“If there is a conservatarian ideology, its primary tenet should be to render the American framework of government as free as possible and to decentralize power, returning the important fights to where they belong; with the people who are affected by their conclusions and who are therefore best equipped to resolve them.”

The Republican Party has always seemed like a bit of an unstable alliance to me: libertarians, who value individual freedom and so are economically but also socially liberal, and conservatives, who are economically liberal but socially conservative. Thomas Friedman argues a more reasonable party would be those who support trade and globalization, both Democrats and Libertarians, against those who do not, such as trade unions and social conservatives. I’m not so sure, but it’s generally interesting to see attempts to fuse libertarians and conservatives together, even those with aesthetically displeasing words like conservatarian.

Cooke is worried that this instability and an increasing failure to connect with the population is damaging the Republican Party, and lays out areas where the two sides can agree, and how they can built a platform that can truly connect with Americans again.

Cooke is a thoughtful and reflective writer, and – as can sometimes be unusual these days – is willing to grant a point to the other side while still making the more nuanced argument that though the other side has good points, the costs still outweigh the benefits. Broadly, he argues for a decentralization of power, as has traditionally been the case in the US: when Republicans argue for power centralization in order to stop Obama, he argues, they sacrifice what matters in the long run for short-run benefits, exactly what they object to in Democrats.

The Conservatarian Manifesto has some weaknesses: issues such as gun control and drug legalization are well-trodden, and he doesn’t have that much to add to the existing discussion. Some of his arguments are also based on an echo-chamber effect: appeals to authority and the founding fathers as reasons the constitution is important, for example, are arguments that aren’t convincing unless you already believe in conservative ideals. As a result, left-wing readers may find some sections more annoying than convincing.

The media tends to portray the Republican Party as choosing between a fast slide into oblivion or a slow one. As Cooke points out, this is almost certainly nonsense. Their stance may change on specific issues, but the appeal of small government remains an enduring one for many. The right is likely interested from the perspective of winning elections, but even the left can benefit from thinking carefully about what the right believes.

Disclosure: I read the Conservatarian Manifesto as an advance reader copy. It is released on March 10th.