Not all of them, at least.
This common misconception is an intentional* distortion by Right-Wing movements in America. It hails from a history of Conservative, Reactionary, Capitalists who adopted the philosophies of Austrian Economists and rebranded themselves as “Libertarians” even though the term originated in Left-Wing spaces. Notable names among the Austrian-inspired Libertarian Right include Ludwig Von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and Hans-Herman Hoppe.
The Libertarian Right has become the predominant face of Libertarianism in the United States. This has lead to the general opinion that Libertarians were a more radical, niche, branch of the Republican party. Given the current state of the Libertarian Party, that isn’t entirely wrong. Many people who claim to be Libertarian are lifelong Republicans and Social Conservatives who enjoy the culture of Libertarianism but defend the Totalitarianism of the Republican party.
This is most evident by the division among Libertarians when presented with key issues like abortion, immigration, and LGBT Rights. Where the Libertarian sees Bodily Autonomy and the Freedom of Movement, the Republican reverts to their Judeo-Nationalism. Libertarians are Socially Liberal, as to say they believe in the autonomy of the individual and to be free of state-sanctioned consequence. The Republican often tries to uphold their perceived traditions and culture through judicial action or legislation in an attempt to maintain control over the country.
At it’s root, Libertarian Ideology grew from Leftist Anarchists and most Libertarian thought rests in those Leftist values. The Austrian Economists stole the term from French Socialists and will never be able to disassociate from them.
The first recorded use of the term “Libertarians” was in 1857 by Joseph Déjacque, a French Anarcho-Communist. Déjacque was born to a single mother, joined the French Navy as a young man, and grew an interest in Socialist ideas when he returned to civilian life. He lived in New York during the American Civil War where he published writing in support of the Union and opposed “Jesuits, slavers, absolutists, and authoritarians”.
The first Libertarian was an Abolitionist, a Feminist, and a Socialist.
His Anarcho-Communist theory opposed a “dictatorial committee composed of workers” as upheld by the authoritarian communists and advocated for the “autonomy of each" as the conditions for social revolution. DeJacque called for the abolition of “all governments, of all religions, and of the family based on marriage”.
Dejacque’s Libertarianism was anarchistic. It refuted the notion of private property as that was a concept to be upheld by the State. He argued against the Capitalists of his time who maintained slavery and misogyny through government authority. Dejacque saw no difference between domination by Private or Public entities. Both sought to crush the freedom and liberty of the individual.
Dejacque may have been the first to identify himself as a Libertarian, but he was not the only influencer regarding anti-authoritarian views. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, another Frenchman and the “Father of Anarchy”, also helped to define anti-authoritarian, pro-liberty values of the movement.
Proudhon founded the Mutualist Philosophy, a Socialist school of thought that advocated for Free Markets and property norms while opposing a powerful, centralized state in favor of a democratic governance. Proudhon described this concept as the “the synthesis of communism and property”. The wide umbrella of Mutualism often includes the likes of Anarcho-Communists, Democratic Socialists, and other variations of Left-Wing Market Anarachists or Libertarian Leftists.
And this list can go on. There’s extensive history on the origins of Anarchist movements and one can see how those values were later adopted and twisted by Capitalists to erase the Leftist history. If more Libertarians took the time to learn about the history of Liberty, they would understand that the modern movement is being played like a puppet by the Republicans and the Right-Wing.
But let it be known, despite the current state of the Libertarian Party and the Lip-service paid by Republicans, Liberty is not Right-Wing.
* “One gratifying aspect of our rise to some prominence is that, for the first time in my memory, we, ‘our side,’ had captured a crucial word from the enemy . . . ‘Libertarians’ . . . had long been simply a polite word for left-wing anarchists, that is for anti-private property anarchists, either of the communist or syndicalist variety. But now we had taken it over...” — Murray Rothbard, Austrian Economists, Anarcho-Capitalist.
