John Henke — who I believe coined or at least popularized the term “neolibertarian” to describe libertarians who support the war in Iraq — has gone to work for the George Allen campaign. Despite our disagreements, I like Henke, and have found him to be intellectually honest in his writing. The Allen campaign deserves credit for recognizing the guy’s talent.

That said, I’m having a hard time buying the idea that George Allen is remotely libertarian. Henke says he was inspired to work for Allen because, “I find his ‘libertarian, trusting, free-people approach,’ his ‘Common Sense Jeffersonian Conservative Principles’ and his ‘Reaganesque belief in libertarian ideals very attractive,’” complete with links to articles where Allen has somehow appropriated those buzz phrases in describing his politics.

Problem is, there’s nothing in Allen’s voting record to indicate he’s anything other than a Christian-right Republican. Consider:

Allen received a 100 percent rating from the Christian Coalition.

Allen supports a constitutional amendment banning flag burning.

Allen supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Allen supports a federal ban on Internet gambling.

Allen voted for the prescription drug benefit.

Allen opposes an “absolute right to gun ownership.”

Allen supports mandatory “three strikes” sentencing laws.

Allen voted for both the PATRIOT Act and its reauthorization.

Allen is fervently anti-immigration, having voted against letting undocumented workers earn citizenship, and voting for both a double and triple layer wall at the border. He even “opposes” the rather benign statement, “immigration helps our economy.”

Allen doesn’t just support the drug war, he supports making it worse. He favors “tougher sentencing for drug crimes,” and “strongly favors” the statement, “drug use is immoral; enforce laws against it.”

Unless otherwise linked or indicated, I’ve taken Allen’s positions from the On the Issues website.

Now I’ll grant that libertarians can politely disagree on a few of the issues above. But taken as a whole, they portray a politician that’s about as far removed from libertarianism as a Republican can be.

So I guess I’ll ask Henke: On what issue is George Allen more sympathetic to libertarians than your typical family values-type Republican? I can’t seem to find one. And why should libertarian-minded people vote to keep the guy in office, potentially preserving a Republican majority that hasn’t showed the slightest signs of fiscal responsibility or respect for limited government?

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 3rd, 2006 at 8:51 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.