Reason magazine celebrates 50 years in print

America’s Premier Libertarian Magazine Celebrates Its 50th Year - Troy Warden, Daily Signal:

November 2, 2018 - "Reason magazine, the print and online publication of Reason Foundation, will celebrate its 50th anniversary Saturday with well-known figures in the libertarian movement at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Los Angeles. Reason bills itself as 'the planet’s largest source of news, culture, policy, and ideas from a principled libertarian perspective.'

'Larry Friedlander, a Boston University student, founded Reason magazine in the summer of 1968. The magazine was considered unlike many magazines of the time because of its clean graphic design and clear ethos. Freidlander, who died in 2011 at age 63, painstakingly designed the magazine’s aesthetics and content from scratch at his mother’s house, Katherine Mangu-Ward, editor in chief, told The Daily Signal in an email....

"Libertarianism is a political philosophy that emphasizes individual freedom and limits on the coercive behavior of the state. Libertarians typically favor strong property rights, civil liberties, and drug decriminalization.

"According to Mike Alissi, the publisher of Reason, the website receives 4 million web visitors a month and 3.5 million monthly video views of at least 30 seconds in length. Monthly circulation is 47,000....

"A luncheon followed by a gala Saturday night will feature conversations on and remembrances of Reason’s 50-year history of 'fighting for "Free Minds and Free Markets" via award-winning journalism and cutting-edge policy work powered by principled, pragmatic, and visionary libertarian ideals,' and what plans the magazine and foundation have in store for the next five decades....

"Fox Business Network host Lisa Kennedy Montgomery — professionally known as Kennedy — will host the evening program, which will feature remarks from Vernon Smith, who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics, and Purdue University President Mitch Daniels, a two-term governor of Indiana....

 "Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes Reason magazine along with public policy research, will give its Savas Award for Privatization to Frank Baxter, former U.S. ambassador to Uruguay ... 'for his role in co-founding Los Angeles’ largest and most successful charter school network, the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools,' Leonard Gilroy, director of government reform at Reason Foundation, said in a statement provided to The Daily Signal....

"Despite the passage of 50 years, Mangu-Ward said, “the early issues of Reason feel astonishingly relevant today'.... 'In the early days of Reason, libertarians and conservatives made common cause against the rising tide of socialism and communism,' she told The Daily Signal. 'Unfortunately, that alliance may once again be relevant.'”

Read more: https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/11/02/americas-premier-libertarian-magazine-celebrates-its-50th-year/
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Atlantic mag fires pro-life columnist for tweet

By Firing Kevin Williamson,The Atlantic Shows It Can't Handle Real Ideological Diversity - Hit & Run : Reason.com - :

April 5, 2018 - "Kevin Williamson has been fired from The Atlantic. Since leaving National Review in March, the conservative writer has managed to produce just one column at his new perch, in which he declared the death of the libertarian moment.

"But the thing that cost him the gig was a remark he made on a podcast well before his firing and in a tweet (since deleted [UPDATE: Williamson notes that his account is deactivated, not that this specific tweet was deleted]): 'And someone challenged me on my views on abortion, saying, "If you really thought it was a crime, you would support things like life in prison, no parole, for treating it as a homicide." And I do support that. In fact, as I wrote, what I had in mind was hanging.'

"Williamson expressed the view that abortion is murder and should be punished to the full extent of the law (although he also later indicated that he has mixed feelings about capital punishment). I do not share his view. But by declaring Williamson to be outside the Overton window of acceptable political discourse because he believes strongly that abortion is a serious, punishable crime, The Atlantic is essentially declaring that it cannot stomach real, mainstream conservatism as it actually exists in 21st century America.

"Williamson uses colorful and sometimes rash language. He didn't have to detail the grisly form of punishment he would inflict on women who decide to terminate their pregnancies. He chose to do so because he enjoys provoking a reaction. But The Atlantic knew that about him before it hired him.

"Editor Jeffrey Goldberg says he decided to fire Williamson only after learning that the tweet and podcast quote 'represented his carefully considered views.' But the underlying logic of Williamson's pro-life position is a view shared by roughly half or at least 40 percent of Americans.

