I am reading a book on the history of anarchism, not because I believe in libertarianism but because I wish that I did. The idea of a world free from oppressive concentrations of power is a beautiful dream. Unfortunately, I don't see a clear path from here to there without plunging the world into poverty and a return to feudalism. I would probably describe myself as a social democrat. I am a social democrat not because I don't believe in freedom but because I think it should evaluated at the level of the individual. Knowing that corporations can do whatever they want doesn't strike me as freedom. I think America would be a vastly freer place for individuals if health insurance wasn't tied to employment or our piss-poor public transit systems didn't force us to buy a car. American-style corporate libertarianism seems nonsensically blind to the oppressions that result from too much economic power in the hands of too few people.
The great American left-libertarian Benjamin Tucker once said that, in anarchism, the only moral law is "mind your business." In terms of what individuals can and cannot do in a free society, you can't do much better. Your coworker likes to get high on the weekends? Mind your business. Your neighbor pays for sex? Mind your business. There are dudes getting married and engaging in sex acts that repulse you? Mind your business. And if a woman goes to a clinic to terminate her pregnancy? Mind your fucking business.
America is less free today than it was three days ago, which is to say that America is a more authoritarian place. The people waving "don't tread on me" flags seem to want to do a lot of treading on other people. The problem is that we have let the right co-opt the language of freedom--even as, decade by decade, they have become more openly authoritarian. Today, the governor of South Dakota banned the sale of abortion pills ordered online. In his dissent last week, Judge Clarence Thomas (whose wife was involved in a coup attempt against the American government) has said that gay marriage and contraceptives may also be challenged. Republicans are now talking about passing a federal nationwide ban on abortion. We need to take these people at their word.
Somewhere along the way, the left let the Republican Party co-opt libertarianism--even though libertarianism was the invention of the political left. Throughout most of history, and in most places on Earth now, libertarianism is a leftist ideology. The spirit of the 1960s counterculture was intensely anarchic. (Though there was a stupidly authoritarian strain too; by 1969, the Students for a Democratic Society were purging insufficiently Marxist-Leninist members.) Peel away the patchouli oil and the dead-eyed Haight Ashbury runaways, leaders like Abbie Hoffman, Timothy Leary, and Malcom X were tapping into something deeply American and freedom loving. They talked about breaking away from rigid hierarchies of the establishment, promoted participatory democracy at the grass roots level, and building alternative economic arrangements.
How did the right convince Americans that tax breaks for billionaires is freedom? It isn't. Freedom is knowing that the government cannot intrude in your private medical decisions. One problem is that progressives have become so used to defending their policies in terms of security. This pitch makes sense in any other country than America. Here it comes off as feminine and weak. When you read the Declaration of Independence, you can almost taste the smell of musket fire. No, what is happening in America is that our freedoms are being taken away. Rights are being restricted by a court with the shakiest of legitimacy. This is old-fashioned tyranny. The fight for reproductive rights is the fight for liberty.