Randy Barnett on Libertarianism 3.0 in Wash Post

Last week at The Daily Beast, I posted a
story about what I called “Libertarianism
3.0.” That’s my term for demanding that our political allies in
the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, and elsewhere take
seriously our belief in social tolerance and fiscal
responsibility, in free minds and free markets, in
shrinking the size, scope, and spending of government in the
bedroom and the boardroom.

Over at The Volokh Conspiracy, now housed at The Washigton Post,
Randy (a.k.a. “Rob”) Barnett
comments on my piece:

In relating the role that Charles and David Koch have played in
this development, Gillespie is playing off a new book by
Daniel Schulman, Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers
Became America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty, that Nick
says “is mandatory reading.” A truly fair and balanced account of
the Kochs would freely acknowledge their enormous contributions to
the growth, development, and increasing influence of the modern
libertarian movement, the impact of which is now being felt by the
Republican party. This is indeed big. But Schulman apparently is
also sensitive to what the Left’s shameful McCarthyite treatment of
the Kochs deliberately ignores: the distinctly libertarian
path they have funded, and in which they have personally
participated, that is quite different from that of either the
Republican or Democratic parties, or from either traditional
conservatives on the right and traditional progressives on the
left.

That sort of nuance does not drive campaign contributions, so
instead we have the “vast right wing conspiracy” theories with “the
Koch brothers” cast as Drs. Evil. The reality is actually far more
interesting and potentially momentous. But those who get their
talking points from Harry Reid, MSNBC and the DNC (I am on their
list so I know what they are saying, though they think my name is
“Rob”) are missing the real story. They might just start with Nick
Gillespie’s column on the Daily Beast.

Read his whole bit.