Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Libertarians

Via Sully:
As governor, Mr Johnson showed that a non-ideological, pragmatic libertarianism can work as a governing philosophy. But neither full-blooded libertarians nor allegedly liberty-loving tea-party enthusiasts really care much about governing. Libertarians, accustomed to dwelling on the margins of American politics, participate in elections without hope of electoral success, if they participate at all. For them, presidential campaigns offer at best an occasion to preach the libertarian gospel to the wary public, and the more table-pounding the better.
The only thing I seem to understand about libertarians is that they love telling you they're libertarians.  They can't really explain what being a libertarian is.  Any sentence  thought  policy can be morphed to subscribe to any argument at any moment to be "libertarian."  They're not interested in explaining why some things are libertarian and some aren't - they don't want rules, but you better not steal their Patrick Henry bubblegum card.  Mostly, libertarians like being libertarians, the unicorn of American politics.  They are the undecideds, but don't wait four years to be courted for their smugness.

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