David Boaz, the Executive Vice President of the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., delivered a talk yesterday in McGraw 165 on the different ways in which freedom is under attack in American society. The talk was put together by the Cornell College Republicans as well as the Freedom and Free Societies program at Cornell. Boaz was introduced by Cornell History Professor Barry Strauss.
While Boaz was highly critical of the Obama administration’s current policies, he was quick to emphasize that the Bush 
administration also did much to restrict Americans’ freedoms over the past eight years. The Bush administration oversaw the passage of the Patriot Act, increased federal involvement in interstate commerce, passed new restrictions on core political speech, increased federal spending, and expanded the federal government’s ability to arrest a citizen without proper due process of the law. At the same time, Boaz clearly stated his belief that the Obama administration using the financial crisis to take control of things not completely controlled by the government, like energy, education, and healthcare. (He quoted Rahm Emanuel, who said that Obama will not waste the opportunity of the financial crisis). The financial crisis was facilitated by government involvement in sub-prime mortgage lending as well as the government’s “too big to fail” policies, which allowed and encouraged financial institutions to take unnecessary risks without having to face the normal consequences of losses.
Despite the inevitable growth of government over the next four years, Boaz was optimistic about the growing popularity of libertarian ideas in American politics. Konstantin Drabkin, the President of the Cornell College Republicans, seemed to agree: “The spread of libertarianism has been staggering, especially among students. I definitely see the Republican party heading in a more libertarian direction in the near future.”
Boaz ended by saying that there has never been a golden age of liberty and freedom, and, unfortunately, there never will be. This is why America will always have a need for young conservatives/libertarians promoting the ideals of individual rights and limited government.
