Gene Healy on Fear of Libertarians

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Statue of Liberty
PascualDeRuvo

Look out: The libertarians are coming! The libertarians are coming! Salon.com offers near-daily warnings about the libertarian "threat." "The anarchists have taken over," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., wails. "This strain of libertarianism … is a very dangerous thought," New Jersey Governor Chris Christie warned last summer in the wake of Edward Snowden's exposure of National Security Agency spying: "I want [these critics] to come to New Jersey and sit across from the widows and the orphans" (Pro tip: don't take the George Washington Bridge). Never before, writes Gene Healy, have so many been so intimidated by so few, with so little political power.