Thursday, October 20, 2011

Cautiously, Libertarians Reach Out to Occupy Wall Street - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic

Cautiously, Libertarians Reach Out to Occupy Wall Street - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic:

Oct. 20, 2011 - "With a left-leaning populist movement taking to the streets in cities around the country, ... a few savvy figures with libertarian messages appreciate that ... a better opportunity to engage persuadable leftists has never before presented itself.

"Prof. Larry Lessig, the Harvard academic and political activist, is among the observers calling on Occupy Wall Street and the tea party movement to recognize what they have in common ... he says that crony capitalism is one shared object of ire, a message he repeated this week in Washington D.C.....

"GOP presidential primary candidate Gary Johnson is reaching out too. 'I just have to express my solidarity with everyone there that expresses the notion that we have a country that doles it out unfairly,' he said. 'Corporatism is alive and well in this country. We've bailed out individuals on Wall Street that made horrific decisions that should have been rewarded for those horrific decisions by having lost all their money. Of course, that didn't happen, and you and I bailed them out at a cost of a trillion bucks, and they continue to award themselves bonuses at our expense. I'm outraged by that.'.... Then the pitch: 'He told them that it is important for people to understand the distinction between capitalism and crony capitalism. "Is the free market to blame, or is it that fact that it's not a free market?"'"

Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/10/cautiously-libertarians-reach-out-to-occupy-wall-street/247045/
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