Sunday, January 12, 2014

The tide is rising for America’s libertarians

The tide is rising for America’s libertarians - FT.com - Edward Luce, Financial Times:

January 12, 2014 - "Robert Nozick, the late US libertarian, smoked pot while he was writing Anarchy, State and Utopia. He would applaud the growth of libertarianism among today’s young Americans. Whether it is their enthusiasm for legalised marijuana and gay marriage ... or their scepticism of government, US millennials no longer follow President Barack Obama’s cue.... If there is a new spirit in America’s rising climate of anti-politics, it is libertarian....

"Republicans such as Rick Santorum, the former presidential hopeful, who once likened gay sex to 'man on dog', elicit pure derision. Even moderate Republicans, such as Chris Christie, ... are considered irrelevant. Whether Mr Christie was telling the truth last week, when he denied knowledge of his staff’s role in orchestrating a punitive local traffic jam, is beside the point. Mr Christie’s Sopranos brand of New Jersey politics is not tailored to the Apple generation....

"The opposite is true of Rand Paul, the Kentucky senator, whose chances of taking the 2016 prize rose with Mr Christie’s dented fortunes last week.... Paul eschews the more outlandish fringes of libertarian thought. Rather than promising an isolationist US withdrawal from the world, he touts a more moderate 'non-interventionism'. Instead of pledging to end fiat money, he promises to audit the US Federal Reserve."

Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cc9a31b8-7928-11e3-b381-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2qCFtSyNE
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