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Reader comment on: The Civil Rights Act, the South, and Bear Bryant

Submitted by benjamin (United States), May 22, 2010 23:11

These libertarian assertions that all problems will work themselves out if the free market can just work its magic do not pass historical muster. The absence of regulation and government involvement in the market is not evidence of the market having no bias. Rather, the bias of a free market favors those who already have power, capital, education etc. Perhaps if we could rewind history and start from a state of nature, libertarianism could work. But obviously we cannot. Getting rid of regulation would allow those with power to run roughshod over those without. In some cases, businesses interests might align with what is moral (the AL football team example), and in many cases they won't (the BP oil spill cleanup). But if we accept that certain truths are in fact unalienable, then government must work to make our country more just - there is no other counterbalance in our society that can withstand the power of entrenched interests such as oil companies, banks etc. The Republican Party once had a grand tradition of standing up for the downtrodden - Lincoln, TR - but now it has completed its metamorphosis into a populist front to defend the interests of the wealthy under the guise of libertarianism. At least during Reagan's time he made no bones about siding with corporate America. Rand Paul and his libertarianism may sound populist, but the effects of his policies if ever implemented would do more to turn back the clock on social progress, than anything Reagan could have dreamed of doing.

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