Coming June 28: The Declaration of Independents - How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America, by Nick Gillespie & Matt Welch

The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America, by Reason's Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch, will be published by Public Affairs on June 28.

Pre-order your copy now of this season's only political manifesto that name-checks the shock-rock band GWAR's album This Toilet Earth; argues that the survivors will envy the dead in a world where the choices are John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi; and embraces gay marriage, drug legalization, open borders, and casual Fridays.

Written with an engaging touch, The Declaration of Independents puts the pursuit of happiness at the center of a 21st-century American dream while providing an idealistic yet pragmatic blueprint for a country that is tired of debt, recession, and war.

Read this book to learn why: 

• Political independents are the largest voting bloc in America and will determine the 2012 election—and whether the country goes belly up.
• We need independence not just in politics, but from politics. We can't pursue happiness if our federal, state, and local governments are bankrupt—and controlling every aspect of our lives.
• Innovators in everything from air travel to craft beer to pop music show how individuals can be trusted to come up with exciting and fun new ways of radically improving living standards.
• The three areas of our lives most controlled by politics—education, health care, and retirement—are the most broken, and can't be fixed simply by spending more money and exerting more top-down control.
• Our potential future is so bright we'll have to wear shades. But it can only happen if we make it happen by banishing politics from the center of our lives and replacing them with the pursuit of happiness, not cheap partisan advantage.

Nick Gillespie is the editor in chief of the websites Reason.com and Reason.tv and Matt Welch heads up the print edition of Reason, which since 1968 has been a "kick-ass, no-holds-barred political magazine" (New York Post) whose "refusal to carry water for the Republicans and Democrats is deeply refreshing in this age of partisan bickering" (Folio).

Pre-order now at Amazon.com, BN.com, or your favorite online bookstore.

Comments

[Spencer]

If it was translated into Spanish I could order it directly for my libraries. Unfortunately, all I can do is lobby and hope- for now.

[ntnu]

Heh. From Amazon:

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What HAVE you been up to Gillespie?

[Spiny Norman]

I have pre-ordered it from Amazon.

I await my next assignment.

[fish]

Come mow my lawn.

[Somalia]

Stay off mine.

[rather]

Make my coffee bitch 😉

[BoscoH]

The problem with the whole premise of this book is that DARPA invented both the iPad and the Motorola Xoom.

Just kidding... Amazing premise. I can't wait to drop a copy on my partisan friends.

[NotSure]

Compared to many countries, the American party system is incredibly rigid. The recent elections in Finland, could an outside US party even come close to achieving that like in Finland ? Turkey, I think about 7 or 8 years ago, had an election result where the entire ruling party simply vanished. Germany has multiple parties, and usually the smaller parties play a big role in the government, as the bigger SPD or CDU never get enough votes to go it alone. Even Britains staid party system looks more dynamic than in America.

It seems that in every US election, both parties argue that voting any other small party will lead the devil to victory, until people can ignore these arguments and vote for the party they most prefer, there will never be a change. I cannot believe that there are only two choices in a country of +300 million people.

[R C Dean]

I cannot believe that there are only two choices in a country of +300 million people.

Oh, so you believe that deciding between Team Red and Team Blue requires making a choice?

[Richard Stands]

Have you ever seen more than two teams in a football game? Who would everyone root for? Say it with me: USA, USA!

(I wonder how many novelty foam number one hands $14.3 trillion can buy...)

[Doktor Kapitalism]

Tried to do the math for you but somehow, I can't find a price anywhere on google.

Yay sports-apathetic nerds!

[Foogle]

The dynamic in the US is just different. The two parties adopt different platforms depending on the character of the voting public. Libertarians should pick a side and try to frame arguments that will appeal to most people in THAT side. As those people change their minds, the given side will change to keep those people motivated.

[LibertyBill]

The problem is that has been tried and failed. Paleocons calls us "anti-white" and greedy. Neocons call us anti-semites and "weak on terrorism" and liberals call us fascist.

Dr. Paul is going to have a much tougher time getting his foreign policy message out now that Bin Laden is dead. The neocons are going to trumpet that statist policies are effective at getting terrorists.

[OO]

effective perhaps, but not efficient considering 10 yrs

[Doktor Kapitalism]

"liberals call us fascist"

I've always wondered about that one. Isn't it great what the public skoolz produce?

[Fatty Bolger]

Tried and failed? Hardly. Many libertarians just don't bother to vote, let alone attempt to exert influence on a party.

[Foogle]

Um...In general Independents are squishy centrists who vote for the guy who will increase funding to schools ("For the Children") unless a recent war or influx of drugs hasn't boiled up as their top priority.

I know several people with (i)'s who are in fact Libertarians, whom I've nevertheless observed will vote for one side over the other, depending on whether they favor economic or social values to be more important. But by and large, most independents do not believe in a limited government, love the FDA and FCC, and truly vote based on which candidate is going to fix their most immediate problem.

But, sure...independent manifesto. right.

[Joshua Corning]

Independents are squishy centrists

No those are the moderates.

Independents are the grumpy old jerks who tell America to pay for their medicare and get the fuck off their lawn and vote the bums out.

2 out of 3 ain't bad in my book.

[Libertymike]

Especially when there ain't no Coupe de Ville at the bottom of an X box.

[Max]

What I love about this is the can-do attitude and total lack of arrogance.

