Rick Santorum had a somewhat super Tuesday on February 7th. He won all three Republican presidential primaries, thereby reviving a campaign that had failed to follow up on his victory in Iowa. Santorum could become the sole alternative to Romney for the Republican nomination. If that happens, he could become the GOP nominee in 2012. Should libertarians vote for him? (more)
Two narratives, both wrong, have emerged from the latest round in the cage match otherwise known as the race for the Republican nomination. Influential voices on both sides predict ruin for one team of combatants and triumph for the other. (more)
This week, Sen. Jim DeMint offered some advice to the Republican Party: “The debate in the Republican Party needs to be between libertarians and conservatives. … There’s no longer room for moderates and liberals because we don’t have any money to spend, so I don’t want to be debating with anyone who wants to grow government.” (more)
A lot of libertarians are getting awfully excited about Ron Paul these days, especially after his strong showing in the New Hampshire primaries. As a libertarian myself, I am sometimes tempted to share in this excitement. But it is a temptation, I believe, that I and others with libertarian sympathies ought to resist. And no, it’s not because of those newsletters. (more)
Adherence to constitutional principles. REALLY cutting government spending. Getting government out of our personal lives and into preserving our liberties. Avoiding foreign entanglements we can’t afford. (more)
When Rick Santorum’s nephew endorsed Ron Paul in an op-ed in The Daily Caller this week, he wrote: “If you want another big government politician who supports the status quo to run our country, you should vote for my uncle Rick Santorum.” Santorum respectfully and lovingly dismissed his young nephew’s endorsement. The senator said his nephew was just “going through a phase,” and later added: “I am a Reagan conservative. I am not a libertarian. And the people who are calling me a big government guy are libertarians.” (more)
“Do you support the Occupy protests?” people often ask me. As a libertarian, my answer to that question is long, complex and inconclusive. I’m critical of a lot of the Occupiers’ economic demands, but I’m very proud of how strong the decentralized structure of this movement has become, even if only as a populist showing-of-teeth. (more)
It looks like the lack of sound religion reporting is going to be a real liability this campaign season. Recent weeks have shown that writers on the left are almost wholly ignorant of religion, and writers on the right are unwilling to dismantle the toxic confusion of God and politics lest they suppress the all-important faith vote. (more)
I am a bleeding heart libertarian. Like libertarians in general, I believe in free markets, private property, strong civil liberties and limited government. But unlike standard libertarians, and like progressives, I believe in social justice. I believe, in other words, that the legitimacy of political and economic institutions depends on their being justifiable to all persons who are subject to them, including, and perhaps especially including, the poor and vulnerable. (more)
Everybody knows that libertarians are greedy capitalists who favor the maximization of profit above all else. “Taxation is theft!” they cry, but the exploitation of the working classes fails to elicit any similar moral outrage. Libertarians, everybody knows, care about the rich to the utter neglect of the poor and vulnerable. (more)
I’m an advocate of separating church and state, not because I necessarily worry the latter might suppress the former, but because I want to protect the integrity of the church and related institutions in the face of federal encroachment. Unfortunately, the buzz phrase “separation of church and state” has degenerated into a leftist talking point. This is in large part thanks to groups like the ACLU and various Supreme Court decisions — especially Everson v. Board of Education, which mandated a “wall of separation” between all church and government relations (despite prior state-level involvement), policed by the federal government. (more)
Americans owe Ron Paul a huge debt of gratitude. Four years ago, while Republican candidates for president were talking positively about trillion-dollar adventures in the Middle East, the congressman from Texas built his candidacy for the White House on the principles of sound fiscal management and military restraint. Thanks to his passion, his drive, and his supporters, these principles are now back in vogue. (more)
Over the past half century, the presidential nominating process has slowly evolved to serve two purposes for candidates — to vet their potential electability…and sell stuff. The possibility of Donald Trump using the season finale of The Apprentice to make a big presidential announcement highlights this phenomenon. (more)
“Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it.” — Ayn Rand (more)
Earlier this week, Chris Bedford, national vice-chairman of Young Americans for Freedom, explained why his organization had chosen to expel Ron Paul from YAF’s national advisory board. Bedford makes repeated reference to the guiding “Sharon Statement” drafted by Williams F. Buckley and other conservative leaders in 1960, and states the case for why its principles cannot be reconciled with Paul’s opposition to aggressive U.S. militarism. (more)
In September of 1960 — “a time of moral and political crisis” — nearly 100 of America’s top conservative and libertarian activists gathered at the home of William F. Buckley Jr. in Sharon, Connecticut. There, they laid out the timeless truths and principles that would govern the nation’s first conservative/libertarian activist group — Young Americans for Freedom. (more)
Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Republican, got the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) crowd’s biggest and most animated reaction of any speaker at the event – and took the stage saying: “I’m glad to see the revolution is continuing.” Paul applauded new House freshmen GOP members for blocking the extension of the PATRIOT Act. (more)
Every year our phones get smarter, our cars safer, and our medical treatments more advanced. Inventors and entrepreneurs are constantly pushing back the limits of possibility to improve technology and make our lives better. But there is one important technology which is falling behind: government. The last major breakthrough was in 1787, and we’ve seen only slow, irregular progress since. Things improve in some areas, decline in others, and generally drift along without any noticeable trend. (more)
In the late 1970’s, with interest rates, inflation and taxes at back-breaking levels, a broad array of politicians and interest groups with a shared conviction that excess spending, taxes and regulation must be turned around coalesced into a “conservative movement” that elected Ronald Reagan and set into motion a fundamental shift in American politics. That coalition included a lot of different interests who did not necessarily agree on all issues, but for whom the imperative to save the economy was the rightful priority of the day. (more)
Ron Paul told NPR last Sunday that he’s considering another presidential run. That might seem like the logical extension of his recent ascent to subcommittee chairmanship in the House and informal recognition as “grandfather” of the Tea Party movement that swept Congress last November. But the GOP electorate is still as inhospitable to libertarians as it ever was, and in another White House bid, he’d stand no chance. (more)
