You can dismiss everything he says easily, logically, emotionally and bring up all the myriad ways in which he’s just WRONG WRONG WRONG and how he’s really a COMMIE DOUCHEBAG who hates womenz and all that (that is what unmoderated comments sections are for, right?).
But for anybody interested in growing the influence and impact of liberatarian ideas, it’s worth thinking about the ways in which the libertarian identity fails to move a guy who is anti-prohibition, anti-empire (belatedly!), pro free expression, and pro-much more that falls in line with a libertarian perspective. For better or worse, a Venn diagram of Maher and libertarianism is going to show a huge amount of overlap on things. The same is common among right-wingers too, where many people agree with libertarians on anywhere from 50 percent to 90 percent of issues but recoil from any association with the label or the beautiful, clean-smelling, super-smart, and just-swell folks who self-identify as libertarian.
Without betraying core values, are there ways we can reach these simpatico folks on the right or the left, so as to kickstart (perpetuate!) what Matt Welch and I once bravely called “The Libertarian Moment” and wrote a whole book about?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member