the right.» Libertarianism and the Old Right, Lew Rockwell (2006), Mises Institute.
- ^ a b Lew Rockwell, "What I Learned From Paleoism", at LewRockwell.com, May 2, 2002.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
LRwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Do You Consider Yourself a Libertarian?, Kenny Johnsson interviews Lew Rockwell for The Liberal Post, LewRockwell.Com, May 25, 2007.