Libertarians tend to put a lot of emphasis on issues of disagreement, even to the point of making the case that someone is not “really” a libertarian based on such disagreements (take, for example, the reaction to Randy Barnett’s recent piece on Ron Paul and the war on Iraq).

Less frequently — but in my opinion more interestingly — we see examples of people who agree on political issues writing each other (or themselves!) out of the libertarian movement on the basis of antecedent differences: “We’re both in the same place, but I got here from the east, and you got here from the west. One of us is not like the other.”

Tibor R. Machan’s new column, “Ayn Rand, libertarianism and ARI,” examines one instance of this phenomenon. There are others. It’s located at:

http://www.fmnn.com/Analysis/117/8240/machan.asp?nid=8240&wid=117

Is there any validity to these kinds of anathemas toward others, or self-excommunications? Discuss.