Ask LJ: Why does the Tea Party support Walker?

[asterroc]

Apparently the Tea Party supports Governor Walker's union busting. I don't get this at all. I thought the Tea Party was a conservative libertarian group. Shouldn't they resent the government interfering with and attempting to regulate how workers interact with employers? Or is their fiscal conservatism trumping their libertarianism?

Comments

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I thought libertarianism only applied to the government, not to employers or employees. All citizens should be able to make whatever demands they want, whether they are employers or employees, so libertarians shouldn't necessarily side with either.

If anything, libertarians (if the Tea Party is libertarian) should support public sector unions, since they are the strongest force out there to fight the government.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

But the government allows unions, which forces corporations to have to listen to the demands of people who ought to just be grateful to have a job, therefore unions = bad.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I see what you're saying, but it is entirely illogical IMO.

[q10.livejournal.com]

i think you're confusing libertarianism with corporate toadyism. there is, admittedly, a disturbing amount of overlap, but they are not in fact one and the same.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

I'm only repeating what I've heard from self-professed libertarians, and I have no interest in debating whether they are "real" libertarians or not :)

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

FWIW I believe q10 identifies as a libertarian, and I personally would consider him to be a liberal libertarian.