In 1968, we were just a few years removed from the passage of Civil Rights legislation that ended Jim Crow segregation in the South. Conservatives had opposed the Civil Rights movement, and were caught on the wrong side of history.
Rather than declare victory, the Civil Rights movement declared perpetual war. Meanwhile, policies that might really help minorities, such as school vouchers to release them from the obligation to attend failed public schools, have become anathema to liberals.
Another perpetual war that began in the 1960's was the War on Poverty. The programs that were enacted in the name of this war had little effect. Nonetheless, poverty had been greatly reduced over the past forty years, thanks to economic growth and the escalation of income.
Arguably, government welfare programs served only to corrupt the poor...
It seems to me that if liberals had paid attention since 1968 rather than remaining in an ideological deep freeze, they would have seen the evidence that took me along the path to libertarianism.
Thanks all the same smiling John, and frankly, nobody hates hippies moreso than myself, but best let's hold out for a more nuanced worldview, if that is even the right word. God knows Hillary Clinton thinks it is. Speaking of libertarians though, or for that matter "1968" (to invoke the popular pejorative merely)...I've recently discovered that Chris Marker's films they are truly, indispensable.
1 comment:
Oh, who am I kidding! he's right! I've been free riding morally for all this time... always interfering with the individual right to make decisions... you know, like, for example, in healthcare, where I wanted to interfer with the God-given right to mortgage my future for healthcare or die. Oh ghost of Milton Friedman, can you ever forgive me?
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