What the heck is going on at the Cato Institute?
Brink Lindsey, Vice President of research at the Cato Institute, sent out a series of tweets last week that accused former Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul of being xenophobic, adding that the libertarian movement “had an ugly illiberal streak long before” the three-time presidential candidate.
That wasn’t the end of it. Lindsey actually had the temerity of calling Dr. Paul anti-trade because he opposed various trade agreements in his time in Washington. Ostensibly, according to the mind of Lindsey, if you’re against trade agreements that don’t facilitate free trade then you’re against free trade.
Ron Paul’s xenophobia was a hideous corruption of libertarian ideas and puts his movement in the Trumpism family tree
— Brink Lindsey (@lindsey_brink) April 19, 2017
Uh huh…
He also attempted to discredit legendary free market economist Murray Rothbard because he supported States’ Rights Democrats years ago.
For whatever reason, Lindsey decided to attack two of the most important figures in the libertarian movement. Perhaps it’s because these two men have done more for libertarianism than Lindsey or Cato ever would.
Tom Woods, today’s best libertarian commentator, fumed in a blog post, saying that Lindsey supported the Iraq War, which killed countless people for no apparent reason. And Ron Paul is the xenophobe? Come on!
When the chips are down, you can count on folks like Lindsey to stand with the establishment, jointly denouncing heretics. As in:
::PHONE RINGS::
NEW YORK TIMES: Is this Brink Lindsey?
BRINK LINDSEY: Why, hello, Mr. New York Times reporter, sir. Before we continue, let me assure you, sir: I’m a libertarian, but I’m not like those bad people you don’t like. They’re really awful and dangerous people. They haven’t imbibed p.c. morality at all. I’m not like them, trust me!
Also, I make sure to confine myself to trivial issues you in the media don’t really care that much about.
Oh, by the way, I want to join forces with you! Have you heard of liberaltarianism? I know you folks on the left agree with me on some things, and I know you’re just dying to —
Hello? Hello?
It is absolutely ridiculous to call Dr. Paul a xenophobe and to suggest that Rothbard was a terrible human being because he supported states’ rights.
To the mind of Lindsey, you’re a xenophobe if you oppose Trump’s wall, allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country but can’t collect welfare benefits, advocate decentralization and argue against wars.
Unfortunately, not many people today know the history of the founding of the Cato Institute.
Lew Rockwell has the history of the Institute somewhere on his LewRockwell.com blog, but the three main people involved were Charles and David Koch, along with Murray Rothbard. Rothbard declined to be involved in the organization, so they chose David Boaz to be the organization’s leader.
In my opinion, the Cato Institute has moved away from its pure libertarian roots. It now appears to be an advocate for limited government with a sprinkling of libertarian philosophy tossed in.