“The Libertarian Political Movement is Dead” declared an article written by Huffington Post in early April. Confusingly, the article mainly discusses Republican White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.

HuffPo’s author begins by criticizing Mulaney for “not [taking] a single enforcement action against any financial institution during the six months [he] has been at the helm,” in his mission given by the President to “fix” the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau from being a boon to capitalism.

Mulvaney is linked to libertarianism because when he was appointed he wanted to change the strategy of CFPB to “recognize free markets” and because he got his start in Washington around the same time as Paul Ryan, labeling them both as “libertarian-leaning Republicans.”

“Their careers illustrate what the libertarian political project in America has become: an unprincipled protection racket for the rich. Ryan delivered them a smashing tax cut, while Mulvaney ensures that garden-variety predation goes uncorrected,” states HuffPo.

The article continues to bash Republicans for hypocrisy against Mulvaney’s predecessor, for Mulvaney refusing to appear before Congress to give regular reports and that the director’s potential to make crony deals due to the agencies lack of oversight benefits the rich at the expense of the poor.

As was the case in a Politico article (to which I also responded), the title is mostly bait to get readers to click and bash on Republicans who are doing semi-libertarian things. The word “libertarian” isn’t used until the last sentence when the author states “The libertarian movement within the Republican Party is dead. American democracy doesn’t look much healthier.”

This article was just another veiled attempt by a progressive news outlet to link libertarians to the shortcomings of Republicans who demonstrate again and again that they are just another face of establishment politics despite claiming to be the party of free markets and small government.