A lengthy January 25 The New York Times piece titled “Rand Paul’s Mixed Inheritance” stated this: “As Rand Paul test-markets a presidential candidacy and tries to broaden his appeal, he is also trying to take libertarianism, an ideology long on the fringes of American politics, into the mainstream.”
That is dead wrong. The fact is that libertarianism was the gist of the philosophical foundation of the American political system. Natural individual rights! Limited constitutional government! Free markets! Due process of law!
All these were there at the start, and today’s libertarians simply want to restore them to prominence. But of course The New York Times cares nothing for historical accuracy. It wishes, evidently, to demean the ideas both the American founders, and libertarianism’s most high-profile champion. No wonder, since the Times loves big governmen and extensive interventionism, both domestic and international.
It is also quite evident that the Times has a very distorted view of its own readership, as if they had no other sources of historical information aside from that of the editors of the Times. What was central to the founders is, to the Times, fringe!
Shame on them.
Tibor R. Machan was a professor emeritus of philosophy at Auburn University (AL) and of Business Ethics at the Argyros School of Business & Economics, Chapman University (CA).
