Something needs saying…
I am constantly surprised at the number of GOPers who quote libertarian party lines without any conceptual underpinnings of organized political thought. So here, briefly, is a short simplistic analysis of why libertarianism fails.
People like to organize. It is one of our basic traits. The most basic political unit is your family. Somebody, mom or dad or grandma it doesn’t matter, takes charge and the family takes shape. Everyone knows each other and there is some accountability. It can be good, bad, or dysfunctional. By and large the family unit works for human kind.
Next step up the organizational ladder is usually the clan. This is usually a grouping of multiple family units where everyone knows everyone and it is easy to predict how a given person will behave and how they will display trust and loyalty.
The clan will have some form of hierarchy such as a council or clan head. These leaders will guide the clan through political decisions. Do we war with our neighbors for resources? Do we fix the road to the area market? Do we hire a healer noted for her prowess? Again, everyone knows everyone and can personally hold their clan mates accountable.
The problem central to the workings of clan structure is simple. Beyond a certain size, which political scientists and sociologists tell us is about 500 people, it is functionally impossible for most people to maintain the knowledge of everyone in the political unit to maintain trust and accountability.
Beyond that five hundred person threshold is where representative government steps in. This doesn’t address which of the various types such as democracy, a republic, social democracy, socialism, or communism. Those systems provide a format for organizing trust and responsibility which clan level activity does not.
The ultimate failure of libertarian thought is that it tries to elevate the logic of clan organization to scale to representative governmental functionality (i.e.; >500 people). For the same reasons that clan governance begins to have problems with larger groups libertarianism as a representative government just doesn’t work.
Of course, the philosophy of libertarianism is seductive to the simple minded because it is so very easy to say, “I know Billy & Susie. If we have a problem we talk it out. As rational beings, our government shouldn’t need to impose what is above what we all know logically works.” Of course, this presupposes all humankind subscribe to my ideas of what constitutes logic.
Libertarianism always fails at scale no matter how rational it might sound. It fails to provide trust and accountability.