Frank Meyer (political Philosopher) - Libertarian Critics

Libertarian Critics

Libertarians vigorously joined in criticizing Meyer’s conclusion that both ideological libertarianism and traditionalism were distortions of same Western tradition and that both undermined freedom. Meyer specifically censured libertarian favorites Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill for setting freedom as an end, not unlike the New Conservatives, only the ends were different. Meyer argued that utilitarian libertarians today use court power to force “freedom” ends with such vague phrases as due process and equal protection and manipulating utopian versions of freedom of the press, religion and speech. Pure libertarians assume they know what “freedom” is and that the state should enforce their vision through the courts. Meyer argued that freedom by itself had no end, no purpose other than as a means for people to freely choose their own ends

Ronald Hamowy argued Meyer’s synthesis cannot hold because there was a fundamental difference between a classical liberalism that promoted markets and freedom and a traditionalist conservatism that resisted it. But that view was refuted historically by the fact that the first industrial revolution began in Clairvaux in 1115 with a more scientific agriculture and advanced water-powered machinery, beginning capitalism in a fundamentally traditional and even feudal society. Murray Rothbard was viewed favorably by Meyer for his recognition of the importance of tradition in reasoning, especially his support for St. Thomas and his view that Enlightenment “hatred” for the Medieval Catholic Church weakened freedom. Rothbard was only criticized as too pessimistic in his view of the courts as the “final power” compared to Meyer’s view that separation of powers left no one branch in charge and that each has power against the others, including the Congress and the states against the national courts.

Rothbard, in fact, argued that Meyer's fusionism was actually the natural law-natural rights branch of libertarian thought which Rothbard himself and other true libertarians followed. Libertarian journalist Ryan Sager in 2007's The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party reviewed Meyer’s work favorably and called for a principled revival of Meyer's fusionism to save the embattled party following its 2006 electoral defeats.