Walter E. Williams (1936-2020)

 'I Just Do My Own Thing': Walter Williams, RIP | Reason - Nick Gillespie:

December 2, 2020 - "I'm saddened to write of the death of libertarian economist Walter E. Williams. He passed away Wednesday morning at the age of 84, less than a day after teaching a class at George Mason University, where he worked for 40 years and helped transform his department into a highly respected center of free market scholars. A popular syndicated columnist whose work appeared in over a hundred newspapers on a weekly basis, he was a long-time contributor to Reason and served as an emeritus trustee of Reason Foundation....

"Born in Philadelphia in 1936, Williams grew up as a neighbor to Bill Cosby in the city's racially segregated housing projects and was drafted into the peacetime Army during the Cold War. A self-described 'crazy-ass man who insisted on talking about liberty in America' long before he was a public intellectual, the racist violence and abuse he suffered at the hands of police, military officers, and other authorities informed much of his work. In his powerful, evocative 2010 memoir, Up From the Projects, he recounts the time when, as a cab driver in the City of Brotherly Love, he was ordered out of his cab by a white officer, beaten up, and then charged with disorderly conduct."

Read more: https://reason.com/2020/12/02/i-just-do-my-own-thing-walter-williams-rip/

Walter Williams, RIP | Cato@Liberty - David Boaz:

"After early stints as a cab driver, a soldier in Korea, and a probation officer, Walter focused on education and got a Ph.D. in economics from UCLA in 1972. From 1973 to 1980 he taught at Temple University in Philadelphia before moving to George Mason University for the rest of his career.

"In 1982 he published a book of original research and provocative ideas, The State Against Blacks, which Don Boudreaux describes in today’s Wall Street Journal as 'an eloquent, data‐​rich broadside against occupational licensing, taxicab regulations, labor‐​union privileges and other fine‐​sounding government measures that inflict disproportionate harm on blacks by restricting the employment options and by driving up the costs of goods and services'. His work in these areas and his outgoing, engaging, effective style of communications brought him broader public attention. He appeared in Milton Friedman’s PBS series “Free to Choose” in 1980. He became a frequent guest host on the Rush Limbaugh Show.... 

"In 1989 the Cato Institute and Praeger published Walter’s book South Africa’s War against Capitalism. In it he showed, with detailed economic and historical analysis, that ... 'South Africa’s apartheid is not the corollary of free‐​market or capitalist forces. Apartheid is the result of anticapitalistic or socialistic efforts to subvert the operation of market (capitalistic) forces.'"

Read more: https://www.cato.org/blog/walter-williams-rip

In Memoriam: Walter E. Williams, 1936-2020 | Forbes - Art Carden: 

December 3, 2020 - "Williams’s work and commentary was informed by a deep understanding of how free people in free markets find ways to help one another. Howard Baetjer explains the 'Invisible Hand Principle' in his short book Economics and Free Markets. He quotes Williams, who said 'In a free market, you get more for yourself by serving your fellow man. You don’t have to care about him! Just serve him.'

"We get, as Adam Smith explained, what we want by helping other people get what they want. Importantly, this requires us to respect their right to say 'no.' Free markets rest on a profound respect for others’ dignity. A free market is possible and productive when we recognize that other people are not merely means to our ends, created to serve us or created to live as we want them to. If we want to secure their cooperation, we have to give them what they want rather than what we think is best for them. Few people understood this better than Walter Williams."

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2020/12/03/in-memoriam-walter-e-williams-1936-2020/?sh=5fbe44b18fe4

“David Koch walked the walk” says Reason editor

“David Koch walked the walk” - Vox - Jane Coaston:

August 23, 2019 - "David Koch, the billionaire industrialist who, together with his brother Charles, ran one of the most influential (and controversial) political giving operations, died Friday at the age of 79. A libertarian, Koch was nevertheless one of the most powerful forces in conservative politics, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to back conservative candidates in elections on every level and pouring millions more into think tanks....

"At their core, the Koch brothers were 'fundamentally, philosophically libertarian,' says Nick Gillespie, editor at large of Reason Magazine , a monthly libertarian publication ... published by the Reason Foundation.... Koch served as a trustee of the foundation for 36 years and was a major donor....  I spoke with Gillespie, who was also formerly Reason’s editor-in-chief, about David Koch’s impact on libertarian politics and politics at large"....

Nick Gillespie; "David and Charles Koch, ... more than any two people, are responsible for the postwar, post-’60s libertarian movement. They’re fundamentally, philosophically libertarian — they believe that individuals should be given as much freedom to innovate and to create the wealth that they want to, based on mutual respect for people’s rights and things like that. If you look back toward the end of the ’80s, in an MIT alumni survey, they asked, 'Graduates, what are you most proud of?' And Koch said he was most proud of running for vice president on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1980....

