In this summer’s column, I have offered the libertarian case on many public policy issues. I have stressed the importance of fiscal responsibility, criticized agricultural subsidies, asserted the need for a more open immigration policy, lamented Washington’s regulatory bureaucracy and championed the REINS Act, and emphasized the benefits of a non-interventionist foreign policy. As the summer comes to a close, I can’t help but to look back on all of these issues and ask a central question: are these ideas—adherence to the Constitution and preservation of our founding values—having an impact on our public policy? Is a strong belief in liberty the wave of the future, or simply a lost cause?
Indeed, as I have written the articles, the Constitution seems to have been dismissed at an even faster rate. Politicians swear oaths to their party platforms in place of the Constitution, and continue to have very little respect for our institutions. News of the extensive NSA spying program has revealed how little our government respects the Fourth Amendment. The President of the United States, a former constitutional law professor, has egregiously abused executive power, eroding checks and balances by “refusing to enforce laws he finds politically inconvenient and enacting others by executive decree.” Even the policies on which I have written have taken a turn for the worse: agricultural subsidies were passed in a different bill, attempts at immigration reform are failing, the REINS Act is increasingly unlikely to succeed (its last attempt died in Senate committee), and further intervention in Syria or Egypt now seems inevitable. Regulations continue to be decreed at an accelerating rate, entitlements continue to grow, and the economy is increasingly controlled by a select few.
Many have argued that America is now in an age of “post-constitutional soft tyranny,” a phrase defined by 19th century French historian and philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville. In “Democracy in America,” Tocqueville writes:
“It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.”
With all the evidence, a strong case can be made that America has already become what Tocqueville most feared. In such times, it is difficult for liberty-minded Americans to remain optimistic about our nation’s future outlook.
Through a different lens, however, libertarianism seems to be on the rise. Molly Ball of The Atlantic points out: “From the rapid rise to prominence of first-term Senator Rand Paul to the state-level movements to legalize gay marriage and marijuana, the philosophy of fiscal conservatism, social liberalism, and restrained foreign policy seems to be gaining currency in American politics.” Ball isn’t far off; a majority of Americans believe that taxes are too high, that there should be a requirement to balance the federal budget, that the federal government spends too much, and that intervening in Iraq was a mistake. Even more, a majority of Americans now support marijuana legalization and gay marriage. Put simply, the ideas of libertarianism are supported by an ever increasing portion of American society.
Rather than remain pessimistic, then, it is imperative that libertarian or liberty-minded individuals continue to fight for our ideals in these trying times. There is still time, as Forbes contributor Bill Frezza put it, to “save ourselves from falling into a permanent state of legislative dysfunction.” We can still win back the American experiment. We can still be the City upon a Hill. Liberty still has a chance.
It is a worthy crusade, and this summer’s column has been my own small attempt at enlisting in the fight. Writing has been an honor, and I sincerely hope that readers have been inspired to undertake their own small crusades on behalf of liberty. It is truly a vital time for America, which, despite everything, still remains the last best hope for man on earth.
The author’s name was removed from this article retroactively at their request.
