From FEE. Applying the characterization that Hayek gives to conservatives from his essay, “Why I Am Not a Conservative”, Horwitz argues that both Sanders and Trump harbor the same distrust of liberty, and both are eager to make use of the American State to coerce their plans onto Americans. From Hayek’s original 1960 article:
“They typically lack the courage to welcome the same undesigned change from which new tools of human endeavors will emerge.… This fear of trusting uncontrolled social forces is closely related to two other characteristics of conservatism: its fondness for authority and its lack of understanding of economic forces.… The conservative does not object to coercion or arbitrary power so long as it is used for what he regards as the right purposes. He believes that if government is in the hands of decent men, it ought not to be too much restricted by rigid rules.”
That seems to describe, not only Trump and Sanders, but every candidate vying for the nomination. They all distrust the outcome of “uncontrolled social forces”, which means they want to pick the winners and losers, rather than the free market. However, “conservatism” is such a woolly term. Does it even have a definite meaning? Advocates for liberty have a hard time pinning down one label for themselves, it inevitably comes to be used by opportunists who don’t share their affinity for liberty, and destroys its meaning.