"They’re fundamentally libertarian. They think that individuals have rights that should be respected always and everywhere. And that also meant that they’re not religious, they’re not pushing a narrow morality. They were anti-intervention, ... they were against corporate welfare, they were against special rules for connected people. David Koch walked the walk. He believed in free minds and free markets, and believed in making the world better through good business practice and good philanthropic practice...."

"It’s impossible to underestimate or to understate the impact that he had in growing a variety of institutions that created an intellectual architecture of framework for libertarian ideas. So whether it’s through his board membership and contributions to Reason or to other groups, including philanthropic groups, he helped fund a ton of people who learned how to think about ideas in a pre-political way. And I think this is part of what neither the right or the left nor journalists get about the Kochs ... that ultimately they’re more interested in what happens before politics.

"It’s about a worldview, and it’s a worldview that, again, is classically liberal in that it celebrates local cultures and local traditions, but then it also blends that with the kind of cosmopolitanism that comes out of a kind of appreciation for universal human rights and the idea that we’re all equal and we should try and discover how best to live our lives. And I think that’s his main legacy to the libertarian movement: helping to bolster and create and fund the institutions that allow libertarian ideas and thought to flourish."

Read more: https://www.vox.com/2019/8/23/20829962/david-koch-libertarian-legacy
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Democrat floats idea of universal national service

Pete Buttigieg’s National Service Plan Is a Really Bad Idea Whose Time Might Have Come – Reason.com - Nick Gillespie:

April 17, 2019 - "Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg told Rachel Maddow recently that 'national service will become one of the themes of [my] 2020 campaign'.... [T]he defining element of the plan put forward by the Afghanistan War veteran and mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is its vagueness. In fact, it's not even clear if Buttigieg would make a year's worth of service for high school grads mandatory or not. At one point he says he hopes to 'make it, if not legally obligatory, then a social norm,' which can be read both as wanting to make it mandatory or simply a cultural expectation. There's no mention of a national service plan in his book, Shortest Way Home, and there's no mention of it on his campaign website either....

"Buttigieg invoked the World War II service of John F. Kennedy and George H.W. Bush and his own military service as positive examples of privileged people mixing with people they otherwise would never get to know (he implies that JFK served with African Americans, but the military was segregated during World War II). That sort of service across class, geographical, and racial lines, he argues, is good for America.... Maddow piped up that she has long 'struggled with the civilian-military divide" and "the easy answer is there should be a draft,' even as she acknowledged that the Pentagon is firmly against conscription....

"The libertarian argument against military conscription was best summarized by Milton Friedman, who served on the federal commission that helped end the draft in the early 1970s. After listening to Gen. William Westmoreland, the U.S. commander in Vietnam, inveigh against an all-volunteer army as mere 'mercenaries,' Friedman replied, 'General, would you rather command an army of slaves?' The same logic applies to mandatory non-military national service.

"Buttigieg was emphatic that he's not talking about forcing people to serve only in the military. Again, there were no details, but his national service plan would include having 18-year-old kids sign up for the armed forces or for a wide variety of other public-sector jobs....

"Beyond being deeply illiberal, mandatory national service is profoundly at odds with the American experience. Unlike most European countries, for most of our history, we didn't have conscription unless there was an active war.... More important, citing elements of the total mobilization of American society to fight World War II in order to sell peacetime policy proposals is a category error. Regardless of the lack of 'social cohesion,' we should not be looking for guidance now to a period when food, gas, and more were rationed and the government effectively controlled the economy and virtually all aspects of life....

"In talking with Maddow, Mayor Pete granted that any sort of program would also cost a lot of money, which, along with the sheer vagueness of his plan, works against its odds of becoming a reality. Yet this may be a bad idea whose time is coming, especially as Millennials such as Buttigieg ascend into positions of power.

"The Green New Deal championed by fellow Millennial Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez includes a plan for the government to guarantee everyone a job, which is sort of the kissing cousin of national service and underscores younger Americans' anxiety about finding employment. And a 2017 poll of 18-to-29-year-olds by Harvard's Institute of Politics found 50 percent supporting voluntary national service (the good news: Just 7 percent support mandatory service)."

Read more: https://reason.com/2019/04/17/pete-buttigiegs-national-service-plan-is-a-really-bad-idea-whose-time-might-have-come/
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Five great libertarian movies (video)

5 Great Libertarian Movies! - Reason.com - Nick Gellespie & Todd Krainin:

March 2, 2018 = "Forget the Oscars! Here are five great movies made over the past quarter-century that any libertarian will (must?) enjoy.

