The Reason Roundtable

Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch discuss whether immigration is an "emergency," whether shutdowns are good for libertarians, and why Tulsi Gabbard is driving people crazy.

Audio production by Ian Keyser.

'Hallon' by Christian Bjoerklund is licensed under CC BY NC SA 3.0

Rebutting Krugman, cracking on Graham, and searching in vain for "freedom" in a caucus.

"The conservative [movement] needs to be rethought in a variety of ways," says Charlie Sykes, the editor in chief of The Bulwark, the conservative website started in part by William Kristol in the wake of the demise of The Weekly Standard. "There's no question that Trumpism represents a repudiation of much of the conservative tradition, but we're not going to be able to simply turn the clock back."

A longtime radio host and best-selling author based in Milwaukee and early critic of Donald Trump, Sykes says that The Bulwark, whose motto is "conservatism conserved," is a place where the broadly defined right, including libertarians, can go to think through what happened to the Republican Party and what might come next in American politics. Calling Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk an opportunistic "grifter," Sykes tells Reason that "to the extent that Republicans lash themselves to the mast of Trumpism...they make it more possible that we're going to have President Bernie Sanders and fully nationalized health care."

Photo credit: St. Martin's Press.

Q&A about the rise of right-wing "grifters" such as Charlie Kirk, the death of The Weekly Standard, and the future of the American right.

What to expect at LibertyCon, the annual meeting of the largest libertarian student group on the planet (plus how to get 40 percent off registration).

"We are fighting for free speech every single day," says Students for Liberty's CEO Wolf von Laer, who also contends that college campuses around the world are "breeding grounds for socialism."

Nick Gillespie spoke with Laer, who has a Ph.D. in political economy from King's College (London), and David Clement, director of external relations, about SFL's upcoming LibertyCon, which takes place in Washington, D.C., January 17-20, and pulls together 2,000 students, activists, and libertarians from all over the world.

Reason is a sponsor of LibertyCon and folks such as Katherine Mangu-Ward, Matt Welch, Peter Suderman, Robby Soave, and Elizabeth Nolan Brown will join Libertarian Party Vice Presidential nominee Bill Weld, FCC head Ajit Pai, legal giants Randy Barnett and Alan Dershowitz, and others for the conference. During lunch on Saturday, Reason will present a "live" version of the magazine, featuring some of your favorite journalists, the musical styling of Remy, and the comedy of Andrew Heaton and Austin Bragg.

What conservatives against "market fundamentalism" can tell you about libertarians without power

Tucker Carlson delivered a memorable monologue last week telling conservatives why they should stop worshiping the market, and instead use government to help save the American family. Here's why he's wrong.

Audio production by Ian Keyser.

Valse in D-flat major "Minute Waltz" by Chopin, played by Muriel Nguyen Xuan is licensed under CC BY SA 4.0

What conservatives against "market fundamentalism" can tell you about libertarians without power

In 1946, the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand started writing Textbook of Americanism, a series of brief and accessible essays that she felt would define the essential ideas and character of her adopted homeland. Publishing them in a small magazine called The Vigil in the form of answers to basic questions, Rand only completed nine sections, which ranged from "What is the basic issue in the world today?" to "What is the basic principle of America?" to "What is the proper function of government?"

Over 70 years later, Rand's dream sees its completion in A New Textbook of Americanism, a collection edited by Jonathan Hoenig, a Rand devotee who founded the investment fund Capitalist Pig and appears regularly on Fox News, where he's one of the few guests to call out Donald Trump for his protectionism, cronyism, and anti-immigrant stances. The new volume reprints Rand's original contributions while adding fresh new material from a host of contemporary writers associated with the Ayn Rand Institute, including Leonard Peikoff, Yaron Brook, Amy Peikoff, Andrew Bernstein, and others. The new essays are wide-ranging and provocative, answering such questions as "How to Recognize a Nazi," "How Are Fortunes Made in a Capitalist System?," and "What Should a Distinctively American Foreign Policy Do?"

For today's podcast, Nick Gillespie spoke with Hoenig about what Rand meant by Americanism, why that's important, and whether he's optimistic about a country that he himself says is growing more collectivist on both the right and the left. We also talked about the fault lines between Rand's Objectivism and the modern libertarian movement, Rand's argument for complete abortion rights and her thoroughgoing secularism, and what it will take to revive the sort of individualism that Hoenig, like Rand, says is the essential foundation of America.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Hoenig.