Dear GOP: Please Choose Liberty

A great article for the front page. I love articles that espouse everything Ron Paul believes in, without ever mentioning his name. That is what will allow liberty to become more mainstream.

"But what should Republicans do to reclaim the mantle of freedom?

They could begin, first and foremost, by showing some embarrassment with the label "conservative." Democrats have been embarrassed with the term "liberal" ever since it became synonymous with tax-and-spend in the public mind. Interestingly, even Obama, who is nothing if not a tax-and-spend liberal and then some, has shunned the label.

In fact, F. A. Hayek, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who did more than anyone in the 20th Century to fight socialism and revive the cause of liberty, urged conservatives nearly half a century ago in his essay, "Why I Am Not a Conservative," to find another name--one that emphasizes liberty--to describe themselves. There is an inherent tension between conservatism and liberty, he pointed out, which in a "conservative" party can't reliably be resolved in favor of liberty."

Continue at: http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/19/republicans-choose-liberty-...