Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Why are Libertarians Silent on Iran? (Updated)

Strange. Sad too since as I type this a massacre is taking place.

From the Corner:

Where Are the Libertarians on Iran? [Jonah Goldberg]

An interesting complaint from the Libertarian Republican (via Instapundit):
What a reversal. Freedom is breaking out across Iran. We are witnessing one of the most historical events of our lifetimes, comparable no doubt to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Yet, Libertarians, outside of this political news blog, Atlas Shrugs, the Libertarian Defense Caucus, and a few other libertarian Republicans, are for the most part silent. Virtually no reportage at Reason.


In the last week, just two articles on the whole Iranian Revolution at Reason, and one was more of a criticism of how CNN was covering the event, than coverage of the event itself. Cato is similarly unengaged. The usual suspects on the Libertarian Left, LewRockwell.com, Justin Raimondo and AntiWar.com, and the Ron Paulists, are preaching the same "stay the hell out" line, they've been arguing for years. Some are even cheering on Obama for not making any statements seemingly in support of the protesters. Incredibly, not a single press release has been sent out by the Libertarian Party on the biggest issue of the day. So, where are all the freedoms lovers in the United States to be found?On the Conservative Right.

He left out Will's Churchillian refusal to paint his Twitter Avatar green.

Update- Be sure to go the Blog linked above in the Corner post for more. I find this interesting:

Where's the International Libertarian effort?The libertarian movement was far more supportive of the last major freedom revolution: the Fall of Communism across Eastern Europe and Russia. Cato even sent a delegation of Economists, and other Cato leaders to Moscow in 1991 to steer the country into developing a more market-based economy. No such plans are in the works for the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution. In fact, even so-called Libertarian International groups who are supposed to be actively organizing such efforts, are silent. ISIL (Individual Society for Individual Liberty), a group that was supposed to act as a sort of Libertarian International, has only one single link on their home page about Iran. Instead, articles about the upcomming Libertarian National Committee meeting, "Liberty English Camps," and ironically, Human Rights Watch with no mention of Iran, is currently on the front page. This from an organization that boasts:

A vital part of spreading the ideas of liberty around the world is to make available literature in the local language. ISIL has sponsored the publishing and distribution of thousands of introductory libertarian books in former communist countries, including the works of Ayn Rand in her native Russia.Funny. You'd think this would be precisely the time that the Iranians need the works of Rand, and free market economic books the most.

Something is seriously, seriously wrong, when someone like Huckabee, who has expressed utter disdain for movement libertarians in the past, is sounding more libertarian, than movement libertarians themselves. Who knows? Maybe it will be social conservative Mike Huckabee next, doing a "Money Bomb" off his site to support the distribution of (atheist) And Rand's "Atlas Shrugs," Hayek's "Road to Serfdom," and Milton Friedman's "Free to Choose," to the brave young Iranian protesters? While Ron Paul will still be saying that the press reports out of Iran about repression of the freedom fighters shouldn't necessarily be believed.

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