The Withering Away of the State?

George Will , in reflecting on the nature of the American regime, notices that Michele Bachmann reads von Mises at the beach (well, better than Rand by far) and that the young, raised on the huge and unregulated menu of choice that is the internet, are basically libertarians. The libertarians, as the great man says, are WINNING, even though they really haven’t won the argument over the best or even decent regime. Well, I’ve been telling you that for a long time, but nobody listens to ME. One problem, of course, libertarianism run amok, at least, is the very opposite of the very idea of a regime. And the regime that is the realm of freedom, according to Socrates, isn’t so beautiful or sustainable. It is, especially, really bad for the OLD who have to do everything they can to suck up to the YOUNG. The free regime according to Socrates is democracy, and the libertarians may have been wrong to imagine that their view of liberty was somehow contrary to what the people want. Or maybe not. The people—even the young—don’t want their entitlements and other safety nets to wither away. And increasingly in our aging country, democracy is going to mean rule by the old (who, after all, have nothing better to do than VOTE).