Yesterday, I posted on Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch’s view that a new ‘libertarian moment’ awaits America, and that the best days for libertarianism are yet ahead. Their optimism was general, not specific to any strategy.
Reason follows that article from its December issue with another, from January’s issue, on how libertarians will argue against an Obama Administration’s push for more government intervention in economic and social life. David Weigel’s article, entitled, “Beat the New Boss,” is available online now:
http://www.reason.com/news/show/130323.html
The title is an obvious play on the libertarian-oriented Who song, Won’t Get Fooled Again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3mi-bKtDGA
So what does Weigel think Obama’s victory means for libertarians?
Washington’s libertarian activists and think tankers are still trying to wrap their brains around the new reality. Today you can sort them into two rough categories. There are the Bargainers, the ones who believe they can do business with President Barack Obama. And there are the Battlers, the ones who believe Obama can-and should-be impeded while the Republican Party is rebuilt into a genuinely liberty-minded organization….
“No president is going to be as eager to wield the power that Bush arrogated to the executive branch,” [Jameel] Jaffer [of the ACLU] says. “Executive unilateralism was a signature idea of his administration.” The problem is that Obama isn’t so easy to read. After saying he’d vote against it, he voted for a bill that legalized warrantless monitoring of international communications involving people in the United States, previously prohibited by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. “It was by far the most sweeping surveillance statute enacted by the Democratic Congress,” Jaffer says. “We think it’s unconstitutional. I hope a lot of leaders come to recognize that they made a mistake.”
Unquestionably, libertarians are likely to be more respectful of Obama than big-government Republicans. Big-government Republicans – the worst thing to happen to their party since Nixon.
Bombast is not an alternative, winning strategy. Free minds and free markets – thanks, Reason – that’s an alternative. Better – by far – even than, “Yes, We Can.’
How to fight? Libertarians still aren’t sure —
With the Bush administration ending in a frenzy of disappointment, most libertarians don’t expect much more luck with Obama, outside of a few issues involving drug policy and executive power…
Libertarians will fight that good fight — sincerely and on principle.