...to recognize the difference between 1993 conservatives and 2009 conservatives. The Republican Party is a collection of many varied conservatisms, all somewhat at odds with one another. Social conservatives, neoconservatives, libertarians, fiscal conservatives, and paleoconservatives all stress different values. For example, Rick Santorum’s socially conservative idea that government has a moral Christian duty to oppose abortion or gay marriage di...
...her who views the internet as a venue for unfettered human freedom, if not human perfectibility. He believes that an internet in which capital and information can travel with uncontrollable momentum and speed could bring on a libertarian utopia which will trickle into and later overwhelm an outmoded, still-fettered external world. Writes Hodgkinson in the Guardian, “Thiel is trying to destroy the real world … and install a virtual world in its pl...
...n by winning more than half of the allotted Republican National Convention delegates in the primaries, but now the Party gets to sign on the dotted line. While there were initially fears that Ron Paul supporters would stage a libertarian uprising at the Convention by forcing a second ballot free-for-all vote, it is now safely assumed that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will be nominated for president and vice-president, respectively. Ron Paul ended up...
...mongst those who hold doctorates in politics as it is amongst college students who happen to enjoy speculation. About the only thing I can say with certainty is that neither Jill Stein of the Green Party nor Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, will be our next president. We can also safely eliminate Herman Cain and the Rent-is-too-damn-high guy. Florida: In the words of Rick Hasen, “Florida is doing all it can to become the next Florida.” Th...
...things up; not by outright winning the election, but by receiving enough votes to affect who the final winner (either Romney or Obama) will be. One name that is often floated for a third party run is Ron Paul. Paul, an ardent libertarian and Republican in name only (RINO), still remains as a candidate for the GOP nomination, although the race is almost over and he has not yet won a state. Paul will stay in the race as long as he can out of a desi...
...n. President Reagan’s term in office, which coincided with a large conservative backlash against the remnants of the welfare movement, set the stage for the future debate on poverty. Influential thinkers like Friedman and the libertarian political scientist Charles Murray advanced the view that the War on Poverty had actually retarded poverty-alleviation efforts by making recipients dependent on assistance and de-incentivizing work. Though povert...
...d by David Hershey-Webb, a partner of the law firm Himmelstein McConnell Gribben Donoghue & Joseph and noted housing attorney. He explains that it is not possible to view individuals as disconnected from one another: “the libertarian perspective is an anti-human one. It ignores the fact that, from a moral perspective, we are all part of an interconnected community, whether we choose to see it that way or not,” he said. “The free market is a d...
...ower-income people. For one thing, all of those deductions apply only if a taxpayer “itemizes” each expense, and fewer lower-income taxpayers do so than those with higher incomes. Chris Edwards, the head of tax policy for the libertarian Cato Institute, points out that many low-income people donate to religious organizations but do not benefit from the deduction. Lower-income people are also more likely to rent their home, he says, and so they ca...
..., including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the new legal challenges will create troublesome delays, if not outright roadblocks. D.C. v. Heller marks a victory for all advocates of looser gun laws, including many civil libertarians, recreational hunters, and other law-abiding citizens. “Most [gun-owners] own guns for hunting and sporting reasons,” commented Spitzer. For one more worrisome group of citizens, however, the change could not co...
...communal organizations. The ethnic violence of the 2007 presidential elections in Kenya provides several documented accounts of this behavior on a large scale. It is an imperfect system, and it should not be interpreted as a libertarian’s fantasy. Kibera is not a case for bootstraps arguments or a place where groups are able to self-organize their way to prosperity if allowed. The slum may hold itself stable and functional, but as the visuals in...
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