Principled Populism
Last October, left libertarian Thomas Knapp wrote a blog post advocating that libertarians use “principled populism” to build support.
As Knapp said,
Principled populism pits the productive class against the political class, the awakening masses against the power elites — not the white middle class against the black underclass or some mythical proud parochialism against some equally mythical indiscrete cosmopolitanism.
To put it a different way, any “principled populism” of a libertarian variety is going to have to weigh on the left, not the right, side of the political dichotomy as traditionally understood if it’s going to be successful or if success is even to be a meaningful term with respect to libertarian goals.
Appealing to popular anti-authoritarian tendencies and suspicion of business-government partnership (as opposed to appealing to popular authoritarian values) may be a valuable way to frame advocacy of individual liberty. This is especially true considering the rise of challenges to the status quo (like state sovereignty resolutions, foreclosure resistance and national debt repudiation for example).
