Authoritarian moment? What authoritarian moment?

A doctrinaire libertarian could mourn America’s diminished commitment to non-intervention in the private sector on a host of issues related to economic liberty and property rights. But when compared with much of the postwar period, Americans are certainly freer today than they were yesterday.

Americans are now freer to decide for themselves if they want to join a labor union, and they’re less likely to face penalties or suffer a loss of work if they decline. Those Americans who do not want to join a union in an organized shop are no longer required to pay a portion of their income to an organization to which they do not belong. In this century, unconstitutional restrictions on firearm ownership have fallen away, one after another.

Both of America’s two major political parties have deferred to small-d democracy to such a degree that they’ve sacrificed their institutional prerogatives to determine who is fit to represent those organizations on the national stage. Since 1968, America’s two major parties have dismantled the smoke-filled rooms and built new grassroots fundraising mechanisms, all in an effort to tear down the power enjoyed by a small cadre of institutional gatekeepers. The results of this experiment in radical democracy are decidedly mixed, but that it is an experiment in radical democracy is undeniable.