The Right to Discriminate

Republicans began embracing libertarian ideas a decade before the Libertarian Party was formed. Libertarians formed a separate political party in the early 70’s, when a small core of anti-war conservatives broke from the Soviet hawks over Vietnam.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 proposed to do something that libertarian ideology insisted was impossible –expand personal freedom by expanding central government power. In theory, libertarians loathed racial discrimination, but accepting the act would demand an expansion of Federal power that would intervene deeply into private life. However, the dilemma was that African Americans’ repression rose not so much from government as from the culture, ignorance and bigotry of their white neighbours. In fact, government intervention was going to be an invaluable weapon for all the African American voices and leaders. They failed to realise that at times liberty needs the government.

Libertarians believed in privatizing as much of the government as possible, their insistence that they believed in mandatory non-discrimination within the realm of government rings hollow. If you believe that public schools should not be able to pick students by race, but simultaneously believe that public schools should be replaced with private schools that should be allowed to pick students by race, you believe in expanding the domain in which racial discrimination is permissible.