The Obama administration and Congress may be working overtime to put the government on tax-and-deficit-fueled steroids, to extend their regulatory tentacles and grow the power of the state over us all. But outside the beltway, as IGF contributing author David Boaz writes on the Cato Institute's blog, genuine citizen activism is having an effect on state legislatures that's led to an inspiring culture shift toward liberty on two fronts: the legal use of marijuana and marriage equality. On the latter, Boaz reflects that:
[One of] the striking things about the rapid succession of [pro-marriage-equality state legislative] votes is the lack of public opposition. Conservatives have been remarkably silent, perhaps because some of them genuinely do feel less outrage about legislative action than about "judicial tyranny," and perhaps because opposition to gay marriage is getting to be embarrassing among educated people.
Concludes Boaz:
The "shift to the left" that we seem to observe on economic policy is depressing to libertarians. But that's mostly crisis-driven. When the results of more spending, more taxes, more regulation, and more money creation begin to be visible, we may see the kind of reaction that led to Proposition 13 and the election of Ronald Reagan at the end of the 1970s. Meanwhile, this cultural "shift to the left" is far more encouraging.
3 Comments for “From Below, Two Trends to Cheer”
posted by Bobby on
There’s no cultural shift to the left, there’s a cultural shift to libertarianism and individualism, the idea that people should be able to make their own choices (this isn’t a leftwing concept, leftwingers like making choices for the rest of us).
On economic policy, it’s obvious that the inmates are ruling the asylum. Even the CNBC talking heads have been threatened for not following Lord Obama’s marxist-like policies. Seriously, Obama has balls. It would have been great if George W. Bush had closed the department of education, the national endowment for the arts and humanities, PBS, and all the other liberal rackets. Compared to Obama, Bush was fair-minded, he didn’t like abortion so instead of outlawing it outright, he demanded that foreign organizations getting US tax dollars don’t perform abortions. Seems fair to me, but Obama the Nazi disagreed and now pro-lifers are financing the abortion of third-world whores.
I am pro-choice, but I’m also a taxpayer. If you want to abort, get a sex change, go to college, volunteer, do it with your own money! I’m sick of Obama wasting my tax dollars with his socialism.
posted by Jb on
Libertarian Reluctantly Calls Fire Department
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/32825
posted by TS on
Huzzah libertarianism! And perhaps the harm standard!