Matt Collins
01-25-2010, 01:27 PM
Support for libertarian ideas is growing -- and growing fast -- among the American public.
So says (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102956963855&s=57420&e=001F0MNk9Nf-y1qgBqVeoGH9fJR25Up_6Q5J3ghl25l2k7hMFsh-5NgVzatn2Ykx9WeOX_pDo3mMsD_pddZXpibYgKHe9bsIjiA6dx NXq-Rp18EkI-JW5El5wM-WYLDYri0nxUmLNaPPZIiZLfX7VHtWjVDgTvbW2nJts4VacGGqQ VKLwPXOgUcbgV1UQw2FMYaHqXJW_hEkbX4bbbHitoDKWdXHShD JO7cuC5_VFBlGHM=) journalist David Paul Kuhn, Chief Political Correspondent for RealClearPolitics, a popular and respected political news site with a conservative bent.
"The philosophical casualty of the Great Recession was supposed to be libertarianism," Kuhn writes. "But signs to the contrary are thriving.
"Americans are increasingly opposed to activist government programs. The most significant social movement of 2009, the Tea Party protests, grew out of that opposition. Libertarian heroine Ayn Rand is as popular today as ever. Rand's brilliant and radical laissez faire novel Atlas Shrugged sold roughly 300,000 copies last year, according to BookScan, twice its sales in 2008 and roughly triple annual sales in recent decades.
"We are witnessing a conservative libertarian comeback. It's an oppositional advance, a response to all manners of active-state liberalism since the financial crisis. ...
"Half the public believes there is 'too much' government regulation of 'business and industry,' an 11-point rise in one year, according to a December CNN poll. Nearly a third of the public, in contrast, said there was 'too little' regulation."
Kuhn argues that the Obama administration's aggressive Big Government liberal agenda have aroused dormant libertarian feelings among Americans.
And far more Americans are libertarian, or libertarian-leaning, than most people think, Kuhn says.
Kuhn uses recent Gallup polls to conclude that "slightly more than a fifth of U.S. adults" are, broadly speaking, more libertarian than anything else. "This is the loose libertarian bloc of American politics," Kuhn says. He further notes that "another third of the electorate allies with this bloc on issues regarding government's reach into private industry." (This would be largely market-oriented, small-government conservatives.)
Thus, together, this libertarian and free-market voting bloc has roughly equal footing with those who favor far more government control of the economy.
Kuhn says that this libertarian-themed opposition to the current Big Government agenda is primarily focused on economics: "There is no wide-ranging call for government to withdraw from social issues," he writes. "A rebirth of traditional libertarianism this is not. It's a more limited libertarianism that it is on the march."
However, David Boaz of the libertarian Cato Institute thinks Kuhn may be wrong about this.
Writes (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102956963855&s=57420&e=001F0MNk9Nf-y2_OBLlLQc1RVS19I39rSXA62kkFRpUhoTEH2dnDMYA3dfemfW tzYfwuXuWNbI1ff6xq5roMy4w8F8D8pX821O59ccoSeAtrh52m USMHx7hTbAzcPtTnZ5LketoPlIXQ1BkPH45oBf0cdbzgM_HfTd tswnhHR_AEvc=) Boaz: "I see some evidence of a social libertarian surge as well ... Polls are finding growing support for marijuana legalization and for marriage equality, especially among young people."
We might add that growing numbers of Americans from across the political spectrum are voicing alarm about government encroachments on fundamental Bill of Rights freedoms.
Sums up Boaz: "As young people and independents also become increasingly disillusioned with President Obama's big-government agenda, this may be a real shift in a libertarian direction."
So says (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102956963855&s=57420&e=001F0MNk9Nf-y1qgBqVeoGH9fJR25Up_6Q5J3ghl25l2k7hMFsh-5NgVzatn2Ykx9WeOX_pDo3mMsD_pddZXpibYgKHe9bsIjiA6dx NXq-Rp18EkI-JW5El5wM-WYLDYri0nxUmLNaPPZIiZLfX7VHtWjVDgTvbW2nJts4VacGGqQ VKLwPXOgUcbgV1UQw2FMYaHqXJW_hEkbX4bbbHitoDKWdXHShD JO7cuC5_VFBlGHM=) journalist David Paul Kuhn, Chief Political Correspondent for RealClearPolitics, a popular and respected political news site with a conservative bent.
"The philosophical casualty of the Great Recession was supposed to be libertarianism," Kuhn writes. "But signs to the contrary are thriving.
"Americans are increasingly opposed to activist government programs. The most significant social movement of 2009, the Tea Party protests, grew out of that opposition. Libertarian heroine Ayn Rand is as popular today as ever. Rand's brilliant and radical laissez faire novel Atlas Shrugged sold roughly 300,000 copies last year, according to BookScan, twice its sales in 2008 and roughly triple annual sales in recent decades.
"We are witnessing a conservative libertarian comeback. It's an oppositional advance, a response to all manners of active-state liberalism since the financial crisis. ...
"Half the public believes there is 'too much' government regulation of 'business and industry,' an 11-point rise in one year, according to a December CNN poll. Nearly a third of the public, in contrast, said there was 'too little' regulation."
Kuhn argues that the Obama administration's aggressive Big Government liberal agenda have aroused dormant libertarian feelings among Americans.
And far more Americans are libertarian, or libertarian-leaning, than most people think, Kuhn says.
Kuhn uses recent Gallup polls to conclude that "slightly more than a fifth of U.S. adults" are, broadly speaking, more libertarian than anything else. "This is the loose libertarian bloc of American politics," Kuhn says. He further notes that "another third of the electorate allies with this bloc on issues regarding government's reach into private industry." (This would be largely market-oriented, small-government conservatives.)
Thus, together, this libertarian and free-market voting bloc has roughly equal footing with those who favor far more government control of the economy.
Kuhn says that this libertarian-themed opposition to the current Big Government agenda is primarily focused on economics: "There is no wide-ranging call for government to withdraw from social issues," he writes. "A rebirth of traditional libertarianism this is not. It's a more limited libertarianism that it is on the march."
However, David Boaz of the libertarian Cato Institute thinks Kuhn may be wrong about this.
Writes (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102956963855&s=57420&e=001F0MNk9Nf-y2_OBLlLQc1RVS19I39rSXA62kkFRpUhoTEH2dnDMYA3dfemfW tzYfwuXuWNbI1ff6xq5roMy4w8F8D8pX821O59ccoSeAtrh52m USMHx7hTbAzcPtTnZ5LketoPlIXQ1BkPH45oBf0cdbzgM_HfTd tswnhHR_AEvc=) Boaz: "I see some evidence of a social libertarian surge as well ... Polls are finding growing support for marijuana legalization and for marriage equality, especially among young people."
We might add that growing numbers of Americans from across the political spectrum are voicing alarm about government encroachments on fundamental Bill of Rights freedoms.
Sums up Boaz: "As young people and independents also become increasingly disillusioned with President Obama's big-government agenda, this may be a real shift in a libertarian direction."