Earlier today, former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy made some waves by calling for "a libertarian-nationalist alliance." This is far from a new idea. "Paleo-libertarians" like Lew Rockwell advocated much the same thing for many years. But it remains as wrong as ever. Nationalism is deeply antithetical to libertarianism, and liberal values more generally. An ideology based on liberty, free markets, and universal human rights can't be squared with one based on collectivism, ethnic particularism, and government control over much of the economy. Cato Institute scholar Alex Nowrasteh and I elaborated on this in greater detail in "The Case Against Nationalism," published in National Affairs earlier this year. Here is an excerpt from the introduction:
