The World's First Libertarian President

Plus: A listener asks the editors about libertarians and "reflexive contrarianism."

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The World's First Libertarian President

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman laud the election of libertarian economist Javier Milei in Argentina and parse the results of the federal case involving the online advertising platform Backpage.

0:31—Javier Milei elected president of Argentina

16:25—Verdicts in the Backpage trial

36:43—Weekly Listener Question

46:44—Sam Altman out at OpenAI

54:48—This week's cultural recommendations

Mentioned in this podcast:

"Marcos Falcone: Can a Libertarian Still Win in Argentina?" by Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe

"Is Javier Milei's Movement in Argentina a Cult of Personality in the Name of Liberty?" by Jose Benegas and Antonella Marty

"Photo: Argentina's Libertarian Moment?" by Jason Russell

"Gloria Álvarez and Eduardo Marty: The Potential for a Libertarian President in Argentina," by Zach Weissmueller

"The Argentine Libertarian Dog-Friendly Darling?" by Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Nick Gillespie

"Don't Confuse Javier Milei With Jair Bolsonaro," by Daniel Raisbeck

"Backpage: The Monumental Free Speech Case the Media Ignored," by Matt Welch

"Why Kamala Harris Won't Be Asked About the Suicide of a Newspaperman She Persecuted," by Matt Welch

"Backpage Founder, Alt-Weekly Entrepreneur, and Free Speech Warrior James Larkin Has Died," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"Prosecutors Say Backpage Defendants Shouldn't Be Allowed To Reference the 1st Amendment," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"5 Years After the Backpage Shutdown, Sex Workers—and Free Speech—Are Still Suffering," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"The Sex-Ad Law FOSTA Was a Mistake. Some Lawmakers Want to Fix It." by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"Maggy Krell Repackages Her Bogus Backpage Prosecution Into a Book," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"The War on Backpage.com Is a War on Sex Workers," by Paul Detrick

"The Senate Accused Them of Selling Kids for Sex. The FBI Raided Their Homes. Backpage.com's Founders Speak for the First Time," by Elizabeth Nolan

"Are Right-Wingers More Prone to Believe Conspiracy Theories than Left-Wingers?"  by Ilya Somin

"RFK Jr.: The Reason Interview," by Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller

"Would Anarcho-Capitalism Be a Disaster? A Soho Forum Debate," by Gene Epstein, Bryan Caplan, and Yaron Brook

"I Used ChatGPT To Make Pokémon Versions of Trump, Biden, and RFK Jr.," by Nick Gillespie

"Will AI Destroy Humanity?" by Gene Epstein

"Biden Issues 'A.I. Red Tape Wishlist,'" by Ronald Bailey

"Competition, Not Antitrust, Is Humbling the Tech Giants," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"Coleman Hughes: The End of Race Politics?" by Nick Gillespie

Send your questions to [e-mail]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

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• Join us on November 27 in New York City for a viewing (and afterparty) of the new Reason documentary: Bitcoin, Bathhouses, and the Future of Energy. Tickets and details here.  

Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.

Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

What are we consuming this week?

Nick Gillespie

• Rustin

Peter Suderman

• Double Chicken Please

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• SpaceX Starship's Second Flight Test

Matt Welch

• It Ain't Over

---

Comments

[Public Entelectual]

How do you say :
"Viva el loco!"
in Basque?

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[Roberta]

First libertarian president?! What was George Washington, chopped liver?

[VULGAR MADMAN]

They told me Obama was the first libertarian president.

[ConnorBarrenger]

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[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

Owned slaves and wooden teeth.
Icky

[CE]

Washington was a general. Hello, Military-Industrial Complex?

The first libertarian President was obviously Thomas Jefferson, a racist right-wing radical extremist and secessionist. He tried to starve the federal government in the crib by ending internal taxes.

[skunkman]

Libertarian? Yeah, right.

[LIBertrans]

Ya gotta hand it to them girl-bullying, race-suicide mystics... they figure out who to ape. When people needed to be shot by cops for Jesus because beer and Rockefeller subsidies, mimesis spawned preachers, books, articles all "proving" that robbing and shooting tipplers was the road to prosperity. People switched to dope, so THAT became the avatar of Satan. Soon stock markets crashed worldwide and more wars broke out. Today's superstitious girl-bulliers claim ending the Fed and legalizing murder equal prosperity.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Crack is whack.

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

No, the people freaking out are your leftist buddies, you drooling senile old faggot.

[I woke up when Hillary talked about Reconstruction]

You know, teachers recognize your type by your bad writing. Tons of words with no referent except in your head. Race-suicide mystics , eg, rules out all true mystics !!!

[Dillinger]

>>"reflexive contrarianism."

mme dillinger's mother, who I love to death.

[TheReEncogitationer]

Benny Hill is alive and a Libertarian too? Oh, wait...

