There are numerous pundits, political commentators and even scholars of political science who should know better, who claim Javier Milei, president elect of Argentina, is a conservative.
For example Geoff Shullenberger says his “election has electrified the political right worldwide, from Brazil and Hungary to Portugal and the United States.” The ever-ignorant PBS warns that “After electing right-wing populist Milei as president, Argentina faces uncharted path.” According to the supposedly politically sophisticated European Center for Populism Studies: “Javier Milei’s Victory: A New Chapter for Right-Wing Populism in Argentina?” In the view of Reuters: “Argentina elected right-wing libertarian Javier Milei as its new president.” Time magazine also gets things wrong with this headline: “Right-Wing Populist Javier Milei Wins Argentina’s Presidential Runoff Election.” I could go on and on, and further on again, but I’ll content myself with just one more bit of evidence, and this one, from the BBC: “Javier Milei: Argentina's far-right outsider wins presidential election.”
Yes, it cannot be denied, that on some issues there is little to choose between libertarians and conservatives: private property should be protected, profits are legitimate, wokeism is a disaster, taxes and government regulation should be reduced.
But even here there are divergences: the libertarian is far more radical on these issues than are right wingers. It is also true that there are certain institutions, the Federalist Society comes to mind, in which libertarians and conservatives not only cooperate, but are even in lockstep.
However, much the same thing can be said of libertarians and leftists.
Oregon is a deeply blue state. Yet, libertarians support its legalization of addictive drugs. There are institutions on which these two groups work hand in glove, also. For instance, the Peace and Freedom initiative, opposing the VietNam war, was composed of the Trotskyites, Progressive Labor (a Maoist organization), and, wait for it; libertarians). Libertarians and those on the distaff part of the political economic spectrum (for the most part) are aligned on legalizing drugs, prostitution, pornography, gambling, and other such victimless crimes.
Speaking of the political spectrum, libertarians answer all the economic questions akin to conservatives, and all the personal liberties issues like “progressives.” As a result, we emerge as moderates, or centrists, or some such. Believe me, we libertarians are no such thing.
A far better geometrical figure on the basis of which to illustrate political positions would be a triangle, an equilateral one if you please. Left-liberals, right-wing conservatives, and, yes, libertarians would each occupy one of the three apexes of this figure, indicating that not just two of them, but all three, are unique.
How many libertarians are there in the U.S.? Well, the Libertarian Party usually garners anywhere from 1%-3% of the vote, not enough to win much of anything except a few lower offices, but enough to tick off Republicans in close races, since we garner a disproportionate number votes at their expense. Why is this in turn? It is due to the fact that all too many pundits, commentators, even scholars, associate libertarians more with the right than the left, see above. But if you define libertarians as “low tax liberals,” surveys indicate we account for something like 20% of the electorate.
Mr. Milei has also been characterized as “Trump of the Pampas,” but this too is a vast mistake. The former is a free trader, the latter a protectionist. The former intends to privatize government health, welfare and retirement programs, the latter swears to protect them.
Yes, the next president of Argentina is a bitter opponent of socialism, root and branch. But he is not a man of the right, a conservative, either. No, he is a libertarian.
