Man, I really do like these guys, but the funny thing about right-wing fusionism is that every attempt at a paleo-alliance between libertarians and conservatives has come with complete disrespect from the conservatives and a complete unwillingness, even from those who should be natural allies on the right, to acknowledge that libertarians were correct about the most important issues of this century: the post-9/11 wars, inflation and debt, COVID, the surveillance state, Russiagate, Epstein, and the rest.
When it’s convenient, these guys ignore everything we actually offer, and they pretend right-wing libertarians don’t exist and that all libertarians just care about weed, porn, and prostitution. The reason we entered the alliance in the first place was economics, and in exchange, we libertarians deemphasized the social issues because many of us accepted that the paleocons were right about social decay and the importance of moral virtue. But I think we’ve given them far too much credit with nothing in return.
Tucker Carlson is far better at this: He brings on Dave Smith and Scott Horton as foreign-policy specialists, calls Thomas Massie the most conventionally conservative politician of our lifetimes, and clearly admires Ron Paul. He sometimes criticizes “libertarian economics” unfairly, but he highlights what the best of us have had to offer instead of ignoring us. And I think it’s only made him better.
In 2026, and after the GOP made a martyr out of Massie, a complete reevaluation of the relationship is necessary, especially since America First, inflation, and Epstein/corruption are clearly the most important issues that will cost the GOP the midterms. It is long past due that we demand real concessions before we vote with them again, and I think the emphasis HAS to be on inflation and war this time.
I really don’t care about the “you’ll get the Dems elected!” arguments anymore. If the GOP doesn’t learn from their mistakes and make these changes now, we’re going to get the Bolsheviks in the long run anyways.
I saw someone claim that libertarians only care about weed and pornography. That’s completely unfair and counter-productive. Libertarians clearly care about more than just weed and porn. They’re also obsessed with preserving prostitution and human-trafficking. And they seem allergic to having any actual impact on elections or legislation.