History of the Right

Just a quick note: I finally have some time on my hands today to begin responding to all of the responses I received from my immigration article. Sorry for the delay. With any luck, I may even be able to finish a new article (which responds to some of the critics of my LRC piece).

Anyway, the Mises Institute has a great article by Murray Rothard outlining the development of the American Right from its origins as an anti-socialist coalition to its more authoritarian and militaristic version, which is dominant today.

Albeit, Rothbard's history is probably a bit skewed towards portraying the Old Right in a more favorable light than most present day conservatives would recognize, but if you look at the writings of the 1920's and anti-New Deal right-wingers and then compare their opinions with National Review's and the latter day right, you will definitely see a shift in focus.

The Kirkians introduced European conservative values, Buckley clamored for a permanent warfare state (as long as the USSR existed at least), and the neo-conservatives later turned the Right almost entirely on its head.

Nothing seems to underscore this more than the fact that the Taft Republicans opposed the Korean War while the socialist Nation supported it!

Even if one isn't a libertarian or adherent of the Old Right/Isolationist values, it's definitely worth a read if for nothing more than one's own edification.

Immigration Responses

Well, my immigration article on LRC http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/rosen-scott6.html caused quite a stir. Unfortunately, it hasn't proven to be one of the more popular articles on LRC (in least in terms of being e-mailed, printed, or saved).

To everyone who wrote to me, I was overwhelmed with the number of direct responses I received. A few were very positive, some castigated me, one or two were really off the wall, but I was impressed by how constructive many of my critics were in their rejoinders.

I usually try to respond to anyone who bothers to write (unless an e-mail is especially non-sensical). However, I have noticed some common themes among the criticisms that I've received. Therefore, I'm 90% certain that I'll end up writing a subsequent article, which I hope will address most of these concerns.

I will not, of course, divulge any personal information from respondents and will use direct quotes sparingly.

If you sent me a personal request, please give me a few days to reply.

Thanks to all who bothered to reply even if you considered my article to be an affront to the libertarian creed.

Immigration Article

I believe tomorrow (6/7/05) will be the day when my most recent article for LRC will finally be published. I assumed today would be the date of publication, but because I'm sure LRC receives a number of submissions from Friday-Sunday, it probably got bumped.

Anyway, I think there will be some good feedback (though it's always hard to tell), and I'll certainly keep blog members posted as to what the general sentiment is regarding this piece.

Surprisingly, Lew Rockwell submitted my piece to an anti-immigration, libertarian who generally thought it was good (but did have some suggestions and a few objections). I tried to incorporate some of the feedback into my piece, but I don't think (outside of a long scholarly article or a book of some sort) it's possible to address every element of the issue. Perhaps, if there is some good feedback, I'll have enough material for a follow-up piece which can address any items I may have overlooked in the original article.

Prior to the release of the article, I've decided to provide a brief summary of my position on the immigration debate:

Essentially, free immigration is not akin to free trade (see Hans Hermann Hoppe, Democracy the God that Failed for a more detailed discussion of this concept). Under free trade, mutually beneficial exchanges occur. However, under free immigration, those seeking entry into a country can just wander into a nation without an invitation. There is no real exchange of labor in return for entry and wages since public utilities/service and public access laws (non-discrimination, etc.) absorb quite a bit of an employer's cost for such labor. Ergo, what exists under an open borders system is not the free mobility of labor but merely some corporate welfare apparatus.

This theory certainly doesn't originate with me, but I think I take the argument in a somewhat different direction. See the article on LRC for more information.

LRC Articles

Aside from editing it, my immigration piece for LRC is complete (which is also true for another article). I hope to have it out to Lew Rockwell tomorrow. Additionally, I think that I'll use some forthcoming blog posts to link to and summarize some of my older pieces in order to get a second run out of them. I'm going to wait until my LRC bio is updated with my new article, so I can direct readers to this blog, however. Otherwise, I'll pretty much be talking to myself (ie - like this post).

First Post

This is just an opening post. Nobody is really reading this; however, I plan to link this site from the biographies at the end of my LewRockwell.com columns.

Speaking of which, I have a new article which will be submitted to Lew Rockwell shortly. It has taken me a while since my last flurry of articles for LRC, but I think I soon shall have three new ones posted.

I'll provide a summary of my forthcoming article on immigration when it is published. I hope to also publish a website which will contain all of my LRC columns as well as some of my better articles from various college publications.