Nationalism trumps ideology

Libertarians, who never mattered much, are finding they matter even less in Trumpmerica:

The "Stand With Rand" shirts were out and the "Make America Great Again" hats were in among the younger crowd at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference.
Libertarians, who normally make up the loudest and most vocal faction at the annual nationwide gathering of conservatives, had a noticeably diminished presence at the 2017 political confab. 

"I think it's disheartening," said Michael Hall, a spokesperson for Students for Liberty. "I'd like to see more libertarians here." 

In previous years, armies of supporters swarmed the conference halls championing Sen. Rand Paul — and formerly Ron Paul — as the future of the Republican Party. These attendees argued that an embrace of libertarianism would usher in a wave of youth support and rescue the GOP from assured death. 

But, after President Donald Trump's surprise November victory, the CPAC program conspicuously changed, underscoring nationalistic ideals while tepidly moving away from principles of small government that were popular among conservatives during President Barack Obama's eight years in office.

Good riddance. Without a doubt, big government needs to be killed with fire - and it's heartening that Steve Bannon understands this, with his "deconstruction of the administrative state" - but this laudable goal is decidedly no longer attached to an ideology that preaches that the personal freedom of the individual is the be-all and end-all of the universe. Thus, immigration and trade are to be tolerated only insofar as they enrich and strengthen the United States; the libertarian belief that everyone has the right to buy anything from anyone in the world at any time, for example, is losing its hypnotic appeal to Republicans as the disastrous effects of free trade on the US economy become increasingly apparent, and will likely go the way of the belief in open-borders immigration. (Libertarians: "But it's good for the Global Economy™!")

I am sympathetic to some libertarian ideas, but the fact of the matter is that libertarians are basically godless leftists who are in thrall to a simplistic, unworkable ideology. All my adult life I've been hearing about libertarians, but they've accomplished precisely nothing. The Republican George W. Bush increased the federal budget by 53%. Libertarians are completely useless.

We should certainly seek to reign in excessive government power, but first things first. It's a new era and our priorities have changed.

The new priority: national survival.

Not as catchy as "MAGA"