[fish]

Yeah you never see that in the world improvers who want the state to do all these things.

Those guys are so much more humble and realistic in their expected outcomes.

[Tjeerd]

Although the core principles of libertarianism are honest and well meant (just like ideologies as religions and communism), I'm afraid it isn't workable, because of human dishonesty/greed/corruption. All real world executions of those ideologies are/have been flawed. The USSR, Cuba, China and similar countries are/were never truly socialist/communist and the same applies to capitalist/libertarian countries. On that note, I think the Tea Party movement in general is as libertarian as a tomato is pink, it may have a reddish (or libertarian) hue, but keeping their authoritarian views on social rights (for example: LGBT- and abortion issues) they're not pure.

Over here in Western-Europe most countries balance the two ideologies, although some are leaning towards socialism and others to (classical) liberalism. But they incorporate things of both ideologies. I won't say it's a perfect solution without it's flaws, but it seems to work.

Although I like the idea of a limited government: who is going to fill the void?
I don't trust "the market" to do that, especially larger corporations have the tendency to infringe on the rights of other people (sweatshops, mistreatment of the wood- and oil-industries to natives, etc.)

@NotSure: the district system of US is the cause of that problem. I live in a country with a similar system as Germany (and a multitude of political parties) and over here every vote counts, since we don't have a plurality voting system (i.e. "the winner takes it all"). The percentage of votes a party gets roughly corresponds to the amounts of seats they get (and how many folks of their candidate-list appears in the senate). There are some minor rules which apply in our system, such as participating parties need to make at least a certain number of votes.
As an extra bonus: we hardly have mud-slinging ego-shows for campaigning, it's about the ideas.

In my opinion it's just one step short of the "one party democracies" many dictators and so-called communist countries employ. And I'm afraid both the blue and the red team (as R C Dean nicely wrote) are just two sides of the same coin held in the corporate safe.

[RC not the Cola]

So you don't trust the market or the government, do you question your capability to live an informed and fruitful life?

[Tjeerd]

I distrust power in general. 😉

I try to be as informed as possible, since knowledge is pow... wait...

Although I like the idea of a limited government: who is going to fill the void?
I don't trust "the market" to do that, especially larger corporations have the tendency to infringe on the rights of other people

CONCENTRATION CAMPS!

[sarcasmic]

Although I like the idea of a limited government: who is going to fill the void?
I don't trust "the market" to do that...

You trust an agency that uses threat of violence to acquire its funding over one that requires people to voluntarily exchange the fruits of their labor for a product?

Odd.

[Joe M]

People always kinda stumble over that voluntary bit.

[Res Publica Americana]

Except in my years in Portugal, Britain, Germany, and France, I've never met a libertarian, or anybody even in the same broad ideological boat as even the most rudimentary of country-club American Republicans.

That, and if a constitutionalist faction manages to commandeer the Republican Party and win a supermajority in Congress, they'll have absolute rule over the legislature, and that's an awesome thing. In European political systems, ideologies mix and converge, producing utter, steaming piles of horseshit - a liberal party's economic statism coupled with a conservative party's social paternalism makes for a really shitty country.

[cheap designer shoes]

I like the post...

[silk scarves online]

I can't see what is Libertarian Politics

[Fist of Etiquette]

Are you sure you're wearing that scarf right?

[rather]

If he can't see, he's wearing the blindfold scarf right

[Fatty Bolger]

It's only visible through your monocle.

[discount lv bags]

I am new here!

[discount lv bags]

I am a new here!

[discount lv bags]

In my opinion it's just one step short of the "one party democracies" many dictators and so-called communist countries employ.

[Madlax12]

Can't wait!

[Sudden]

I was planning on ordering it for my Kindle app with my $15 Amazon credit for preordering L.A. Noire release date delivery, but then Amazon said, "no use of credit towards kindle" and I don't do hard copies of anything anymore. Guess I'll have to actually purchase the damn thing.

[Somalia]

I'll wait till some pirate makes it available for nothing. Free minds, free intellectual property. Am I right, maties? Aaar.

[Decentralize Everything!!!]

To some, you might be right, but I think that intellectual property is property that a person has a right to protect.

[CE]

We can't pursue happiness if our federal, state, and local governments are bankrupt?and controlling every aspect of our lives.

When the federal, state, and local governments go bankrupt, maybe they will be less able to control any aspect of our lives.....

[Sarcasmo 2000?]

Anarchy as utopia? Dream on.

[Doktor Kapitalism]

Anarchy where you can use force in self defense might actually work out. An armed society is a polite society.

Might be worth a try, with minarchist countries in reserve in case it doesn't work.

[Sarcasmo 2000?]

I can use force to defend myself now. Against thugs and criminals. I don't need an anarchy of arbitrary laws and freelancing gangs to complicate things. No, I don't believe everyone would "just get along" in anarchotopia.

[tarran]

I don't need an anarchy of arbitrary laws and freelancing gangs to complicate things.

.... and this is different from the status quo how?

[serfee]

Even the libertarian candidates will struggle unless they follow devereaux's advice... http://devereauxdailydose.blogspot.com/

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[TigTii]

Wow, I can hardly wait, This is gonna be good!

http://www.internet-privacy.at.tc

[mr simple]

You kids and your crazy ideas; casual Fridays will be the downfall of America!

[George V]

I'm working (cough) from home today. Does that mean I should put on a suit!

[Vangel]

No Kindle?