John Fund likes Brian Doherty’s new book on the history of libertarians in America:
Libertarian ideas have enjoyed a surge of respect lately, helped by the collapse of Soviet central planning, the success of lower tax rates and the appeals of various figures in popular culture (e.g., Drew Carey, John Stossel and Clint Eastwood) who want government out of both their bedroom and wallet. Even so, libertarianism is often not the people’s choice. Part of the problem is the inertia of the status quo. “In a world where government has its hand in almost everything,” Mr. Doherty writes, “it requires a certain leap of imagination to see how things might work if it didn’t.” Many people couldn’t make that leap when, for example, economists proposed channeling some Social Security payroll taxes into private accounts.
Yes, that’s the problem. People like the idea of the government leaving them alone, until they realize that in many cases, they’re on the dole themselves. As Fund notes, the net may help spread the idea of personal freedom and personal responsibility, and perhaps these ideas, on which the country was founded, can be reinvigorated, and fight back against the inertia of the past seventy big-government years.
…for liberaltarians. That’s what Arnold Kling thinks, anyway:
My point is not that the liberals have no case for an alternative approach. What disturbs me is that they are issuing rhetorical put-downs as a substitute for laying out an alternative and thinking through its consequences. Unfortunately, this is an all-to-typical modus operandi.
The Left’s religion often comes dressed up as science. Marxism is one example. The eugenics movement of the early twentieth century is another. The Global Warming crusade is probably another.
I think that Brink Lindsey’s overture will fall on deaf ears. I think that rather than attempt a fling with the liberals, libertarians would do better to go into counseling to try and save their marriage with conservatives.
2007 has barely started, and we already seem to have the first blog scandal of the 2008 election season. John Edwards hired a blogger for his campaign, named Amanda Marcotte. She seems to have some interesting opinions:
“I also want to send a message, if we ever do have to take more drastic action, to the rest of the world that we exhausted all possibilities,” said Clinton, who earlier rapped President Bush for refusing to engage Tehran.
Clinton’s remarks at the Marriott Marquis were met with little applause , and after she left the stage, several people said they were put off by the presidential candidate.
“This is the wrong crowd to do that with,” said one person at the dinner, noting the pro-Israel crowd wanted to hear tougher rhetoric.
