Libertarianism

I was catching up on the back issues of New Yorker accumulating on the coffee table, and read an article about the rise and decline of libertarianism in the GOP. The idea that anything resembling libertarianism was actually popular in the Republican Party is a joke.

Ostensibly, libertarians want to shrink big government. OK, lets talk about that. The US military is (1) one of the largest government programs, and (2) the most transparently socialist of any government enterprise. Name the GOP politicians who were elected to office demanding steep cuts in military spending in the name of shrinking big government. Some other observations:

• libertarians want the nanny state out of the private lives of citizens; ergo, no libertarian supports any law criminalizing abortion, gender transformation therapy or drag shows;

• libertarians want open immigration; consistent with this principle, they oppose laws that forbid or regulate “undocumented” workers;

• libertarians oppose public schools, libraries, parks, fire departments, police forces, roads and bridges, and food and drug safety regulations.

Libertarianism is the political philosophy of middle school boys and arrested development. The closest thing to a libertarian paradise is Somalia.

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