Libertarian Surge

Cato Institute Senior Fellow Dan Mitchell

Libertarians are all about limited government and minding our own business in the world. Libertarians are about dumping the progressive income tax, school choice, defending our 2nd Amendment rights, attacking wasteful discretionary spending, and genuine entitlement reform

The Cato Institute’s Dan Mitchell lays out here what Dan refers to as America’s Libertarian Moment and ties in a key menu of libertarian thought that has common sense and the best interests of all Americans at its heart.

Neither the Marxist-based, big-government administration of Barack Obama nor the neocon-centric, big-government-based administration of George Bush have operated on principles of common sense and the best interests of all Americans. Both have been failed presidencies.

I work at the libertarian Cato Institute (aka, America’s most effective think tank), and I think libertarianism is the philosophy that best reflects human decency.

But I sometimes wonder why libertarians aren’t more persuasive and why therearen’t any libertarian societies.

However, maybe there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve been asked by several readers to comment on the debate about whether America is enjoying a libertarian phase, particularly among the so-called millenials. This discussion was triggered by a feature article in the New York Times magazine.

You won’t be surprised to learn that I hope the answer is yes. So it goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyhow) that my fingers are crossed that Nick Gillespie of Reason is correct is his reaction to the NYT article.

Though I worry that the social capital of the American people (of all ages) has been sufficiently eroded that they won’t permit the entitlement reforms and program restructurings that are necessary to control – and hopefully reduce – the burden of government spending. So perhaps David Frum’s take in The Atlantic is more accurate, even if I hope he’s wrong.

For what it’s worth, I’m a bit more optimistic after reading Ben Domenech’s analysis for The Federalist.

I’m a fiscal policy wonk rather than a big-picture libertarian, so I’m not particularly qualified to assess who is right. That being said, you can sense a bit of my hopefulness in the post-post-postscript below.