Murray Rothbard: The Truth About Newt Gingrich

Murray Rothbard wrote the following Op-Ed for the Washington Post on December 30, 1994. As always, the amazing Rothbard was able to see into the core of a man so that what he wrote about Gingrich nearly two decades ago reads as fresh as if it was written for this morning's paper.

Newt Gingrich is No Libertarian

By Murray N. Rothbard

Friday, December 30, 1994 ; Page A17
E. J. Dionne is wrong in identifying the Republican elites, in particular the Gingrich faction, with the libertarian revolution {op-ed, Dec. 6} . The truth is that since we have been stuck with a two-party system, any electoral revolution against big government had to be expressed through a Republican victory. So it is certainly true that Newt Gingrich and his faction, as well as Robert Dole, have ridden to power on the libertarian wave.

But to speak, as Mr. Dionne does, of "the rise of libertarians as a key party constituency and the centrality of libertarian ideas to many of the party's new leaders" is going a bit too far.

As Ralph Nader -- no libertarian -- pointed out, it took less than a month for Gingrich, Rep. Dick Armey and the others to betray the new revolution by collaborating with President Clinton and a discredited Congress to push through the World Trade Organization, which institutionalizes government management of world trade, complete with punitive sanctions and fines.

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