United Liberty

David Boaz, Vice President of the Cato Institute, doesn’t seem to be encouraged by the state of conservatism by the sights and sounds from CPAC:

What did tell me something very disturbing about the state of conservatism was Mitt Romney’s speech at CPAC. It was a well-written and well-delivered speech, and I agreed with much of what I heard on C-SPAN Radio. But after all the talk about how Republicans have learned their lessons, how they know that they went badly awry during the Bush-Hastert-DeLay years, Romney drew cheers for saying, “I am convinced that history will judge President Bush far more kindly—he pulled us from a deepening recession following the attack of 9-11, he overcame teachers unions to test school children and evaluate schools, he took down the Taliban, waged a war against the jihadists and was not afraid to call it what it is—a war, and he kept us safe.” And then he drew wild, foot-stomping cheers for going on: “I respect his silence even in the face of the assaults on his record that come from this administration. But at the same time, I also respect the loyalty and indefatigable defense of truth that comes from our “I don’t give a damn” Vice President Dick Cheney!” (Text )

I am reminded that in February 2008, after seven disastrous years of overspending, federal intrusion, entitlement expansion, civil liberties abuses, and foundering wars, President Bush spoke at CPAC, and the assembled conservatives greeted him with chants of “Four More Years!”

Really? You wanted more of that? And you’re still cheering it in 2010?

As 2009 winds down, David Boaz notes that Barack Obama has taken ownership of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which he promised to end as a candidate:

Speaking of Iraq in February 2008, candidate Barack Obama said, “I opposed this war in 2002. I will bring this war to an end in 2009. It is time to bring our troops home.” The following month, under fire from Hillary Clinton, he reiterated, ”I was opposed to this war in 2002….I have been against it in 2002, 2003, 2004, 5, 6, 7, 8 and I will bring this war to an end in 2009. So don’t be confused.”

Indeed, in his famous “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow” speech on the night he clinched the Democratic nomination, he also proclaimed, “I am absolutely certain that generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that … this was the moment when we ended a war.”

This is a speech by the Cato Institute’s Vice-President David Boaz that everyone who cares about liberty needs to listen to:

Partial transcript is available here.

David Boaz takes on the hubris of George W. Bush:

The president who

• expanded federal spending by more than a trillion dollars a year, before his disastrous last hundred days
• federalized education
• laid out “a smorgasbord of handouts and subsidies for virtually every energy lobby in Washington.”
• protected the steel, agriculture, and textile industries from foreign competition
• backed farm bills with lavish subsidies for producers
• created the biggest new entitlement since Lyndon Johnson
• bailed out Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, Bank of America, Citigroup, and dozens of other banks
• provided government support for mortgages, credit cards, auto loans and other consumer debt, and
• bailed out Chrysler and General Motors in direct defiance of Congress’s refusal to do so

now says that his successor is about to “replace the risk-and-reward model of the private sector” with “too much government involvement”? Shouldn’t President Bush be doing penance in a monastery somewhere, rather than embarrass the free-market cause by pretending that he wasn’t the biggest-government president in decades?

David Boaz sees good news coming from a Gallup poll on America’s ideological divide based on two questions that sum up the libertarian philosophy:

For more than a dozen years now, the Gallup Poll has been using two questions to categorize respondents by ideology:

• Some people think the government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses. Others think that government should do more to solve our country’s problems. Which comes closer to your own view?

• Some people think the government should promote traditional values in our society. Others think the government should not favor any particular set of values. Which comes closer to your own view?

Combining the responses to those two questions, Gallup found the ideological breakdown of the public shown below. With these two broad questions, Gallup consistently finds about 20 percent of respondents to be libertarian.

Based on the results of those two question, 23% of respondents are philosophically libertarian, as Boaz notes, that is socially liberal and fiscally conservative.

The survey also finds that 40% of respondents describe themselves as conservative, 37% say they are moderate and 20% identify as liberal.

David Boaz offers a few quick quips, jokingly called, Tax Tips for Democrats:

“Paul Krugman can’t understand why people would oppose government control of health care — or skyrocketing deficits, or a federal takeover of education, energy, and finance along with health care — unless they’re driven by racism. But he’s not the only one who sees racists under every bed… . It cannot be the case that every parody of a president who happens to be black is racist. And it is not good for democracy to try to counter every opposing argument with such a blood libel. The good news for advocates of limited government is that our opponents are displaying a striking lack of confidence in the actual arguments for their proposals. If they thought they could win a debate on nationalizing health care, or running trillion-dollar deficits, they wouldn’t need to reach for such smears.” - David Boaz

“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.” - Thomas Jefferson

David Boaz has written a great post explaining why selective taxation, like we saw yesterday as the House passed a 90% tax on AIG bonuses, is a form of tyranny: