Why Progressives Are Attacking Libertarians So Frequently Lately

Max Borders, writing over at The Freeman‘s website, has
some interesting observations on
why progressives seem so especially mad at libertarians lately.
(For some Reason blogging on this, see
here,
here, and
here.)

Borders argues that libertarianism is now the new center and
progressive dreams of big government programs and management are no
longer progressive but old-fashioned and quaint; that libertarians
vision of a free people building a free and rich world is powerful
and inspiring; that libertarians transcend a dying partisan
politics and that libertarians are clearly the real communitarians;
and most importantly:

the old rules are becoming obsolete. People are connecting and
cooperating across national boundaries. They’re practicing what
James C. Scott calls “Irish Democracy,” which is another term for
people simply turning their backs, on a massive scale, on an
imposed order. Together, whatever our moralistic stripes, we are
simultaneously creating a new order while rendering the old order
obsolete. And now we’re aided by technology. This is not a
libertarian ideology, but a libertarian reality carved out by
people who simply refuse to be controlled by peers who purport to
be superiors.

All the way back in 2001 I was predicting
that the progressive left would more and more realize that
libertarians are a more serious foe to them than is the
conservative right.