They’re libertarians and they don’t know it. That’s long been the view of Cato Institute co-founder Ed Crane. It’s what he expressed decades ago to recently passed Cato executive vice president David Boaz. Boaz was a conservative when he first met Crane, but Crane knew from their conversations that Boaz was a libertarian precisely because Boaz was for freedom of choice, the concept that animates libertarianism.
People should be free to live as they want, while owning the good or bad results of their individual decisions. How else for individuals to positively evolve?
In a policy way, most unwittingly express their libertarianism when they reveal disdain for the policies of whomever occupies the White House at any given time. A frequent libertarian response is that you don’t dislike the occupant as much as you’re troubled by how much power the occupant has.
It speaks to an animating principle of libertarianism in a U.S. policy sense: abide a Constitution that leaves the vast majority of policymaking to the states so that free people can choose their individual policy bliss. If policymaking is local, people per Crane can go to bed early on presidential election nights.
Crane’s thinking and more came to mind while reading prominent Australian businessman Ron Manners’ new book, The Impatient Libertarian: Which Road Ahead? Manners is the founder and former Chairman of Croesus Mining, a major gold producer, among a myriad of pursuits that includes his role as Chairman of the Mannkal Economic Education Foundation, a libertarian think tank.
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