"It is, of course, the perfect right of The Atlantic's editors to publish whomever they wish. Reason staffers are all libertarian, under a big-tent understanding of that term (not to brag, but we are repping the pro-life view). That's written into our mission as a magazine. But if The Atlantic purports to capture a broad spectrum of American political views, Williamson's firing is a sign that it hasn't yet figured out how to do so. And the reader outcry against him ... is a sign of a market that has grown increasingly squeamish about a genuinely inclusive journalistic vision."

Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/04/05/kevin-williamson-fired
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Help fix U.S. democracy: befriend a libertarian

Are Libertarian Friends the Key to Fixing American Democracy? - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Katherine Mangu-Ward:

October 26, 2017 - "Bursting your personal political bubble is important, but hard. It's so annoying to talk to people who totally disagree with you, amirite? Today in a forum on fixing democracy in The Washington Post Magazine, I argue that libertarians are the gateway drug to transpartisan understanding:

On the left and finding that Trump fans turn your stomach? Consider chatting with someone who will give you a hearty amen when you grouse about his immigration restrictionism and warmongering over a craft cocktail or a joint, but can still offer some insight into why a sane person might think environmental regulatory rollback or Social Security privatization is a good idea.

On the right and struggling to figure out how you'd connect with a blue-haired Occupy Wall Streeter? Find a libertarian: We'll grab some burgers and cigars. We can talk about repealing Obamacare and cutting taxes before easing into a conversation about why it might be time to seriously consider reforming our criminal justice system.

"Innovative solution for repairing America's broken civic institutions, or shameless bid to make new friends? You decide."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2017/10/26/are-libertarian-friends-the-key-to-fixin
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Conference sees good and (mostly) bad in 2017

Can libertarians mediate the divide? | Newsday -  Cathy Young:

February 23, 2017 - "The people who gathered for the 10th annual conference of the International Society of Students for Liberty in Washington last weekend were a motley crowd that included anti-war activists with neon-colored hair and law students in three-piece suits. In the exhibit hall, a display honoring Ronald Reagan was only a few feet away from a LGBT group with a rainbow version of the 'Don’t Tread on Me' Gadsen flag and from the table of a group called Muslims for Liberty.

"Despite the festive atmosphere, this year’s speakers at the libertarian event were mostly in a dark mood.... While libertarians tend to be at the Republican end of the two-party spectrum, Donald Trump Republicanism is about as un-libertarian as you get. There was raucous applause when Katherine Mangu-Ward, editor of Reason magazine ... declared at the opening-night session, 'Free movement of people and goods across the border is good.' Another Reason editor, Nick Gillespie, contrasted the libertarian spirit of “cosmopolitanism and tolerance” with Trump’s demonization of undesirables — and with the left’s anti-pluralist drive to silence politically incorrect speech.

"Tom Palmer, vice president for international programs at the nonprofit Atlas Network, ... named left-wing identity politics and thought-policing as part of the problem, [but] his focus was the threat from the right: in America, Trumpism, with its cult of the leader who embodies the people’s will and its paranoia about the foreign; in Europe, populist, nationalist, and sometimes outright fascist movements, many financed by Russia’s authoritarian regime.

"Social psychologist and New York University professor Jonathan Haidt, whose talk on the rise of the 'safety culture' in colleges was probably the biggest hit of the conference, warned that 'the end of liberal democracy” was a real threat.... Social justice, Haidt said, is replacing pursuit of knowledge as the central mission of universities, and there is less and less tolerance for dissent. The result is a generation sympathetic to censorship of offensive speech.

"While parts of the conference had a decidedly pessimistic tone, there was optimism as well — and discussion of libertarian victories from deregulation to gay civil rights. Libertarianism may not have all the answers; but right now, it may be our best hope for rebuilding a culture of freedom and tolerance."

Read more: http://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/cathy-young/donald-trump-is-as-un-libertarian-as-you-can-get-1.13162055
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