1. The Incredibles (2004) - This Pixar film directed by Brad Bird is so full of speeches extolling individualism, personal greatness, and self-fulfillment it sometimes sounds like it was scripted by Ayn Rand....
2. The Barbarian Invasions (2003) - Québécois director Denys Arcand's brilliant sequel to The Decline of the American Empire is the single best depiction of the depredations of socialized medicine....
3. Dallas Buyers Club (2013) - This based-on-a-true-story movie about a rodeo rider and a drag queen routing around the Food and Drug Administration brought home Oscars....
4. Joy (2015) - Jennifer plays real-life "Miracle Mop" inventor Joy Magano, who helped make cleaning your floors easier while making herself rich. The film is a paean to capitalism's genius at allowing self-expression and self-fulfillment....
5. Ghostbusters (1984) ... was perfectly in synch with the Reagan Revolution's valorization of business and demonization of government.... [T]he real villain of the movie is ... an Environmental Protection Agency bureaucrat named Walter Peck, who shuts down their operation and puts the city at risk. Hilarity ensues."

Read more: https://reason.com/archives/2018/03/02/5-great-libertarian-movies/1
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Libertarian site FEE seeking website publisher

Oldest Libertarian Organization, FEE, Looking for Publisher/Editorial Director - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Nick Gillespie:

December 20, 2017 - "The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is looking for someone to run its publications and website. From the job description:

FEE's Publisher is responsible for the strategic and operational success of FEE's content across all print and digital platforms, including FEE.org, social media, third-party websites, ebooks, and print. This role requires an editorial visionary with a digital savvy, business focus. The Publisher supervises the Editorial staff and partners with the Marketing and Development (fundraising) departments to dramatically increase readership of and engagement with FEE.org. Furthermore, this role works with FEE leadership to create a FEE brand that will deliver a content experience attractive to FEE customers, partners, supporters, and advertisers. The role also communicates the business goals of the organization to the editors and writers, helping to plan editorial calendars and develop new content products. The Publisher reports to the COO.

[S]ome background on the group founded by Leonard Read, right after World War II:

Established in 1946, FEE (the Foundation for Economic Education) is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to make the ideas of a free society–including free markets, civil society, and individual rights–familiar and credible to the rising generation (14-26 year-olds). Over the past three years, FEE has installed the latest digital marketing capabilities and assembled an editorial team to become the leading voice for ideas and commentary on the humane values and ethical principles of a free society. FEE.org attracts an average of over 1 million monthly sessions, making it one of the top 5,000 websites in the U.S. and one of the top 21,000 websites in the world. FEE is well-positioned for continued growth with repeatable annual revenues having increased 79% since 2015.

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/20/oldest-libertarian-organization-fee-look
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Don't blame the alt.right on Ron Paul

Stop trying to blame the alt-right on Ron Paul | Rare - Jack Hunter:

August 25, 2017 - "Did Ron Paul’s popular presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012 kick-start the racist alt-right? No, they didn’t. But some are trying to say they did.

"This conversation began with Matt Lewis’ thought provoking 'The Insidious Libertarian-to-Alt-Right Pipeline' on The Daily Beast Wednesday, in which Lewis ponders if the explosion in popularity of libertarianism over the last decade also served as a breeding ground for today’s new generation of young white nationalists. My answer to Lewis is that ... the overwhelming majority of libertarians did not veer in that direction and explicitly reject white nationalism....

"Then Lewis got around to Ron Paul... '"The paleo-libertarian seed that Ron Paul, Murray Rothbard, and Lew Rockwell planted in the 1990s has come to bear some really ugly fruit in the last couple of years as elements of the alt-right have made appearances in various libertarian organizations and venues,” writes Steve Horwitz, an economist who writes at Bleeding Heart Libertarians.... “In a way, Ron Paul is the guy who lit the fuse,” Nick Gillespie says. “And he embodies some of those contradictions" [between libertarianism and the alt-right]'....

"Horwitz, a left libertarian cited by Lewis, has posted negative things about the Pauls for many years, both Ron and Rand, despite the fact that far less people would even know who Horwitz is and other prominent libertarians if not for the Paul family. That said, Horwitz is not wrong about Rothbard and Rockwell’s dalliances with paleoconservatives in the 1990s, how that racially troubling movement (I identified as paleoconservative back then and know the history well) was a precursor to the alt-right....

"[But] whatever questionable actions Ron Paul’s friends were taking in the 90s, the Ron Paul “rEVOLution” a decade later was the exact opposite regarding the current discussion about the alt-right.... I explained my journey from paleoconservative to libertarian in a lengthy Politico story in 2013. Central to that path was how Paul’s influence pushed me away from the kind of hateful ugliness we see even more extremely with the alt-right today:....

"I cannot count the number of liberty movement members I have met over the course of ten years, traveling across the country during both of Paul’s presidential runs and in the years in between, who had a similar journey: Conservatives who once had little reservation about demonizing immigrants, or blacks or Muslims, who due to Ron Paul’s influence had become libertarians and thus embarrassed by their former views. Not to mention the throngs of people younger than me who came to Ron Paul from not only the right, but left, or even many who had been politically apathetic prior. They weren’t right-wingers looking for redder meat. They were attracted to Paul in part because he was the opposite of that kind of politics, which so many had soured on.....

