In Fusionism Lies Folly: The Tea Party Killed It (Again)

The alliance between conservatives and libertarians, defined as “fusionism” by Frank S. Meyer, gets praised or excoriated every six months (or whenever Rand Paul appears before a camera). Instead of repeating the brilliant writings of Meyer (or some recent entries), I propose a pseudo-empirical review since 2010 and the rise of the Tea Party. Conservatives …

“Free market” ≠ “pro-business”

Art Carden has a fantastic blog on Forbes from last September that I missed until today discussing the false equivalence of “free market” with “pro-business.”  The entire article is worth reading, but the essence is in Carden’s quotation from The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley: I hold no brief for large corporations, whose inefficiencies, complacencies, …

What is Conservatism? edited by Frank S. Meyer

I finished What is Conservatism?, a collection of 13 essays edited by Frank S. Meyer, a volume demonstrating the fusion (and fission) of the conservative/libertarian alliance in the early 1960s.  Excluding essays by Stanley Parry and Stefan T. Possony, time is well-spent pouring through the book and analyzing its arguments.  Some quotes: Freedom, Tradition, Conservatism-Frank …