The Fall of the Libertarians

Opinion Journal ^ | 05/02/2002 | FRANCIS FUKUYAMA

[Pokey78]

Sept. 11 might have also brought down a political movement.

The great free-market revolution that began with the coming to power of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan at the close of the 1970s has finally reached its Thermidor, or point of reversal. Like the French Revolution, it derived its energy from a simple idea of liberty, to wit, that the modern welfare state had grown too large, and that individuals were excessively regulated. The truth of this idea was vindicated by the sudden and unexpected collapse of Communism in 1989, as well as by the performance of the American and British economies in the 1990s.

[MJY1288]

The replies should be VERY INTERESTING :-)

[Rightwing Canuck]

This should be fun.

[Rightwing Canuck]

LOL off by a few seconds.

[JMJ333]

While the dividing line between the two is not always straightforward, libertarianism is a far more radical dogma whose limitations are becoming increasingly clear.

All to clear for those of us who champion morality.

[arkfreepdom]

People actually get paid to write this stuff?

[austinTparty]

Mr. Fukuyama should have divulged that he participated in a book forum at the Cato Institute very recently regarding the whole cloning issue. Here is a transcript.

[Don Myers]

Well, their silly support of illegal drugs and porn for all doesn't help their cause either.

[newwahoo]

Don't you need to rise before you can fall?

[nunya bidness]

Nice catch.

[JMJ333]

LOL

[coloradan]

It was only the government, and not the market or individuals, that could be depended on to send firemen into buildings, or to fight terrorists, or to screen passengers at airports.

1. There exist private fire fighting agencies that sometimes lose employees in tragedies. Government firefighters have no lock on job mortality.

2. Individuals fight terrorists just like governments do, except that in the case of 9-11 the facts indicate the superiority of citizens. Note that the sole 9-11 hijacked plane that didn't make it to its target was taken down by private individual citizens, like Todd Beamer of "Let's roll!" fame, and not any government intervention.

3. The screening of passengers at airports not only didn't prevent 9-11 from happening, it may have facilitated it by disarming the passengers such that just 4 or 5 men with boxcutters could overpower the crew and seize control. Had the government not disarmed the passengers, there is some chance the terrorists would have been shot and the plane landed safely. But, thanks to the government-imposed airline-traveller defenselessness act, no such luck.

The author of this hit piece should do better than making three lies in one sentence to make his case.

[monday]

"It is hard to object to therapeutic aims, such as the elimination of genetic tendencies toward diseases. "

So true. If we have the ability to help our children live better lives, we will use it. All his other arguments mean little in the face of this.

[LarryLied]

It was all over the day Bill Mahr proclaimed himself a Libertarian.

[bourbon]

I for one have almost stopped reading Glenn Harland Reynolds' Instapundit.com (normally a VERY good site) because of his intractable foolishness on the issue of human cloning.

He's an interesting case though. He and other 'libertarian-leaning' warbloggers are not calling themselves libertarians or classical liberals now b/c they emphatically support the current war and fear being asscoiated with Justin Raimondo-types. Now, following the standard libertarian urge to differentiate oneself from the crowd, he calls himself a Whig. hehehehehee. There's a recipe for success in American politics, libertarians! Start calling yourselves Whigs. HAHAHAHAHA.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Mr. Fukuyama should have divulged that he participated in a book forum at the Cato Institute very recently regarding the whole cloning issue.

Why? Is there some sort of legal case in which he is the judge, and has to disqualify himself because he has an opinion on the subject.

[gcruse]

Gee, we are to blame for something? I keep hearing that to be a libertarian is just a waste of time. Imagine that.

[Pokey78]

Yeah. A Libertarian that votes for Ralph Nader.

Makes sense to me!. . . . . . not.

[monday]

"It was all over the day Bill Mahr proclaimed himself a Libertarian."

Bill Mahr doesn't even know what a Libertarian is, how would he know if he was one? He isn't by the way;-)