I have witnessed an amazing transition with many of my friends and acquaintances on social media and in person. People that I have known for 20 years or more, that have always favored government intervention, executive power, and have always supported tax and spend economics, are now posting libertarian memes, quoting the US Constitution and even referencing well known libertarians like Julie Borowski.
I even got lectured today after announcing;
“It warms my cockles to see my far-left friends now posting libertarian memes, instead of Bernie “Grandpa Giveaway” memes. Thanks Trump! (It actually took Trump to get these folks to talk about liberty)”
The lecture was about how there are “left leaning libertarians”.
The friend on Facebook posted the following misleading meme;
right and left leaning libertarians
Of course by the information from this meme, Ron Paul would be considered more of a left-leaning libertarian, than a right leaning libertarian. But this of course is not the case.
This is my response;
“I realize that there are “left leaning libertarians”. What I am saying is that Bernie is not a libertarian. He is the anti-liberty candidate. So when I see my friends posting Bernie this, and Bernie that, and “Grandpa Giveaway” memes saying “the government needs to provide ______”. But then they all of the sudden start quoting the constitution, and posting libertarian memes. That warms my heart.”
I uploaded this last year, to compare a real liberty minded, and liberty voting congressman, to non-liberty minded Bernie Sanders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj4BUhjzk24
Reference this comparison at the Mises instituted also
https://mises.org/library/bernie-vs-ron-paul-there%E2%80%99s-no-comparison
However this phenomenon is not just limited to the USA. I am currently in the United Kingdom, and over the next month will be visiting other parts of Europe. So far I have interviewed about a dozen people.
The people in the UK, that use to be happy with their single payer healthcare are finding that their healthcare is strained to the max, under funded, and in the news reports are showing that 1 in 5 patients are seeing a 4+ hour emergency service waiting times, and over 25,000 cancer patients have gone untreated.
From the London Metro newspaper with the headline on February 10th 2017
“National Healthcare Service waiting now WORST in history”
National Healthcare Service waiting now WORST in history
London Metro NHS high waiting periods 25,000 cancer patients going untreated
Ambulances arriving late
It is no wonder that most of Europe is considering a Brexit like separation from the EU, and many European countries are starting to return to Austrian Economics.
