Liberty in Troubled Times

I don’t mean this book to be a legal treatise. Or an elegy about the suffering related to 9/11. Or a political diatribe against any elected official or party. Instead, I hope that this book will serve as a kind of primer for how people can think critically about liberty issues in a world that’s more risky every day. America’s great strength is that it assumes its citizens are intelligent adults, who can make up their own minds about what they want from their government...and what they need in their own lives. Sometimes Americans don’t act like they’re up to this standard of behavior and thought. But I believe that crises often bring out the best in people; and I think the troubles that America has faced since 9/11 will shock its people into thinking about the importance of the American social contract. There’s another point that shapes this book. I believe strongly that the familiar American political dynamic of liberal-versus-conservative is no longer relevant. The new dynamic will be something closer to liberty-versus-statism. The sooner that Americans get past the old terms and get comfortable with the new ones, the more useful our public debates will be. And, finally, I’ve written this book thinking about all of the ridiculous B.S. that I’ve heard in the last several years ascribed to the word libertarian. If I’m at all successful, maybe that word will start to carry a more consistent meaning.