Who Doesn't Hate Libertarians?
Regarding Matt Welch's perspicacious take on Salon's soft fatwa on libertarians, lest you wonder who they meant when they refer to those who are "tip-toeing around this belief system like its adherents are the noble last remnants of a dying breed, still clinging to their ancient, proud ways," I imagine this piece critiquing the Tea Party movement from the June Atlantic by Michael Kinsley is an example of what Gabriel Winant meant.
While calling most Tea Partyers selfish and silly, grand old man of kinda-contrarian liberalism Kinsley says:
If the Tea Party Patriots ever developed a coherent platform or agenda, they would lose half their supporters.
Principled libertarianism is an interesting and even tempting idea. If we wanted to, we could radically reduce the scope of government—defend the country, give poor people enough money to live decently, and leave it at that. But this isn't the TPP vision. The TPP vision is that you can keep your Medicare benefits and balance the budget by ending congressional earmarks, and perhaps the National Endowment for the Arts.
Keep on being tempted, Mr. Kinsley. And remember, nothing is so satisfying to give in to as temptation.
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