The reflects the fact that I’m not quite sure what to call my idea (and it’s also not particularly new) but it’s a thought that occurred to me yesterday. I spent many years working as an EMS chief, and in emergency services, we focus on delegation of tasks. As soon as we see someone capable of doing a task, we put them in a position to do that task and free ourselves to do things no one is capable of doing. Now, we are in an emergency situation in the US vis a vis our loss of freedom, so why not think the same way?
Here’s what I’m thinking. We think in terms of allies - we ask “is___ an acceptable ally because of his view on X but despite his view on Y?” I suggest that allies are an old, pre-internet way of thinking. If we need not central plan dissent and liberty, then we need not worry about alliances either. Instead, we should delegate tasks to those willing to do them.
A libertarian is a radical on freedom - libertarianism calls for free everything. Lots of people don’t embrace that, but do embrace free something - whether it be freedom for guns, prostitution, economics, currency, immigration - without embracing the rest. So we shouldn’t ally with groups that fight for some freedom - we should delegate to them. The primary role of a libertarian in society, then, is to fight for freedoms that no other groups fight for. Since there are plenty who fight for the freedom to choose, or for same-sex marriage, or for whatever, those should not be tasks that take up a lot of time for a libertarian, other than to applaud those groups. The libertarian is needed to fight for those freedoms that others do not fight for.