Rothbardian Pro-Wrestler wins election

[septimus]

@El_Kabong

I never heard of Murray Rothbard before you opened this thread, and I imagine I’m not alone. What do you think is next for the Rothbardians? Are there any other Rothbardians (other than Ron Paul, if he is one)?

Dr.* Rothbard has been mentioned in this forum before.

(* - Yes, this oaf has a doctorate, though it comes with an interesting story: “The [11-year] delay in receiving his PhD was due in part to conflict with his advisor Joseph Dorfman and in part to Arthur Burns rejecting his doctoral dissertation. Burns was a longtime friend of the Rothbard family and their neighbor at their Manhattan apartment building. It was only after Burns went on leave from the Columbia faculty to head President Eisenhower’s Council of Economic Advisors that Rothbard’s thesis was accepted and he received his doctorate.”)

ThelmaLou quoted from an article relating Rothbard to Trumpism. Nested quotes don’t copy; I’ll just show the first and last of Thelma’s quote.

@ThelmaLou

Not long before his death, Rothbard rejoiced when he saw in the emergence of David Duke and Pat Buchanan, in 1992, his long-held vision for America’s right and concluded that what was needed was more of the same:…

In July 2016, [Justin] Raimondo wrote in The American Conservative, “Rothbard, who died in 1995, would’ve loved Donald Trump, and he seems to have foreseen his rise as if in a dream.”

I wasn’t sure where to put this. I found this link on a wonderful site called Arts & Letters Daily, an aggregator of many, many publications and interesting sources. I warn you, once you go there, you’ll get lost in all of the topics.

This article stopped me in my tracks today.

The Forgotten Man – On Murray Rothbard, philosophical harbinger of Trump and the alt-right
This is a really LONG article, but fascinating. indeed, Rothbard seems to be the wellspring of the attitudes we are witnessing in the Republican Congress and on the right today.
I’d encourage anyone who has the time and interest to read the whole article.

In a recent thread I asked Mr. Farnaby some questions about Rothbard’s views. In particular I was curious about the peculiar claim that he has a “solution” to the problem of external costs (e.g. tragedy of the commons). Here’s Farnaby’s answer, which I found confusing. Revive that thread if it puzzles you as well.

@WillFarnaby

“… The main problem with classical libertarianism is that it doesn’t allow enough pollution. Under libertarian theory, pollution is a form of violent aggression that should be banned, as Murray Rothbard insisted numerous times. OK, but what about actual practice, once all those special interest groups start having their say? Historically, under the more limited government of the 19th century, it was big business that wanted to move away from unpredictable local and litigation-driven methods of control, and toward a more systematic regulatory approach at the national level. ”

Paul Krugman on Gary Johnson, libertarianism, and pollution - Marginal REVOLUTION

And jrodefeld, now banned, made a tedious thread about Rothbard eight years ago, but there was some comic relief.