But libertarianism has failed miserably. Sure, we have pot legalization (heavily taxed, heavily regulated, in certain states only, still a crime under federal law). Great. But by just about every other metric, despite many worthy and some brilliant people’s involvement, the libertarian effort has been a belly flop.
How many federal agencies have been abolished in the last 30 years? How many federal agencies have had their budgets cut by at least 50 percent? Has the debt shrunk? How many overseas military bases does the U.S. have today? Has the Fed ever been audited? How many bad anti-gun laws that actually matter have been struck down on Second Amendment grounds, and those decisions upheld on appeal, after Heller and McDonald, or have lower courts not paid much attention to the inconvenient truth of precedent?
The marginal tax rate in states like California can exceed 50 percent. That’s the 13.3 percent top state income tax rate, plus 37 percent top federal rate, plus 1.45 percent Medicare, totaling 51.75 percent.
Looking at the 1972 Libertarian Party platform suggests the LP has a success rate nearly indistinguishable from 0 percent. It’s been approximately three-quarters of a century since the Foundation for Economic Education, the first recognizably libertarian think tank, was founded–at some point libertarians will reasonably give up.
So what do libertarians do now? I’m afraid that some might see the LP as a joke, and the Democrats as actively malicious, and hold their noses and join the conservative movement. So it may be swooning for big government, but in a lesser-of-multiple-evils sense. It’s a swoon, but not an entirely stupid one.
It is a swoon for big government.
But libertarianism has failed miserably. Sure, we have pot legalization (heavily taxed, heavily regulated, in certain states only, still a crime under federal law). Great. But by just about every other metric, despite many worthy and some brilliant people’s involvement, the libertarian effort has been a belly flop.
How many federal agencies have been abolished in the last 30 years? How many federal agencies have had their budgets cut by at least 50 percent? Has the debt shrunk? How many overseas military bases does the U.S. have today? Has the Fed ever been audited? How many bad anti-gun laws that actually matter have been struck down on Second Amendment grounds, and those decisions upheld on appeal, after Heller and McDonald, or have lower courts not paid much attention to the inconvenient truth of precedent?
The marginal tax rate in states like California can exceed 50 percent. That’s the 13.3 percent top state income tax rate, plus 37 percent top federal rate, plus 1.45 percent Medicare, totaling 51.75 percent.
Looking at the 1972 Libertarian Party platform suggests the LP has a success rate nearly indistinguishable from 0 percent. It’s been approximately three-quarters of a century since the Foundation for Economic Education, the first recognizably libertarian think tank, was founded–at some point libertarians will reasonably give up.
So what do libertarians do now? I’m afraid that some might see the LP as a joke, and the Democrats as actively malicious, and hold their noses and join the conservative movement. So it may be swooning for big government, but in a lesser-of-multiple-evils sense. It’s a swoon, but not an entirely stupid one.