"I could just as easily make the argument that the Paul’s liberty movement is the exact opposite of the alt-right, something Paul touched on himself commenting on the chaos in Charlottesville."

Read more: http://rare.us/rare-politics/rare-liberty/stop-trying-to-blame-the-alt-right-on-ron-paul/
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Dave Smith releases comedy special Sept. 11 (video)

Libertarian Comedian Dave Smith on the Alt-Right, Christopher Cantwell, and How the Left 'Went Off the Rails' - Reason.com - Nick Gillespie & Mark McDaniel:

September 8, 2017 - "New York comedian Dave Smith says he 'became a libertarian through the Ron Paul movement. He challenged all of my preconceived notions about what government was [and]...inspired me to read all of these people, like Rothbard, Mises, and Friedman.'

"When Bernie Sanders became a national figure, what Smith hated most about the Vermont senator was that he was aesthetically like a carbon copy of Paul — 'a kind of disheveled, older guy who's just a truth teller.'

"[The difference was that] 'Bernie would go around to these kids and be like, "Hey, so you're a college kid in 2017, you're among the richest, freest, most privileged people who have ever existed, [so] billionaires should be paying your bills for you" ... It was the difference between a propagandist and a truth teller.'

"Smith, 34, is a regular on the New York City stand up circuit and hosts two popular podcasts on the GaS Digital Network, Legion of Skanks and Part of the Problem. On September 11, he'll release his first comedy special, Libertas, which will be available for download here."

Read more: http://reason.com/reasontv/2017/09/08/dave-smith-ron-paul-libertas-comedy
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Sen. Jeff Flake's Conscience of a Conservative

Jeff Flake's Conscience Is Good for Libertarians — and the Country - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Nick Gillespie:

August 1, 2017 - "'We've been compromised...by forces...of populism and protectionism, isolationism, xenophobia,' says Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, about his own Republican Party.

"In a new book that borrows a title from Barry Goldwater, an NPR interview, and a no-holds-barred column in Politico, Flake is making the case that the GOP and President Trump are dishonest and disinterested in limiting the size, scope, and spending of government.

"He has impeccable credentials as a libertarian-leaning politician who once ran the free-market Goldwater Institute in Phoenix. Flake is a dedicated free-trader and defender of immigration.... Since arriving in Congress in 2001, he has passionately attacked the Cuba embargo as misguided, immoral, and ineffective: 'We preach the gospel of contact and commerce and trade and travel, yet with Cuba we turn around and say, "No, it's not going to work there." It just seemed to be a glaring inconsistency in our foreign policy.' An 'unapologetic member of the Gang of Eight' that sound comprehensive immigration reform, he is one of the few remaining Republicans in high office to champion higher levels of legal immigration both as a humanitarian gesture and as a practical boon to the country....

"He says that conservatives need 'to be honest with people' about the causes of economic dislocation. While Donald Trump and his fellow populists wail about Mexico and China, Flake stays grounded in reality. 'We manufacture twice as much as we did in the 1980s with one-third fewer workers and those productivity gains will continue. Globalization has happened and the question is: Do we harness it for our benefit or are we left behind by it?'

"In his Politico piece, Flake ranges close to calling for Trump's impeachment, or at least official censure, writing that 'unnerving silence in the face of an erratic executive branch is an abdication, and those in positions of leadership bear particular responsibility'.... No wonder there have been whispers about Trump working to primary Flake, who is up for re-election in 2018.

"You might not agree with Jeff Flake on everything, but it's good to see a principled free-market, open-borders Republican going public with his discontent, especially because he's got a strong record of calling out massive expansions of the government going back to his first days in Congress. We need more people like him in Washington, not just the handful we already know (Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Justin Amash, Thomas Massie...)."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2017/08/01/jeff-flakes-conscience-is-good-for-liber
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Libertarians disagree on Trump at FreedomFest

Libertarians cautiously sense opportunity under Trump - CNNPolitics.com- Chris Moody:

July 22, 2017 - "If there's one person relishing in Washington's Trump-era dysfunction, it's Libertarian Party Chairman Nicholas Sarwark, who sees the tumult as a prime recruitment opportunity.

'I have to give thanks to Donald Trump and the Republican Party,' said Sarwark, a former defense attorney who has led the Libertarian Party since 2014. 'Their success in getting control of government and then showing that they can't do anything once they have that control has been a better argument for joining the Libertarian Party than anything I could say.'

"As part of his efforts, Sarwark joined more than 1,000 libertarians and conservatives recently here in Las Vegas for a free-wheeling annual gathering called FreedomFest, fertile recruiting grounds where attendees held a robust skepticism of government power and where opinions of President Donald Trump were mixed....

