異鄉人

The libertarian option from Adam Smith Institution Blog

According to the Cato Institute's David Boaz in the Wall Street Journal recently, Gallup polls show that around 20% of the US population are neither liberal nor conservative but libertarian – opposing the use of government either to "promote traditional values" or to "do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses."

So where, he asks, are the libertarians in politics and the media? With big-government conservatives spending money like Imelda Marcos in a shoe store, there seems to be nobody to represent the country's libertarians. The Democrats vote against tax cuts and Social Security privatization. The Republicans want to ban abortion and gay partnerships. Media debate divides simply into either pro-Bush or (mostly) anti-Bush. What's a libertarian to do?

Along with Gallup, exit polls suggest that Boaz is right, and that there are large numbers of unrepresented Americans who just hate government pushing them around. About 17m of those who voted for John Kerry did not think the government should do more to solve the country's problems. And 28m Bush voters support either gay marriage or civil unions. That's 45m people with broadly libertarian views. But, says Boaz, you'd never know it from watching TV, or listening to elected politicians.