Should-Read: Fardels Bear: Was James Buchanan a Racist? Libertarians and Historical Research

Should-Read: Fardels Bear: Was James Buchanan a Racist? Libertarians and Historical Research: “Today’s libertarians face a similar problem that Morley faced half a decade ago… https://altrightorigins.com/2017/07/13/was-james-buchanan-a-racist-libertarians-and-historical-research/

…Morley obviously adored Calhoun’s anti-democratic political philosophy, but obviously could not defend slavery; thus slavery simply disappears as a topic in his treatment of Calhoun’s thought. Today’s libertarians admire Calhoun and Buchanan, but they cannot possibly admit that those figures were involved in racial segregation; thus segregation disappears as a topic. We saw the same thing with Constitutional originalists: That the theory was used for decades to defend racial segregation is simply ignored. MacLean has shown how Buchanan did work in an alliance with segregationists. Public choice theorists must face up to this fact as a flaw in their system of thought or admit that they have no answer to her case. They have not yet done so…

August 14, 2017

AUTHORS:

Brad DeLong
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