"FreedomFest has been a mainstay of the Las Vegas convention circuit for a decade.... Trump himself made a surprise appearance at this conference in 2015, making it one of his first public appearances after announcing his bid for the presidency.... Jeffrey Tucker, the content director at the libertarian Foundation for Economic Education, assumed the crowd would run Trump out of town.... 'But by the time he ended, he had won over a substantial number of the crowd, which was a shock,' Tucker said....

"Indeed, reactions to Trump at the conference this year were varied.... Others, like former Libertarian Party Vice Presidential Nominee Wayne Allyn Root, can't get enough joy out of Trump's bombast. 'I love that he's driving liberals insane,' said Root, who debated Tucker about Trump at the conference....

"But for many who consider themselves libertarians, the main concern is systematic, and larger than the current president. The real issue, they say, is that the presidency has gained too much authority in the first place, and that Trump is merely taking advantage of an inheritance given to him by Republicans and Democrats alike....

"'"He is incompetent. He has passed no significant piece of legislation in 100 days despite his big promises. He is an embarrassment to the American people and around the globe. [But] What we need to do as libertarians is not talk about people, we need to talk about systems and policies,' said Nick Gillespie, editor in chief of the libertarian magazine website Reason.com. 'If you are a libertarian you should understand that big government is the problem.'"

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/24/politics/being-moody-libertarians-freedomfest/index.html
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Petersen leaves Libertarian Party 'for now'

Read Austin Petersen's Goodbye Note to the Libertarian Party - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Nick Gillespie:

July 4, 2017 - "Austin Petersen, the second-place finisher for the 2016 Libertarian Party presidential nomination, is running for the U.S. Senate seat in Missouri currently held by Democrat Claire McCaskill. But he's running as a Republican and explains his decision below....

"Dear friends in the Libertarian Party,

"For the last eight weeks, I've spent six hours a day calling my supporters to ask them their thoughts on how I might best advance liberty. I took the time to listen to every single persons' opinion about a potential opportunity to seek a seat in the U.S. Senate here in my home state of Missouri.

"Of the thousands of people I spoke to, all encouraged a run, hundreds donated, and the vast majority offered their opinion regarding which party I should align with. Over 98% of them, including registered Libertarians, independents, Republicans, and even Democrats, said to run GOP....

"I have chosen to listen to them, as they are the lifeblood of all efforts that I will make to advance our common cause. They are the people whose time, energy, and money I will need to bring our movement a victory that we desperately need....

"I have served the Libertarian Party in nearly every capacity, at every level, from your humble volunteer coordinator at your national office, to one of your top contenders for President of the United States. Any future successes I may garner in the realm of politics will come in large part because of the experience and opportunities you gave me to advance American freedom, and for that I thank you.

"Sadly, I must depart for now. I go with no ill will, and wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Best Wishes,
Austin Petersen"

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2017/07/04/read-austin-petersens-goodbye-note-to-th
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FCC chair to roll back net neutrality regulations

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on Why He's Rejecting Net Neutrality Rules - Reason.com - Nick Gillespie & Mark McDaniel:

April 26, 2017 - "Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai announced plans today to roll back net neutrality rules put in place by the Obama administration in 2015.

"The FCC currently regulates Internet service providers (ISPs) under Title II regulations that essentially treat the internet as a public utility similar to the old phone monopoly. Proponents of net neutrality and the invocation of Title II regulations say that such oversight is necessary to ensure that the Internet remains 'open' and ISPs don't block sites or degrade offerings by rivals. Long a critic of Title II regulations, which were invoked after the FCC lost two court battles to regulate the Internet, Pai describes them as 'a panoply of heavy-handed economic regulations that were developed in the Great Depression to handle Ma Bell.'

"Scrapping these rules, Pai told Reason's Nick Gillespie, won't harm consumers or the public interest because there was no reason for them in the first place. The rationales were mere 'phantoms that were conjured up by people who wanted the FCC for political reasons to overregulate the internet,' Pai told Gillespie. 'We were not living in a digital dystopia in the years leading up to 2015.'

"If left in place, however, the Title II rules could harm the commercial internet, which Pai described as 'one of the most incredible free market innovations in history.'

"'Companies like Google and Facebook and Netflix became household names precisely because we didn't have the government micromanaging how the internet would operate,' said Pai, who noted that the Clinton-era decision not to regulate the Internet like a phone utility or a broadcast network was one of the most important factors in the rise of our new economy."

Read more: http://reason.com/reasontv/2017/04/26/fcc-ajit-pai-net-neutrality-internet
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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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Trump era is libertarians' opportunity

Donald Trump and the Libertarian Future - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Nick Gillespie & Veronique de Rugy:

January 20, 2017 - "Donald Trump is nobody's idea of a libertarian but his presidency provides a tremendous opportunity to advance libertarian policies, outcomes, and aspirations in our politics and broader culture. Those of us who believe in reducing the size, scope, and spending of the federal government and expanding the autonomy, opportunities, and ability of people to live however they choose should welcome the Trump era. That's not because of the new president's agenda but because he enters office as the man who will inevitably close out a failing 20th-century model of governance....

