The Libertarian Case for DEI
Libertarians, liberals, and progressives are going to have to work together to better message the benefits of diversity against the assault from the right.
I’m tired of losing words to political extremists. I’ve seen many people who would have considered themselves “libertarian” a decade ago who now identify as “liberal” or “classical liberal” and while I don’t myself use that term, I understand those who do. Despite what many people believe, libertarianism is a big tent. I consider myself a moderate libertarian, and there are left and right wing libertarians as well. Many of those on the right are indistinguishable from Trumpists, and those tend to be the most vocal and politically active. The concern is that when you describe yourself as a “libertarian,” people have an assumption about what you believe and who you are. Depending who you surround yourself with, “liberal” has a less negative connotation. For me, as someone who lives in the South and mainly floats in the center-right, it’s much easier to reclaim the definition of “libertarianism” than “liberal.”
I bring that up because there is an intersection of libertarianism and another newly controversial term: “DEI” is basically on it’s deathbed given the Trumpists’ redefinition of the term as a “racist, anti-white” screed. Even people I would consider actual libertarians use “DEI” to refer to any number of things that do not reflect the actual practice of diversity, equity, and inclusion in American life. A core belief of libertarianism is individual liberty, that people have freedom and opportunity based on their individual existence, and not based on their membership in any group. The left often criticizes libertarianism for this, arguing that our belief in individual liberty makes us turn a blind eye to societal racial inequity. That’s a fair criticism. American libertarianism has a nasty history of using small government and property rights to excuse away racism, segregation, and only finding their principles when opposing plans to use government force to address those inequities. Rand Paul famously got tripped up on a question about whether he’d support the Civil Rights Act. Far-right Libertarians inside the Libertarian Party groused about then-presidential nominee Jo Jorgensen’s use of the phrase “Black Lives Matter” during the 2020 George Floyd protests, which is particularly ironic given the entire point of libertarianism is opposing violence against citizens by the state.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion policies are largely implemented at the workplace level, and mainly in private companies. They are voluntary decisions, made by companies in the belief that breaking down barriers, bias, and communicating to all demographics in the company would help them retain the best talent, make better products and services, or just because it’s the right thing to do. There was no law mandating “DEI,” and the worst excesses that opponents bring up - hiring based on race or gender - is illegal and never happened. For libertarians, at worst DEI policies are decisions private companies can make based on their rights as individuals and companies, just like they can choose not to participate or work there if they don’t like them. At best, they are positive, voluntary steps that people can choose to help implement to make their companies better. The great irony, of course, is that it is the “small government,” “pro-business” right that has attempted to ban DEI by making it legally difficult for private businesses to have DEI departments or programs. Not exactly libertarian, is it?
I was spurned on this topic this morning by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who fresh off insisting that his standard is planes aren’t supposed to crash into each other (good to know!), continued the racist lie that DEI programs somehow may have contributed to the Wednesday tragedy at DCA. He continued the Trump Administration official line, that “they want the best people in the job,” regardless of their ethnicity, gender, background, etc. That’s a good line, and one that resonates with most Americans, who agree. Unfortunately, it’s a complete lie. The Trumpists absolutely does not want the best people on the job, and absolutely do care about their race, gender, national origin, sexual orientation. Otherwise they wouldn’t be working overtime on X to blame a young woman military pilot who died in the crash, calling her an example of “DEI policies.” (Strangely they don’t mention anyone else who died in the accident as an example.)
This is where the left, center, and libertarians, allow the right to control the narrative. The immediate response to Secretary Duffy’s statement about wanting the “best and brightest” should be why, then, did they shut down the DEI department in the FAA? Why are they working overtime to eliminate any mention of “diversity” from any government website? Isn’t that their stated goal? To find the best and brightest no matter what their background? By blaming “DEI” and using it as a code word for “minorities,” they are making clear that only the people that look like them should be in government and leadership. But they are not called out for it by the people that matter. They are not asked why we shouldn’t be including everyone, diversifying the federal workforce. Why every American shouldn’t get the same opportunity to contribute to their nation. Make them answer that question - and call them out for bullshit when they claim that standards were lowered or diversity contributed to disasters. Jake Tapper, to his credit, did try to softball a criticism to Duffy this morning on CNN, asking how “DEI” could be the culprit if a large number of people didn’t get through the FAA academy, indicating that standards were kept the same? Duffy skipped right past that inconvenient truth, but the more they are asked this question, the more low-information voters will see how thin their criticism of “DEI” actually is.
And that is the fight that actually matters. Low information voters elect presidents, they elected Donald Trump a second time. They didn’t pay any attention to the fact he was promising to raise taxes on everyone through tariffs, that he was promising to take away programs they relied on. They probably never saw more than fifteen seconds of a speech from Trump or Harris during the whole election. They only saw quotes on Facebook, clips on TikTok, and voted accordingly. The more the media and we as a country allow the Trumpists to control the narrative, the harder it will be to get Americans to pull out of the economic and social death spiral we are currently in.