The debate over whether conservatives and libertarians can get over their differences and get along to get along in the battle to usurp progressives has been waging on for decades.
Appearing on The Blaze TV’s “Glenn Beck Program,” on Wednesday night, Jack Hunter, Director of Outreach for Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), made the case that libertarianism and conservatism are not mutually exclusive, and they can even be woven together without ideological conflict.
Looking to Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, Hunter pointed out that, “He is a libertarian, but he’s also a conservative. You can be the same thing.”
He added that, “[Conservatism and libertarianism] can be different, but they’re not necessarily different.”
Beck supported Hunter’s point, recalling that former President Ronald Reagan believed libertarianism and conservatism are closely related, if not interchangeable.
“If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals,” Reagan told Reason Magazine in 1975. “The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom, and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.”
Hunter, a self-proclaimed “libertarian, conservative and independent-minded thinker,” argued that it is “indisputable” that libertarianism is a sizable part of American conservatism. Hunter and Beck agreed that the point is not about labels, but more about working together to reach the common goal of less government and more freedom.
As it turns out libertarians and conservatives are not so different after all. Wasn’t that easy?
