The Trump campaign has exposed both hostility and ambivalence to libertarian ideas among Republicans (and registered Democrats who usually vote Republican), especially on immigration, taxes, and trade. This anti-libertarian tendency has been picked up by pollsters for years but publicly concealed by the party’s consistent fealty to its Grover Norquist/Koch Brothers wing. Even if Trump fails to secure the Republican nomination for president, the party is bound to revise its platform, just as its candidates for office are sure to adjust their appeals, in order to tap into the substantial bloc of voters that has rallied to the Manhattan mogul’s populist campaign.
And this raises the intriguing possibility that, even on economics, Republican voters have never been quite as libertarian as their party’s platform and candidates would lead one to believe — and that the party may soon begin to more accurately reflect this anti-libertarian reality.
So if you’re a libertarian who cares mainly about furthering sexual freedom and eliminating criminal penalties for drug use, the Democratic Party is probably where you belong.
If, on the other hand, you’re a libertarian who mainly cares about cutting taxes and regulations while also eliminating obstacles to the free flow of people (immigration) and products (international trade), then the home you’ve likely made in the Republican Party might become much less hospitable.
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