Liberty

The first pillar of American politics, described in part by the American Independence movement of the late 18^th Century among others, is liberty, the primary concern of the libertarian.  This is not to say that only libertarians are concerned with the idea of liberty, nor is it to say that other issues do not concern libertarians. Nor still is it to say that liberals or conservatives are antithetical to or opponents of liberty.  Rather, liberty and its closely associated ideas occupy a central place in the libertarian mind, over and above either of the other two major axes, and subordinate other issues.

Historically liberty is a pillar of American political thought, and consequently the American libertarian will defend his position by relying on Constitutional references to liberty. For example, in a testimony before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Federalism, and Property Rights, University of Chicago Law Professor and avowed libertarian Richard A. Epstein warns that proposals to grant mandatory access by government officials to encrypted information transmitted electronically would travel “on a collision course with many of the guarantees of individual liberty found in our Constitution,” citing especially the Fourth and Fifth Amendments (Epstein, Senate Hearing 17 March 1998). 

In addition, libertarian author Donald Allen demonstrates a reliance on Constitutional provisions for liberty in his contribution to Ball and Dagger’s survey of ideology:

Like it or not, any government restriction on any form of speech—including advertising—amounts to an abridgement of the fee speech and expression protected by the First Amendment.  If it is to survive and flourish, democracy requires an intelligent and informed citizenry, just as the free market requires intelligent and informed consumers.  Because the free society and the free market are alike in requiring the free flow of information in all its forms, a ban on the advertising of any product makes a mockery of both. Censorship—for that is what such restrictions amount to—is nothing less than the constricting of choice through the withholding of ideas and information about the alternative ways of thinking and acting and living one’s life as one sees fit.  (Allen, “Paternalism and Democracy: A Libertarian View” Ideals and Ideologies: A Reader, ed. Ball and Dagger: 128.)

Additionally the American libertarian may rely on the writings of prominent thinkers of the generation of the American Founding that feature liberty as a primary concern.  Consequently libertarians are often confused with conservatives by liberals for their numerous references to the American founding or else for their positions on issues such as gun control and market regulation. Yet they are also confused with liberals by conservatives for their distaste for anything that resembles excessive government intervention into private affairs, especially regarding matters related to sexual mores and drug use.

Indeed the theme of liberty recurs in the writings of the likes of Thomas Jefferson, and because of his numerous references to liberty he is a favorite source for libertarians to justify their ideological position.  Jefferson, in addition to the Declaration of Independence, articulated his attachment to liberty in A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in 1777:

almighty God hath created the mind free…all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness...no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever…all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion…(The Viking Portable Jefferson  251-3)

and again in a letter of 1787, regarding Shays’ Rebellion:

The people are the only censors of their governors: and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institution.  To punish these errors too severely would be to suppress the only safeguard of the public liberty.  The way to prevent these irregular interpositions of the people is to give them full information of their affairs thro’ the channel of the public papers…The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter.(Jefferson, Letter to Edward Carrington. Viking 414-5)

So pervasive is the idea of liberty in the United States, that indeed we may hardly give it a second thought.  The word appears on our coin; the idea is revered in New York Harbor with a statue of “Liberty Enlightening the World” that serves as an unmistakable symbol of the United States. The Declaration of Independence states that liberty is not only an “unalienable right” but that the character of liberty as such a right is a “self-evident truth” of human nature.  The late Robert Nozick, in his famed rebuttal to John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice, namely Anarchy, State, and Utopia, casts liberty as a negative against the power of the state, a classic component of libertarian thought. Nozick’s disposition, in contrast to Rawls’ ardent defense of the welfare state, is best characterized by a preference for a “minimal state, limited to the narrow functions of protection against force, theft, fraud, enforcement of contracts and so on…any more extensive state will violate persons’ rights not to be forced.”(Nozick 30-1, qtd. in Dionne, Why Americans Hate Politics 272)  However, while liberty is long understood as a foundation of American political thought, it is by no means the only foundation.

Comments

[Anna]

You know, if this all gets up by Independence Day, that is somehow really fitting...keep 'em coming...

[jonathon]

Piht et. It may happen yet. Got slowed down today by the auger people. Rest assured equality and order are next.

[Christian Rodriguez]

Very insightful, Thank you.