Today's Libertarians are the real Conservatives

Yes I believe today's Libertarians are the real Conservatives in the political spectrum. I know many people such as Popular Media Personality Mark Levin take issue with this idea so I'm not going to ask you to take my word for it. Instead ask Ronald Reagan, who Mark Levin worked for and continually holds up as an marquee example of Modern Conservatism. The following is excerpt from a 1975 interview with Ronald Reagan featured in Reason Magazine.

REASON: Governor Reagan, you have been quoted in the press as saying that you’re doing a lot of speaking now on behalf of the philosophy of conservatism and libertarianism. Is there a difference between the two?

REAGAN: If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals–if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.

If Ronald Reagan said it, it must be true, right?

The Term Conservative did not come into regular use until the 1950's. First published in 1976, and revised in 1996, George H. Nash’s book "The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America" has become the unquestioned standard in the field of modern conservatism. It's history starts in 1945 and Chapter one is titled "The Revolt of the Libertarians".

Few people back then used the word Conservative until a book was published in 1953 by Russel Kirk called the "Conservative mind". The "National Review" a mainstream Conservative magazine didn't begin until 1955.

People like Mark Levin, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh today help enforce the idea that Libertarians are not Conservative when nothing could be farther from the truth. In actuality Today's Modern Conservatives are no longer Conservative.


Cheers,

Mike