Lowry: The rise of the faux Libertarians

To listen to the speeches from the podium at the Democratic National Convention, you'd think Democrats were handing out Friedrich Hayek's libertarian classic "The Road to Serfdom" on the floor.

In recent weeks, Democrats have made a hard pivot to adopt the rhetoric of freedom, and the tack was particularly pronounced in Chicago.

The anthem of the convention was the Beyoncé song "Freedom," and the Kamala Harris campaign unveiled a new ad, "We believe in freedom."

Borrowing an old Republican chestnut, Oprah Winfrey said, "Freedom isn't free."

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has long made this theme a staple of his speeches, called the Democrats "the party of real freedom."

And vice presidential nominee Tim Walz leaned on this idea heavily, contrasting Republican freedom that is supposedly all about invading privacy and enabling corporate polluters with Democratic freedom that protects people's free choice and safety. According to the Minnesota governor, his state's Golden Rule is "mind your own damn business."

There are a couple of things to say about this rhetorical manauver — one is that it might work in sheer political terms by associating Democrats with a deeply held traditional American value; the other is that it is utterly cynical and runs completely counter to the progressive mode of governance.

It's as if the pioneering English socialists Beatrice and Sidney Webb made their slogan "Live free or die." Or if the 20th Century socialist intellectual Michael Harrington began to insist he was a fan of the work of Milton Friedman. Or if Bernie Sanders displayed the Revolutionary-era Appeal to Heaven flag once favored by Tea Party activists.

It doesn't add up. Consider Tim Walz, whose record as governor is not exactly living and let live. This newfound advocate of unfettered freedom has done everything he can to increase the ambit of the Minnesota government.

During covid, he imposed incredibly strict rules and shut down schools and churches, while providing a snitch-line so Minnesotans could rat out the noncompliant. None of this was voluntary. He has imposed myriad new taxes, which people obviously can't choose not to pay. He signed a bill mandating paid family leave — to be paid for by taxes on employers and employees — and a bill mandating that Minnesota utilities transition to 100% carbon-free energy by 2040.

As the conservative intellectual William F. Buckley Jr. once quipped, liberals don't care what you do, so long as it's mandatory.

Walz has erroneously suggested that the First Amendment allows bans on "hate speech," and favors prohibiting the most popular rifle in America in defiance of the Second Amendment. He has never met an economic regulation he doesn't like. Needless to say, he doesn't support school choice to enable more parents to decide where to send their kids to school, right-to-work laws that allow employees to decide whether to join a union or pay its dues, or health savings accounts to give people more control over their health care.

A libertarian, clearly, he is not.

When the Democrats say "freedom," they mostly mean abortion on demand. But this is only a legitimate form of freedom if the unborn child is wrongly considered a non-entity with no rights or interests of its own. In Chicago, Democrats often referred to the alleged infringement of freedom represented by authorities telling children what books to read. They are referring to decisions made about public school curricula or what books are in public school libraries, determinations that government makes all the time. Walz himself has imposed new ethnic studies requirements in Minnesota's schools — this may be bad policy, but it isn't a violation of anyone's freedom.

The other forms of freedom Democrats defend — quality education, public safety, etc. — are public goods, not true expressions of liberty.

The falsehoods and misunderstandings may not matter, though. Democrats have sensed an opening as a more populist Republican Party puts less emphasis on freedom. If Democrats get away with their faux libertarianism, it will be a notable triumph of the freedom to mislead.