[581] in libertarians
WSJ article highlights
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Vernon Imrich)
Wed Jan 25 14:58:22 1995
To: libertarians@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 14:52:59 EST
From: Vernon Imrich <vimrich@MIT.EDU>
Got this from the RLC News list...
------- Forwarded Message
From: "Eric J. Rittberg" <71562.120@compuserve.com>
To: Bob Reinhardt <RLC-News@tomahawk.welch.jhu.edu>
Subject: Wall Street Journal Article
Two Republican Liberty Caucus Members were quoted in the WALL STREET
JOURNAL article on Libertarians. The article appeared Friday, January 20.
It was a front page story! It was a very long piece.
What follows are a couple interesting excerpts relevant to libertarian
Republicans and the quotes from AZ RLC Members Dr. Jefferey Singer, who
serves as AZ RLC Vice-Chair and Cong. J.D. Hayworth of Mesa, AZ:
Less is More
Libertarian Impulses Show Growing Appeal Among
the Dissafected
________________________
When the Government Fails, Many Voters are Asking:
Who Needs it Anyway?
_________________________
Mixed Blessing for the GOP
By Gerald Steib
Staff Reporter for the WSJ
Libertarians questiuon the need for a government role in virtually
every area of their lives, personal as well as economic. A traditional
conservative might want to comb through the government from top down weed
out certain programs and beef up others, like those designed to enhance
"family values." But a libertarian works from the bottom up, challenging
everthing the government does and finding little worth doing.
Because of their disdain for government, more and more Americans
appear to be drifting -- often unwittingly -- toward a libertarian
philosophy. That seems particularly true among Baby Boomers...
The drift, therefore is substantial but hardly universal, and it
isn't organized. The actual Libertarian Party remains a tiny political
organization...
Shifting sentiments made Republicans' basic antigovernment message so
successful in the November elections and, before that, energized the 1992
explosion of Ross Perot voters. His people tended to be conservative on
fiscal matters, hands-off on social issues and utterly disdainful of
government.
The problem for Republicans is that pure libertarian thinkers would
recoil at efforts by some in the party to pass a school-prayer amendment
or to restrict gay rights...
A true libertarian would do away with laws banning marijuana and hard
drugs, too -- an idea that could set off a food fight at any Republican
gathering. Many libertarians would like to see Social Security become
voluntary. Libertarians see little need for foreign entanglements, so
they see ways to pare defense spending.
Some of these ideas are too rich for the blood of even antigovernment
Republicans, not to mention middle-of-the-roaders. "I do not for a moment
pretend or believe that what is taking place in the Republican Party has
any semblance of libertarianism," asserts Gordon Black, a politically
independent pollster who considers himself a "free market civil
libertarian."
Voters feel government has tried to solve problems but has been
ineffective in doing so. "It's not doctrinaire," says J.D. Hayworth, a
freshman GOP lawmaker from Arizona, as he analyzes his constituents'
views. "It's inherently practical."
Whatever the cause, the signs of a drift toward libertarianism are
everywhere. When freshman Republicans attended an orientation session
sponsored by the conservative Heritage Foundation, for instance, some of
them immediately began complaining about a Heritage analyst's proposal to
phase out farm subsidies over a period of five years. The new lawmakers
didn't at all think the idea too radical...
That the public wants change seems clear from the results of last
fall's elections. But exactly what sort of change has yet to be spelled
out. "In general, it seems like people have lost faith in government as
the solution to problems in general, be they social problems or economic
problems," says Jeffrey Singer, a 43-year old general surgeon from Phoenix
who considers himself a libertarian. He thinks people are now more
disposed to do-it-yourself problems solving.
A sign of the times: The Libertarian Party is about to double its
national staff and move out of its current, modest headquarters on Capitol
Hill. The Libertarians' new home: the Watergate office complex, the scene
of the crime that brought down Richard Nixon.
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Briefly, other interesting tidbits from the very long piece included many
quotes from Ed Crane of the libertarian Cato Institute. Also, the
libertarian influence within the computer field and on the Internet was
extenssively explore. Though they did not mention our RLC-News forum?!
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