"Trump enters the White House with historically low approval ratings. This is not merely his fault by any stretch. His Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, was similarly distrusted, a reflection of broad loss of faith not in this or that candidate but the entire political system and especially the two major parties, Congress, and most parts of the federal government. Our declining faith and confidence in government are direct results of failures in government to deliver what it promises and, as a majority has long believed, a belief that it is trying to do too much. Trump is coming after not just eight years of an imperial presidency but 16 years of such behavior. For the entirety of the 21st century, the White House has been occupied by men who consistently arrogated more and more power to themselves, often only advancing their complex and self-serving legal arguments in secret or amongst their own advisers.

"Trump's bullying personality, seemingly boundless egotism, and personal vindictiveness simply pour gasoline on the fire that is already lit. Serious conservatives and, at least temporarily, many conventional liberals have a heightened appreciation of limiting government power, especially in the executive branch. From secret kill lists to limitless surveillance to an endless list of presidential orders on everything from workplace rules to immigration, Obama 'leaves a loaded gun in the Oval Office' for his successor....

"Washington is broke, unpopular, and dysfunctional. The only important question is what will come next. Clearly, we need a government that spends less and does less but also appeals to most Americans of whatever ideological persuasion. We know what sort of operating system has improved our commercial, cultural, and personal lives: It's one that flows directly from libertarian ideas about maximizing options for individuals and the groups they form.... The trick, of course, is to translate that live-and-let live ethos, the cornucopia model into politics and government, which by definition precludes exit. Here, Trump's brashness and divisiveness is forcing all of us to realize government isn't and can't be all things to all people without endless conflict....

"By a two-to-one margin (60 percent to 30 percent), Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, a dread that was energized by the two main choices for president offered us in 2016.... A future in which government is disrupted and diminished — and individuals are empowered and enlivened — is possible, but only if we make it happen." "

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2017/01/20/donald-trump-and-the-libertarian-future
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Gillespie: Gary Johnson the best thing in 2016

Thank You, Gary Johnson, for Being the Best Thing in 2016! - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Nick Gillespie:

January 3, 2017 - "Before we completely flush 2016 down the memory hole, let us pause to remember Gary Johnson, the former two-term governor of New Mexico who generated a record number of votes as the Libertarian Party's candidate for president. If there was anything good that happened in 2016 ... it was @govgaryjohnson's ramshackle campaign to bring a very different way of thinking and talking about national politics to America.

"In the end, of course, there was a lot of disappointment. He didn't crack 15 percent in polls ... he supported the inalienable rights of gay Nazis to force homophobic Jewish bakers to make German chocolate cakes ... he spaced out while talking to recidivist plagiarist Mike Barnicle on Morning Joe and ... and so much more. Yeah, yeah, I get it....

"To all of it, I say, politely: Go screw yourselves, all of you.

"I choose instead to focus on what I think were two major themes that Johnson introduced into national politics that will have a very long shelf-life....

"First, he was the first politician in forever who had the temerity to say what we all know to be true: That most Americans are socially liberal (or tolerant) and fiscally conservative (i.e. responsible). Libertarian purists will denounce such a formulation as lazy or incorrect or insufficiently Misesian or Hayekian or Randian, but the way that Gary put it is exactly right in political terms. Most Americans have no problem with immigrants.... The same is true about marriage equality, pot legalization, and abortion rights.... Growing majorities are OK with living in a more-cosmopolitan, more-globalized America where you're free to travel, work, and mix with whatever people, food, and music you want.... 54 percent of us agree that 'government is doing too much'.... Gallup data shows that libertarian is the single-largest ideological bloc at 27 percent.... That was the essential message of the Johnson campaign and if it got drowned out somewhat by various gaffes and world events, it isn't going away any time soon.

"Second, and more controversially, I think, Gary Johnson incarnates what we will come to expect from politicians and presidents. Hillary Clinton was imperious and hyper-credentialed to a fault, Donald Trump was simply a bullying blowhard, and Jill Stein an unconvincing b—s— artist.... Johnson presented himself as experienced and competent ... but also relentlessly human. He didn't pretend to know everything ... or to be all things to all people.... Rather, at his best, Gary came off as a motivated and capable everyman, the sort of person you would trust to do right by you, own his mistakes, and move forward in the best faith possible.