I forgot I need to renew my glasses Rx.
🙂
😉

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Nope. He isn’t libertarian, he lives in the White House, and now he chases 6 year olds around.

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

He has the Secret Service hold them down for him.

[Ersatz]

just like Bill Clinton before him! ... A Democrat Prez tradition?
Wait... that was when he was governor and it was his state troopers, wasnt it- not the secret service

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

“The World’s First Libertarian President”

DISINFORMATION!!!

Official state media tells the truth: Milei is a Nazi worse than Hitler. Agree or face the consequences!

[Bill Falcon]

The folks he beat are Peronites...

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Do they all have gum disease?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Only the orthodox.

[I woke up when Hillary talked about Reconstruction]

But he isn't literally a Nazi so nobody knows whether this statement has a REFERENT.

[Jim Logajan]

He doesn't stand a chance of succeeding. Alas.

[LIBertrans]

Could be worse... Before the LP organized, Atlas Shrugged/Gilligan's Island trainwrecks like Argentina yielded liberation theology suicide régimes or girl-bullying Caudillo de Díos replays of Mussolini, Franco and Hitler channeling Billy Sunday and murdering people in the wee hours. Even fake "libertarian"-drag fascisti are an improvement on THOSE traditional alternatives.

[Truthfulness]

You're deeply mistaken.

1) There's no record of anything you claimed happened that was caused by Liberation Theology.
2) It isn't "girl-bullying" to demand accountability in the actions of women, and also men for that matter.
3) When the alternative is Stalinist dictatorship, Caudillos like Franco are actually much, much more desirable as the lesser of two evils.
4) Mussolini was an atheist, and Hitler had strong anti-Christian sentiment and wanted it to replace the religion with occultic paganism.
5) Milei is more a libertarian that you are. Then again, so does over half of the population.

"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." - Matthew 11:15

[charliehall]

So you would have supported Hitler and Mussolini in WW2 against Stalin?

Franco's Nationalists murdered more people than the Republicans, even though the Republicans were dominated by Communists before the Spanish Civil War was halfway through.

[Truthfulness]

So you would have supported Hitler and Mussolini in WW2 against Stalin?

If the other option is the eradication of your own existence, then yes. And similarly, if I were a Jewish man and given the option to team up with Stalin to put an end to Hitler, I would totally do so (and this is what the U.S. and U.K. did). Would you fault me, or Franklin, or Churchill, for doing that because Stalin's regime was also responsible for millions of deaths?

Franco’s Nationalists murdered more people than the Republicans, even though the Republicans were dominated by Communists before the Spanish Civil War was halfway through.

No. Spain's White Terror only had higher numbers because it lasted much longer than the communist rule. The prior regime was murdering people at a more grave rate before Franco put an end to it. No one is claiming he was a good man, but he nonetheless remains the lesser of two evils:
https://www.mallorcadiario.com/franco-mal-menor-2

Translate away and give it a read.

[Bill Falcon]

My god he could be a "social conservative"...you know against abortion and sexually mutilating kids who are told by their woke moms they are the other gender. And maybe he is against open borders..

Shutting the central bank, getting rid of half of the federal govt and stopping the money printing...none of that is libertarian to KMW and friends it seems.

What is the greater human good: getting rid of the central bank or allowing abortion up to birth?

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Most people only support abortion in the first trimester.

[NOYB2]

Yes, but the "libertarians" at Reason support abortion until birth.

[charliehall]

As does Judaism -- if the life of the mother is at risk.

[charliehall]

That said, in most countries where elective abortions are legal, they are only legal up to 12 or 14 weeks of pregnancy. And they are paid for by the country's universal health insurance.

[Truthfulness]

charliehall, give this a read:
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-misuse-of-exodus-21-22-25-by-pro-choice-advocates

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Neither compare to food trucks.

[Roberta]

What are ferrets, chopped liver?

[CE]

Sounds like Andrew Jackson was a libertarian too -- anti-Fed, subjected the country to the ill-advised austerity of balancing the budget.

[Bill Falcon]

The US did pretty good without a central bank..most of us are here because our ancestors immigrated from Europe to a land of insane industrial growth offering the poor peasants of Europe the chance to own land, a house and so on. Central banks as the man once said are bad economics, immoral, and anti-liberty.

But govts have to buy votes and fight wars so the bank stays I guess?

[charliehall]

Jackson's ending of the central bank and balancing the budget resulted in the worst economic misery that US had ever experienced.

[Truthfulness]

It was still the right thing to do as it put an end to the corrupt bank. Long-term results were positive.

[Mickey Rat]

It shows that despite their protests against "culture wars", the Culture War is their high priority.

