LibUK Articles
Don't do something: just stand there! |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Dec 04 2007 at 7:24 AM |
| LibUK Articles >> General |
The Republican Party Reptile poses the question...
Ronald Reagan, always a help to right-wing writers in search of a pithy quotation, was supposed to have said the above to his Cabinet. At a time when the sole lever that the British Government seeks to deploy is legislative intervention, the do-little approach of Reaganite Republicanism seems doubly attractive. Yet are minarchism and libertarianism synonymous? Is there a significant difference between wishy-washy aspirant smaller-staters and true-believers? It is my opinion (expounded on here) that libertarianism is less a religion than a tendency. Whereas one is a socialist (say) one has libertarian leanings, more or less pronounced.
I rather expect being shot down on this; I certainly don't consider myself a 'true libertarian' if such a thing can be said to exist in England. I wil admit to have failed to finish Atlas Shrugged, and, at gunpoint, may even admit that I think Hayek may, just, have been exagerrating. My role model as a libertarian (which ought really to be obvious from the title of my blog) is PJ O'Rourke, not least because he demonstrates conclusively that political theory doesn't need to be as grindingly pompous and crashingly tedious as it too often is. I'll leave you with a taste.
BackAs a libertarian I believe we should have a federal government simple and circumscribed enough to be run by a average, dull, normal American. With George W. Bush we have half the equation in place.