"For all his faults, Johnson articulated the broadly felt desire for government that does less and costs less and personified a down-to-earth politician. In doing so, he prototyped what the politics and politicians of the future will be like."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2017/01/03/thank-you-gary-johnson-for-being-the-bes
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Rep. Rigell records video endorsing Johnson

Powerful: GOP Congressman Scott Rigell Video Endorsement of Libertarian Gary Johnson - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Nick Gillespie:

Oct. 23, 2016 - "That's Scott Rigell, a Republican congressman from Virginia who broke party ranks to endorse Libertarian presidential nominee and former two-term New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson back in August. The mere fact of partisans such as Rigell splitting their votes is important, of course — it's a bold, even courageous example, and a necessary one for an era in which voter identification with the major parties is going down like the Titanic:"

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2016/10/23/powerful-gop-congressman-scott-rigell-vi
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Documentary looks at how US politics is Rigged (video)

The Election Isn't Rigged, But The Political System Is. - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Nick Gillespie:

October 18, 2016 - "I'd like to point you to a great new hour-long documentary that explores the ways in which ordinary Americans and their concerns are systematically shut out from political discourse. Not right there at the polling place, of course, but much, much further upstream....

"Underwritten by Overstock.com's CEO Patrick Byrne and featuring a calvacade of libertarian-leaning commentators such as Matt Kibbe, Glenn Beck, and yours truly (in a brief appearance), Rigged 2016 analyzes why politics and elections never seem to engage the concerns and views of voters and citizens who refuse to identify as either Republican or Democrat. It also gets at why the two major parties are losing members like nobody's business.

"Below is the trailer and ... the website for the full, hour-long film, which you can watch for free online. "Do Not Vote For President Until You See This Film," reads the tag line. It's sage advice."

Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2016/10/18/the-election-isnt-rigged-but-the-politic
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Watch complete film at: http://www.rigged2016.com/

Welfare state 'screws' millennials, Johnson tells Kimmel (video)

UPDATED! Gary Johnson on Jimmy Kimmel Live: Millennials Are Getting "Screwed" - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Nick Gillespie:

October 20, 2016 - "Immediately after last night's final presidential debate, Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson appeared on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! to discuss a wide range of topics, including debt and deficits, marijuana legalization, foreign policy, and whether the former two-term New Mexico governor plans to run again in 2020 (answer: no).

"Here's Johnson explaining why he's polling well among millenials. It's worth a quick watch, as it lays out the mostly undeclared generational warfare that has been rolled out through most of the 21st century. Younger, relatively poor Americans are being forced to pay for the health care, retirement, and safety of older, wealthier people. The big catch? Those same entitlement programs are unsustainable, so they will be long gone by the time that millennials expect to collect on their 'investments.'"

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2016/10/20/gary-johnson-on-jimmy-kimmel-live-millen
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Harriet Tubman to appear on U.S. $20 bill

Harriet Tubman From a Libertarian POV - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Nick Gillespie:

April 21, 2016 - "Harriet Tubman (1822-1913) is going to be the new face of the $20 bill. Great choice.... Here are four ways that Tubman isn't just a great choice in general but a great choice from a specifically libertarian perspective.

1. She chose to live free or die and articulated that message for all to understand. 'I had reasoned this out in my mind," she said, recalling the death of her master and the necessity of escape. "There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty, or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive; I should fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and when the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me.'
2. She exemplified higher-law theory, which holds that laws violating basic human rights are null and void regardless of the repressive superstructures created to legitimate and maintain them, and risked her life freeing about 70 other slaves as the 'Moses' of the Underground Railroad.... At the same time, she didn't advocate violence in the mode of John Brown, whose goal of ending slavery she shared.
3. She believed in armed self-defense, a radical-enough concept for poor whites, let alone renegade blacks. During her Underground Railroad missions, she carried a pistol both for protection against slave-catchers and, reportedly, to keep ambivalent "passengers" in line. To this day, blacks have a strong and yet routinely overlooked belief in the Second Amendment, leading one historian to argue that 'guns made the Civil Rights movement possible.' The desire of relatively powerless minorities to arm themselves can still be heard in pro-Second Amendment remarks made by rappers such as Ice-T.
4. She was a suffragette who, after helping slaves escape and working as a spy and scout for the Union in the Civil War, committed herself to women being allowed to vote and have equality under the law. According to Wikipedia, when Tubman was asked whether she believed women deserved the vote, she replied, 'I suffered enough to believe it.'

"A year ago, when Tubman's name was first floated as a possible figure for a new $20 bill, a number of anti-capitalist commenters observed that Tubman of all people shouldn't be on money because, by their reckoning, slavery is the essence of capitalism. As Damon Root noted at the time, this is not just ahistorical in the extreme, it flies in the face of the explicit thought of leading former slaves.... [T]he abolitionists were extremely clear that slavery violated fundamental rights in a liberal order, one that shouldn't countenance slavery for exactly the same reason it should promote free labor. As Frederick Douglass, who corresponded with and thought extremely highly of Tubman, wrote in a scathing letter to his former owner, 'In leaving you, I took nothing but what belonged to me, and in no way lessened your means for obtaining an honest living.'"

