There's a quickie essay (that could stand a rewrite really, but look who's talking) on libertarian history at the Institute for Liberal Values, out of New Zealand:
The liberal/libertarian movement was revolutionary to the core. It challenged the church/state alliance, it opposed the mercantilist state domination of the market, it supported the extension of economic and social rights to all classes of people. It challenged virtually every aspect of the then dominant social order in Europe. That order was one that was conservative to the core. So classical liberals or libertarians were the open opponents of the feudalistic social structure embraced by conservatives. There was no confusion at the time. Liberals and conservatives were polar opposites.
Socialism then arose as a reactionary movement. It embraced goals but sought to achieve them by conservative means. And what were those means? Conservative means were based on power, particularly state power. It wanted to use state power to cement the church in place. It used power to enforce traditional values. It used power to preserve the social order. Conservatism was a philosophy of power.
Liberals wanted to abolish power and free the individual to seek his own good as he saw fit, according to his own values, provided he did not infringe on the equal liberty of others. Liberals envisioned one where people had equal rights before the law, where people were free to speak their mind, and where no spiritual body had authority imposed by law. It advocated the extension of property rights to all. It argued that in society of elected officials event the poor should have the right to vote. It said that in a free society all people should be able to accumulate wealth and not just the social hierarchy.
Socialists saw the liberal vision of the future and they embraced it. What they didn't embrace was the means employed by liberals. Instead the socialist was a hybrid. He wanted liberal goals but he wanted to use conservative means. The socialist advocate control, central power and government force. They felt that the coercive mechanisms of the state could be used to achieve the liberal vision. And they embrace conservative means fully.
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Many of the Reaganesque Republicans are confused or upset with George Bush's agenda. They even want to argue he betrayed conservative values. On the contrary, Bush has embraced conservative values in a very traditional way. He worships state power. Yes, he is big government. Conservatives were historically advocates of big government.
Their more recent opposition to expansive state power was not inspired so much by a love of liberty as opposition to the goals that were being sought. Once the conservatives had a firm hand on the levers of government in the United States they immediately turned to back to their historical tradition.
Bush expanded state power which itself is not unconservative. He did so to expand "traditional values" and to try and reattach religion to the secular, liberal system of the Founding Fathers. He went on a world wide crusade to use raw military force in an attempt to make over the Middle East in particular. And conservatives, on the whole, loved it. He used state funding to bolster "faith-based" initiatives. He was eager to use the power of the state to smash what advances gays made toward equal status before the law. George Bush did not betray conservatism. He embraced it in a manner that the Right has neglected for decades. Those on the Right who are shocked shouldn't be. Bush is the quintessential conservative.
Anyway, those are the graphs I liked most. Then comes this:
With the resurgence of big government conservatism the time has come for libertarians to shift their tactical alliance again. We must always throw our weight, what little of it there is, behind the opponents of the dominant authoritarian ideology. We know the Left and the Right share authoritarian means while differing on the goals. When the Left was the main threat to freedom we were forced into an alliance with the Right. But those days are gone. Now the Right is the dominant foe. And we ought to abandon the old alliance and look to forge a new one.
Screw alliances. Just be yourself.
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