Libertarianism is unique; it belongs neither to the right nor the left: a critique of the views of Long, Holcombe, and Baden on the left, Hoppe, Feser and Paul on the right I. Introduction The present paper defends the position of libertarian centrism, or libertarian purity (Gregory, 2006), or plumb line libertarianism,1 vis a vis its two competitors for the libertarian mantle: left wing libertarianism and right wing libertarianism. Appearing in the present Journal there is no need even to carefully define terms such as “libertarian,” as would otherwise be the case. For, amazingly, all parties to this debate are staunch libertarians. There are no differences between any of us as to the primacy of the nonaggression axiom, coupled with private property rights based on homesteading. All principals to this debate agree with these basic premises. Where we differ is in terms of the logical implications of these founding axioms. In section II we take to task Long, Holcombe, Baden and other New Age, feminist, hippie libertarians. Section III is devoted to an equally sharp evisceration of the right wing, conservative, traditionalist position of libertarians such as Hoppe, Feser and Paul.2 The burden of section IV is to explore the issue of which cultural patterns, left or right, are more conducive to libertarianism? We conclude in section V with an attempt to woo back into the libertarian mainstream3 these outliers, both sets of them. II. Contra left wing libertarianism A. Roderick Long a. Rape Here is an indicative view of Long (Long and Johnson, unpublished): “When radical feminists say that male supremacy rests in large part on the fact of rape—as when Susan Brownmiller characterizes rape as ‘a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear’ (Against Our Will, p. 15)—libertarians often dismiss this on the grounds that not all men are literal rapists and not all women are literally raped. But when their own Ludwig von Mises says that ‘government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action,’

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