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2016/04/21/4-ways-harriet-tubman-totally-kicked-ass
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2000 attend International S4L conference in DC

Libertarians will tough it out for 2016 election | Newsday - Cathy Young:

March 1, 2016 - "About 2,000 people, most of them young, gathered at a Washington, D.C., hotel over the weekend for a conference where Bernie Sanders fans rubbed elbows with Ted Cruz supporters — even though the main political choice from the current field of candidates was 'none of the above.'

"For International Students for Liberty, a libertarian group founded in 2008 and the host of the conference, the main issue was promoting freedom — a value that, despite much lip service, neither major party honors in practice. (Disclosure: I am affiliated with two conference sponsors, Reason magazine and the Cato Institute.)....

"Libertarianism in pure form — which rejects social welfare programs, government regulations, foreign involvements, and restrictions on personal behavior including hard drug use — is not a popular philosophy. Luckily, libertarian groups tend to have a big-tent approach that focuses on expanding personal, political, and economic freedoms, not on ideological purity....

"The panel on “Why the World Is Actually Getting More Libertarian,” featuring Reason editors Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie and syndicated columnist George F. Will, often sounded like a refutation of its title: Gillespie asked whether the 'libertarian moment' was over and whether we should be concerned about 'the authoritarian moment'..... Will agreed, observing that 'the current front-runner in the party that has a libertarian wing' — Donald Trump — wants to daily deport thousands of immigrants here illegally and to make it easier to sue journalists for libel.

"On the optimistic side, Welch pointed out that a record 27 percent of Americans in a recent poll could be classified as at least mild libertarians (defined by agreeing that government should do less to regulate the economy and should not promote traditional morality). Yet Will noted that Americans often 'talk the Jeffersonian talk' while voting for politicians who promise that the state will take care of them....

"As the Cato Institute’s Doug Bandow argued on another panel, 'Government has a tendency to grow and take over everything.' Even those who agree on the need for a social safety net and for some governmental restrictions in the economic and personal realms can agree that, in Bandow’s words, 'We should err on the side of liberty' against 'the expansive state'...

"The solution to anti-freedom trends, most agreed, is conversation and education. In an inspiring session titled 'Why We Fight,' Tom Palmer, who has spent decades advocating for freedom around the world as an activist with the libertarian Atlas Network, noted that this fight is “a long-term effort,” in everything from the fall of communism to the legalization of marijuana. "

"As for the depressing election? At the conference’s keynote dinner, Students for Liberty president Alexander McCorbin reminded the gathering that the good thing about this election cycle is that it’s a cycle. It will pass; the call for liberty will endure."

Read more: http://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/cathy-young/libertarians-will-tough-it-out-for-2016-election-1.11527842
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True Detective: The most libertarian show on TV?

‘True Detective’: The Most Libertarian Show on TV - The Daily Beast - Nick Gillespie:

July 19, 2015 - "Is there any TV show more flat-out libertarian than Season Two of True Detective? For that matter, is there any TV network airing more flat-out libertarian agitprop than HBO? There you find hour after hour of spectacular, balls-out displays of the inherent incompetence, greed, and corruption of government — especially when it joins forces with crony capitalists....

"Indeed, the True Detective world, filled as it is with crooked cops and perverts in high places and massive, state-funded land grabs and billion-dollar high-speed rail boondoggles, seems ripped right from Ron Paul’s nightmares.

"The characters and the actors are incredible, especially Rachel McAdams as Ani — short for Antigone, the first great libertarian heroine who disobeyed the state in accordance with higher law — Bezzerides, the sexually haunted daughter of a creepy guru and sister to a webcam performer (whose studio is mistaken for a whorehouse by the vice squad in Episode 1). Colin Farrell is a classic crooked cop, Ray Velcoro, who abuses his power for personal reasons but also to line his pockets with graft.

"But the key character is Velcoro’s paymaster, Frank Semyon, whose dirty fingers have been in every racket a town can offer, from drugs to gambling to booze — all of which flourish under the watchful eye and greased palms of law enforcement. (That Frank is played expertly by Vince Vaughn is kind of the cherry on top of all this. Best-known for comedies such as Old School and Dodgeball, Vaughn is an unapologetic libertarian who introduces Ron Paul to adoring crowds, praises Edward Snowden, and stumps for Second Amendment rights like nobody’s business)....

"But here’s the real genius part of True Detective: The corruption on display in True Detective is bigger than Frank, Cesere, Velcoro, or any single individual and is thus uncontainable. It’s systemic and inevitable in a world where politicians, gangsters, and businessmen form a sort of human centipede that’s impossible to disentangle or rein in. When the government controls who gets to build what where and what sorts of permission is needed to run a bar or a restaurant — not to mention a whorehouse — you end up building graft and corruption into everything. That’s the deepest libertarian insight of the show and it infuses every frame."

Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/19/the-most-libertarian-network-on-tv.html
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