Matt Collins
Member
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2007
- Messages
- 47,707
"Libertarians Rising."
No, that's not the title of a new libertarian outreach pamphlet.
It's an essay in the October 18 issue of TIME magazine -- written by no less
than Michael Kinsley, one of America's most respected and astute political
commentators.
Now Kinsley is no libertarian. He's a liberal. And that makes his essay all the
more significant.
Kinsley argues that two strong impulses are emerging in American politics:
libertarianism and communitarianism. Communitarians, Kinsley explains, "believe
that group responsibilities (to family, community, nation, the globe) should
trump individual rights."
He contrasts that to libertarianism, which stresses individual rights.
Which philosophy -- libertarianism or communitarianism -- will ultimately win
America's political debate?
"My money's on the libertarians," says the liberal Kinsley.
"People were shocked a couple of weeks ago when Ron Paul ... raised $5 million
from July through September, mostly on the Internet. Paul is a libertarian. In
fact, he was the Libertarian Party presidential candidate in 1988. The computer
revolution has bred a generation of smart loners, many of them rich and some of
them complacently Darwinian, convinced that they don't need society -- nor
should anyone else. They are going to be an increasingly powerful force in
politics."
Kinsley's article rehashes some silly and tired old falsehoods about
libertarians, like that one -- the notion that libertarians are "Darwinists" or
"loners... convinced that they don't need society" and so on.
But never mind that. Libertarians have ready answers to these fallacies -- and
no doubt Kinsley is already getting a fast education.
What's important is that this article, by one of America's leading political
writers, in one of America's most widely read news magazines, is yet another
striking example of how libertarian ideas are rapidly winning converts, being
taken seriously, and becoming a MAJOR part of the American political debate.
And that's great news indeed!
Oh, one more *delicious* irony.
You'll love this.
Kinsley crankily says libertarians are "earnest and impractical -- eager to
corner you with their plan for ... solving the traffic mess by privatizing
stoplights."
Well, in that very same issue of TIME, there's an excellent article entitled
"Who Really Owns the Roads?" And it's about -- yes -- the growing trend towards
privatizing highways.
And the article quotes "Bob Poole, director of transportation studies at the
Reason Foundation, a think tank."
Reason might be more precisely described as a *libertarian* think tank. And Bob
Poole has been a libertarian leader since the 1960s.
"Libertarians Rising" indeed!
http://theadvocates.org/liberator/vol-12-num-20.html
No, that's not the title of a new libertarian outreach pamphlet.
It's an essay in the October 18 issue of TIME magazine -- written by no less
than Michael Kinsley, one of America's most respected and astute political
commentators.
Now Kinsley is no libertarian. He's a liberal. And that makes his essay all the
more significant.
Kinsley argues that two strong impulses are emerging in American politics:
libertarianism and communitarianism. Communitarians, Kinsley explains, "believe
that group responsibilities (to family, community, nation, the globe) should
trump individual rights."
He contrasts that to libertarianism, which stresses individual rights.
Which philosophy -- libertarianism or communitarianism -- will ultimately win
America's political debate?
"My money's on the libertarians," says the liberal Kinsley.
"People were shocked a couple of weeks ago when Ron Paul ... raised $5 million
from July through September, mostly on the Internet. Paul is a libertarian. In
fact, he was the Libertarian Party presidential candidate in 1988. The computer
revolution has bred a generation of smart loners, many of them rich and some of
them complacently Darwinian, convinced that they don't need society -- nor
should anyone else. They are going to be an increasingly powerful force in
politics."
Kinsley's article rehashes some silly and tired old falsehoods about
libertarians, like that one -- the notion that libertarians are "Darwinists" or
"loners... convinced that they don't need society" and so on.
But never mind that. Libertarians have ready answers to these fallacies -- and
no doubt Kinsley is already getting a fast education.
What's important is that this article, by one of America's leading political
writers, in one of America's most widely read news magazines, is yet another
striking example of how libertarian ideas are rapidly winning converts, being
taken seriously, and becoming a MAJOR part of the American political debate.
And that's great news indeed!
Oh, one more *delicious* irony.
You'll love this.
Kinsley crankily says libertarians are "earnest and impractical -- eager to
corner you with their plan for ... solving the traffic mess by privatizing
stoplights."
Well, in that very same issue of TIME, there's an excellent article entitled
"Who Really Owns the Roads?" And it's about -- yes -- the growing trend towards
privatizing highways.
And the article quotes "Bob Poole, director of transportation studies at the
Reason Foundation, a think tank."
Reason might be more precisely described as a *libertarian* think tank. And Bob
Poole has been a libertarian leader since the 1960s.
"Libertarians Rising" indeed!
http://theadvocates.org/liberator/vol-12-num-20.html
