Libertarianism’s Comeback

Americans are increasingly opposed to activist government programs. The most significant social movement of 2009, the Tea Party protests, grew out of that opposition. Libertarian heroine Ayn Rand is as popular today as ever. Rand’s brilliant and radical laissez faire novel “Atlas Shrugged,” sold roughly 300,000 copies last year, according to BookScan, twice its sales in 2008 and roughly triple annual sales in recent decades.

We are witnessing a conservative libertarian comeback. It’s an oppositional advance, a response to all manners of active-state liberalism since the financial crisis. Half the public believes there is “too much” government regulation of “business and industry,” an 11-point rise in one year, according to a December CNN poll. Nearly a third of the public, in contrast, said there was “too little” regulation. – [source]