Americans have been losing trust in their governmental and civic institutions for decades. The former, in particular, provides a superficial comfort to libertarians, but may not lead to the sort of results we want.
As my colleague Dan Mitchell often points out, bad government policy begets more bad government policy. He calls this “Mitchell’s Law.”
Simply stated, when politicians and bureaucrats fail to solve a problem, or even when they create new ones, they then use this as evidence of a need for more government. The public participates in the process by demanding that politicians “do something” to solve whatever particular issue has galvanized their interest.
Self-interested politicians harness this political energy to accumulate power. And since more government is almost never the actual solution, that just starts the process over again.
Alternatively, Dan Mitchell explains that the solution to our fiscal mess is spending restraint, not tax hikes. He has also shown that the Fed is to blame for inflation, that we should fix the tax code rather than give the IRS more money, and that creative destruction is an essential component of a modern economy rather than something from which we need “protection.”
Even when the public seemingly rejects the status quo it may not move policy in a desirable direction. A public fed up with political dysfunction is vulnerable to the embrace of strongmen who promise that they alone know how to bypass the pesky problems of democracy and “get things done.” But embracing autocrats is an unlikely route to a libertarian paradise.
Breaking the cycle is no easy feat. It requires constant education and advocacy, and years of coalition building, to produce even the smallest gains in the direction of liberty. The upside is that libertarian solutions provide real and sustainable answers to issues of public concern instead of simply growing the fiefdoms of government officials.
Economic headwinds and increasingly stark cultural divisions are driving American politics toward what could prove a pivotal moment. The current political stalemate could break in the direction of big government or expanded liberty. We can only hope to tip things in the right direction.
Increasingly it seems as if the political landscape is dominated by dueling big government philosophies. But no matter how popular they seem at the moment, political movements that can’t enact real solutions to fundamental problems won’t last. That’s why our job, at CF&P and in the broader libertarian movement, is to keep the flame of liberty alive for the most opportune moments.
