In a recent post, prominent left-liberal economist Justin Wolfers (University of Michigan) concedes that his "libertarian friends" were right about the dangers of government power:
asserted
friends → concede → power
My libertarian-leaning friends have consistently argued against a powerful federal government in favor of individual freedoms.
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friends → lean → freedoms
I had — somewhat naively — never taken their views seriously enough.
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I → take → views
My friends who worked in government were good people, I reasoned, and surely that's true more broadly.
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that → work → government
But I've had to admit to my libertarian friends that they were right.
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they → have → friends
Concentration of power can be abused.
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Concentration → abuse → power
We're seeing it happen right now.
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it → see → ?
Last year, I wrote about similar admissions by two other prominent left-of-center figures: famed legal scholar Cass Sunstein and economic policy commentator Noah Smith.
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I → write → figures
I commend Wolfers and the others for being willing to admit error and learn from it.
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I → commend → it
All too many intellectuals and political commentators never do.
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intellectuals → do → ?
It is often the case that people become more aware of the dangers of government power when that authority is wielded by their political opponents.
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authority → become → opponents
Even some libertarians tend to ignore or overlook abuses of power when perpetrated by the side of the political spectrum they identify with.
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they → tend → spectrum
The Trump era has been a particularly significant wake-up call in that respect for some on the left, because he has engaged in so many abuses, especially in his second term.
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he → wake → term
But it is important to recognize that the problems here are systematic, not confined to the misdeeds of any one politician, even one so egregious as Trump.
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problems → recognize → Trump
As James Madison famously warned, "[e]nlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm."
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statesmen → warn → helm
Distinctly unenlightened demagogues like Trump all too often reach high political office.
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demagogues → reach → office
That's in large part because voters often do a poor job of choosing leaders, thanks to widespread political ignorance and bias.
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voters → do → ignorance
Trump's return to power in 2024 showed that these problems are even more severe than I had previously thought.
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I → show → 2024
Wolfers adds that his newfound appreciation for libertarian concerns have made him "more small-c conservative":
The old conservative idea was that we have rules of the game that have served us well for generations.
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that → add → generations
We should be slow to change them.
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We → change → them
Our children should be handed the same set of opportunities we had, if not better ones.
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we → hand → opportunities
I only partially agree.
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I → agree → ?
Where established institutions constrain government power and protect liberty, we should indeed conserve them.
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we → establish → them
But, in too many ways, those safeguards have been eroded over the last 100 years or more, thereby creating the very dangers of abusive government power that Wolfers rightly decries.
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Wolfers → erode → that
To fix that, we in some instances need to restructure the current "rules of the game," and impose much tighter constraints.
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we → fix → constraints
For example, we should roll back federal power to impose immigration restrictions (which was not part of the original Constitution), and have much stronger enforcement of constitutional constraints on delegation of legislative power to the executive.
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which → roll → executive
The growth of delegation and federal immigration powers is at the heart of the many of the worst abuses of the Trump Administration, and creates severe problems even under more conventional administrations.
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growth → create → administrations
Similarly, the growth and institutionalization of government control over land use is at the heart of the housing crisis that besets many parts of the US.
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that → beset → US
We should roll that back too, by enforcing federal and state constitutional protections for property rights.
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We → roll → rights
Elsewhere, I have explained how these issues and others like them can be the basis of a useful alliance between libertarians and "abundance liberals" (see also my exchange with Matt Yglesias on that subject).
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issues → explain → subject
I suspect Wolfers may be sympathetic to the abundance liberal movement.
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Wolfers → suspect → movement
We're not likely to agree on issue.
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We → agree → issue
At the very least, we have common enemies in the form of two prominent political movements that very much don't appreciate the need for significant constraints on government power: MAGA nationalists on the right, and "democratic socialists" on the left.
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that → have → left
The Aporia
