Libertarianism does particularly well in California (a fiscal mess currently). With large public sector unions, a city like San Francisco’s progressive tax structure, and a lot of liberal progressivism that grows government in other ways, you can see why.
Of course, California is often a bellwether for the rest of the country, and now that we have a president who’s interested in growing government to meet his health-care reform aims and is pursuing green jobs (and using the federal government to do so), perhaps libertarians are having their moment in leading opposition to the current administration.
I suspect looking eastwards, that there are many more socially conservative, often religious, more likely fiscally conservative (where much of my interest lies), people wondering what’s happened…
…a sound analysis?
Addition: A Californian writes that it’s just because there’s a larger, more socially liberal base on the West coast at the moment due to migration patterns, American wide-open space and manifest destiny. It’s not as socially acceptable to be socially (or religiously) conservative.
Ok…so have the deeper traditions of religion been transcended, or just ignored by a bunch of people who’ve made their way out West? What’s with Boston?
Related On This Site: Caitlin Flanagan At The Atlantic: ‘Cultivating Failure’ The Five New States of California…and Seattle?…California Dreamers From The Atlantic-A Brief Review Of Kevin Starr’s History Of California Lawrence Lessig At Bloggingheads: ‘Fixing Our Broken System?’
Will Wilkinson And Jonah Goldberg On Bloggingheads: Updating Libertarianism?…From Reason’s Hit And Run: What Kind Of Libertarian Are You?
Am I A Libertarian?
Kant is a major influence on libertarians, from Ayn Rand to Robert Nozick: A Few Thoughts On Robert Nozick’s “Anarchy, State and Utopia”…Link To An Ayn Rand Paper: The Objectivist Attack On Kant