[(Impeach Robert L. Peters) Weigel's Cock Ring]

Because they're just a bunch of fuckin' liars. Bullshit artists. Fakes. Frauds. Fugazis. Con men. Or con women in the case of the hyphenated blue-haired freak Mingo-Mango-Mongo.

[charliehall]

If you don't have a central bank under the auspices of the government, you will have one that is under the auspices of the private financial sector. That was what the US had from 1853 to 1914. And that system resulted in repeated economic crises as it lacked the ability to respond effectively to economic disasters. It also of course priortized the interests of its banker-owners over that of the public. The folks who want to abolish the Fed are useful idiots for oligarchs.

[I woke up when Hillary talked about Reconstruction]

I do know that people who post great moral dilemmas and have no opinion must 1) NOT consider it a dilemma , and 2) are admitting they are not moral people
and logically, if killing a baby is wrong it is wrong without regard to central banking. What a terrible example you must give to younger folks around you

[NOYB2]

The World's First Libertarian President

The guy is more conservative and more of a showman and populist than Trump. So, if he is a "libertarian president" then Trump has to be as well.

[Syd Henderson]

Oh crap. Argentina is doomed! Again!

[Public Entelectual]

At the very least it faces a taxes chainsaw massacre.

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

Silent Cal would like a word

[princemanufacturing]

Most people only support abortion in the first trimester.

[I woke up when Hillary talked about Reconstruction]

It is taking a unique irrepeatable human life.It is wrong.
Does 'it' flip into a human nature one day after 1st trimester !!!

[Public Entelectual]

Collared by a reporter who said:
"Mister President, my editor bet me I couldn't get three words out of you!"
Coolidge replied:
"You lose."

[Azathoth!!]

First libertarian president?

Milei calls himself an anarcho-capitalist. Not a libertarian.

Why is it that we never see the LP supporting these people?

They glom on to Republicans Ron Paul, his son Rand, sometimes, Thomas Massie occasionally. They suggest that these Republicans are libertarian when it suits them and then abandons them whenever their leftist masters demand they tow the line?

Leftist masters?

Of course.

Else why is it that the LP gives us Sarwark and Johnson, Weld and Jorgensen?

How is it that LP leadership has so consistently fallen on the collectivist side of the equation while the people who call themselves 'small-l' libertarians, the bulk of those who vote LP are constantly screaming for libertarian solutions that the left DOESN'T endorse.

Milei isn't a libertarian.

[Bill Falcon]

take the shot, bake the cake, all glory to Trotsky and Zelinsky...and sexual mutilation of kids with Transmunchhosen (ok I spelled it wrong but you get the point) by proxy parents.

KMW, ENB, Matt and Nick have their priorities straight. bake that damn cake and bend over for your CRT enema.

[I woke up when Hillary talked about Reconstruction]

Pure useless word wrangling to avoid anything substantive.

[Witch-Burning Nazi]

Well, at least he sure looks the part.

[SRG2]

So nobody here can confirm whether he's a libertarian, Perhaps the important thing is what he isn't.

[Truthfulness]

He isn't a totalitarian, unlike many Democrats.

[Lawrence M. Ludlow]

What a farcical response to the "question" accusing libertarians of being too conspiracy minded. So we are supposed to just say "no, I don't want to" and pretend we don't see the following connections:
* Big-Pharma immunity for "vax" lawsuits
* Govt-paid Big Pharma profits
* Stifling discussions of adverse events
* Transfer of wealth due to covid-related programs
* Social-media censorship on the issue revealed by Matt Taibbi (is anyone paying attention at Reason?)
* Govt collusion (presence and direction) at Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other media
* Destruction of small businesses & subsidization of big businesses
The Reason Roundtable response was embarrassing.

[charliehall]

The US President who was closest to Libertarian was Grover Cleveland. And he was the US President under which the worst economic disaster it had ever had occurred. He steadfastly held to his principles of refusing to interfere with the free market. (Back then, the Democrats were the laissez-faire party and the Republicans were the corporate welfare party.)

The voters made the Democratic Party pay for its commitment to laissez-faire. The House of Representatives went from a 94 seat Democratic majority to a 160 seat Republican majority in the 1894 midterm elections. That remains the biggest swing of party affiliation in US history. The laissez-faire wing of the Democratic Party was totally destroyed. Voters in democracies want government to protect them from economic catastrophe. You can't have a libertarian economic system without a very non-libertarian political system.

[Adrian Smith]

For any indulgence, the development of a suborbital missile is a transition to a new competitive level, HyImpulse Moves to Koonibba For 1st Launch. The integration of newer engines requires a certain missile design.

[Brian DuBridge]

So since we have the Libertarian freedom to say whatever we want, must we then spew profanity like it has some value to the discussion? It does not, and politeness goes a long way in influencing listeners. It was first Leftists who engaged in the practice.

[I woke up when Hillary talked about Reconstruction]

Very good. thanks