A debate was held last Thursday between the interns of the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation sat down to have a discussion on which philosophy was better: libertarianism or conservatism? I should note that any opinions that were expressed in the debate did not represent official positions of the institutions for which the interns worked.
To be frank, I went to this debate thinking it would simply be pure hilarity without much to offer. But as I sat down and cozied up with my Twitter feed, I could see that those in the crowd and social media were clearly rooting for the libertarians. How is it that young students and professionals are so enticed by this ideology? I think it had something to do with the idea of pragmatism over idealism. Sure the libertarians had some level of utopia that they were referring to, at least on the philosophical level. But in all of their arguments, the cited economists, data, and real tangible evidence that their ideology was more effective and efficient. Millennials are a generation that was thrown into an unwarranted decade of war, economic decline and recession, and social unrest, so when someone argues for practical solutions, they can’t help but feel listened to.
Conversely, the ‘conservative’ side would argue for a long lost ideal that was thrown away sometime during the late 1980’s. They spouted off old ideas from their fathers (I’m pretty confident it was just their fathers, not their mothers). While sitting there, I realized that the issue didn’t lie in policy. The issues come down to value judgments, not practical policy differences.
In any case, the side that “won” the debate was undoubtedly the libertarians, but I’ll tip my hat mostly to the debater for having prepared his arguments very well, and not to the ideology itself. One thing that I couldn’t help but notice, the two sides had one strikingly similar thing in common: the panel was composed of four very white young men.
If you’d like to take a look at the conversation a bit more, check out #LvCdebate on Twitter.
NICOLAS MARTINEZ 
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