Do you remember the "libertarian moment"?
I wouldn't blame you if not. For a few years around the end of the Obama administration, though, it looked as if the right just might coalesce around restrained foreign policy, opposition to electronic surveillance and other threats to civil liberties, and enthusiasm for an innovative economy, very much including the tech industry. Beyond policy, the libertarian turn was associated with a hip affect that signaled comfort with pop culture. Even though they were personally far from cool, The New York Times compared the movement's electoral figureheads, the father-and-son duo Ron and Rand Paul, to grunge bands Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
In retrospect, those descriptions seem naive. Less than a year after the Times feature was published, the announcement of Donald Trump's presidential campaign sounded the death knell of the libertarian moment (along with Rand Paul's own bid for the presidency). In another unforeseen twist, though, the pendulum seems to now be swinging back toward libertarian instincts.
https://theweek.com/feature/1009651/the ... ian-moment
It would be cool if this were true.
Far too many Republicans drank the Trump kool-aid though.
I don't think that party can be redeemed. Not any time soon.
A lot of Republicans wanted small government when Obama was in power, but embraced big government when Trump got elected.
People like that can't be "libertarian".
