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Young people at former presidential candidate and
Texas Congressman Ron Paul's Rally for the Republic
in 2008 in Minnesota. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
During the 2008 campaign, the Boston
Globe reported, "Ron Paul, 72,
amassed a considerable following
among younger voters, largely
because his libertarian message was
deemed countercultural." But will it
ever translate into a libertarian
future?
A recent Libertarian Party of Texas news release began, "Three highly-regarded national polls have confirmed a growing Libertarian trend in U.S. politics."
The Pew Research Center annual report on political values and trends concluded, "these independents are more likely to be economically conservative and socially tolerant."
In simple lay terms, that defines libertarians.
The Washington Post/ABC poll reported, "87% of Americans are concerned by the growing federal deficit, and 53% were not confident in the government's ability to cut wasteful spending in the President's economic recovery package."
Which is another way of saying that a majority of Americans take the libertarian view on these issues.
A Rasmussen Reports poll discovered that "Fifty-nine percent (59%) of politically independent Americans viewed 'big government' as the greatest threat" to the country in the future, as opposed to big business or big labor.
Again consistent with libertarian philosophy.
So what does this have to do with Gen Y?
Consider just one source, an opinion piece in the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel by Jim Burkee, The Liberty-loving Gen-Yers will reshape politics.
The demographic that voted for Democrats 2-to-1 were young people between 18 and 29, the leading edge of those born between 1980 and 1995, who are now being tagged as Generation Y.
But Burkee warns the Dems: "While they seem to lean to the left, they're actually more libertarian than liberal, a fact that will reshape the way we think about liberalism and conservatism in decades to come."
Burkee's assessment of the Y's guys and gals is a daisy-chained litany of libertarian leanings:
"...the most liberty-loving generation since the era of Andrew Jackson...In short, they love their freedom...more likely to see all politicians as corrupt...support liberalization of drug laws...less likely to support restrictions on immigration...they are also free-traders...supportive of globalization...support proposals to privatize Social Security..."
And just for good measure... "It's the classical liberalism of Milton Friedman, who argued that political and economic freedom are deeply interrelated - that one cannot exist without the other. They've grown up with that kind of freedom, and as voting adults, they have come to expect it."
Sounds pretty exciting for the cause of real freedom in the near future, right?
Unfortunately, Jesse Walker, writing for the libertarian website reasononline, also read the Jim Burkee bit and asks the elder cohort of freedom fomenters, "Sound familiar?"
Walker then cites (1) a 1986 book brought out by the libertarian Cato Institute describing Baby Boomers as "economically conservative but socially liberal" (there's those libertarianish waffle words again) and (2) a 1995 USA Today print piece claiming that many Gen-Xers reject politics and "lean libertarian."
So why hasn't the country become an Anarcho-Capitalist Libertarian utopia already?
While optimism is always preferred, any recipe that calls for baking a future libertarian pie-in-the-sky needs to be taken with that pessimist's favorite ingredient, a pinch of salt.
Still, the prospect of offering up the just desserts of humble pie to freedom's enemies would be a dish happily served by libertarians, cold or otherwise.
If the Gen Y-ers really are libertarianesk, let's whet their appetites for more.
Comments
Shh, don't tell the bureaucrats in Washington D. C., they think that liberals are the leading party. Do not attempt to tell a liberal anything because they are right and you are wrong, but let's hope you're right and the study is right...;)
It's "Libertarianesque," not "Libertarianesk."
You ask yourself a good question. Why HASN'T the country become a Libertarian paradise, if the Baby Boomers were such proto-Libertarians? Meditate on that question.
Maybe "loving of freedom" isn't unique to Libertarianism. Maybe "see[ing] all politicians as corrupt" isn't, either. Maybe those young Boomers, as they aged and gained experience, came to understand that isolationism doesn't work any better for individuals than it does for nations. That we are stronger when we work together as a society than we would be as a collection of individuals.
The appeal of Libertarianism fades as one comes to recognize the intractability of large social issues in the face of individual action. One person cannot combat poverty; a nation, acting collectively through its government, can. Libertarianism's denial of the benefits of leveraging the collective power of society in this way is ultimately a deal-breaker; and that is why you lose.
Abolish Federal Reserve
Moonbat, I think you do not understand libertarianism. Feel free to organize any group of people you want. This is completely compatible with libertariansim. If want you are doing will benefit those participating, then you should have no problems getting them to VOLUNTARILY agree. I also don't know why you think libertarians favor isolationism for either individuals or nations. Feel free to work together all you'd like. It's not "working together" when I come to your house and take your things and go build something with it, that's just called stealing.
Why is it stealing to be asked to give back a portion of my wages to the society that enabled me to earn those wages in the first place? Why should I allow people to opt out of doing the same and yet benefit from the projects my tax dollars finance?
And if you can't see that Libertarianism is all about isolating oneself from all others, you're just blind. It's the denial of any ultimate responsibility to anyone else, complete self-centeredness. There is no such thing as a "Libertarian society;" because to have a society means you feel responsibility towards the group, and Libertarianism denies that responsibility. Society has no claim on the individual, yet the individual can demand behavior of the society to which he nominally belongs. That's just nonsensical.
But it sure is attractive to younger people. Fortunately, with experience and the hard lessons of life, the benefits of full participation in a larger society usually sink in; and the Libertarian impulse fades away.
Who is this society person you speak of. I interact with individuals all the time and any person who benefits me I pay them for those services a fair price. How do I know what a fair price is? It's the price me and him agree on. Simple as that. I don't want to benefit from your "services". Any service you provide is usually something I don't even want (ie watching someone rot in jail because he smoked marijuana, or off killing brown people) or a service the I wish I could pay for myself, but you won't let me (ie schools, they are funded through taxes and I could build my own, but then I'd be paying for yours and mine).
I never demand anything of society. Again I don't even know what that means. I only demand things of individuals and that is only one thing, if you would like to trade with me, do so on a voluntary basis, quite simple actually. And libertarians don't want isolationism, they simply want free trade, not forced "services"
The reason why America hasn't become Libertarian is really quite simple: contrary to popular belief, the USA is ruled by an oligarchy of powerful people and our elections are a sham bit of propaganda used to trick the sheeple into compliance.
If this sounds extreme, just look at the actual actions of the US govenment over the past 18 months under both Bush and Obama.
Whenever a group pf well-connected rich people get in trouble, the Federal Government and/or Federal Reserve leap to action nearly instantaneously with an unconstitutional torrent of money hot off the printing presses.
When the issue is anything about human rights, accountability, transparency, or even Social-Democratic programs, well those things just aren't priorities.
Rhetoric aside, the fruits of government efforts tell the truth about its nature.
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