Here is the opening salvo in The New York Times of a lengthy piece on Rand Paul. And it is dead wrong: “As Rand Paul test-markets a presidential candidacy and tries to broaden his appeal, he is also trying to take libertarianism, an ideology long on the fringes of American politics, into the mainstream.”
The fact is that the libertarianism was the gist of the philosophical foundation of the American political system. Natural individual rights! Limited constitutional government! Free market! Due process of law!
All these were there at the start and libertarianism is simply restoring them to prominence. But of course The New York Times care nothing for historical accuracy. It wishes, evidently, to demean the ideas both the American founders and libertarianism champion. No wonder, since The Times loves big government, extensive interventionism, both domestic and international.
It is also quite evident that The Times has a very distorted view of its own readership, as if they had no other sources of historical information aside from that of the editors of The Times. What was central to the founders is, to The Times, fringe!
Shame on them!
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We are delighted to present Lessons in Freedom, essays by Dr. Tibor Machan, for your pleasure.
Dr. Machan holds the R. C. Hoiles Chair in Business Ethics & Free Enterprise at Chapman University's Argyros School of B&E.
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