Jonathan Rauch Quotes
The idea that an overweening federal government is a threat to both freedom and equality (not to mention prosperity) goes back to Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry and some other fairly respectable personages. You can disagree with them, or with Coolidge or Reagan or Friedrich Hayek or Milton Friedman or George Will, but to dismiss them as nothing more than mouthpieces of the wealthy and big business is to indulge in [a] sort of anti-intellectualism…
Jonathan Rauch, Political Scientist, Journalist and Author, “From Abe Lincoln to Ted Cruz”, New York Times Book Review, January 4, 2015
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Conservatives, while favoring free markets and a great deal of freedom for business, in his era, also supported government control over personal behavior ranging from women’s rights to control their own bodies, to governing the sexual behavior of consenting adults or censoring publications or using drugs and even including the right to commit suicide.
This quotation is very critical to people interested in the Libertarian party and libertarian movements. Although she literally “loathed” the libertarians of the day, almost all modern libertarians credit the modern libertarian movement have not only started with her but even into the 21st century she is acknowledged to be the largest intellectual force of libertarianism. Actually, she was a very strong person with very firm ideas, and she was criticized by some people who called themselves libertarian and did not follow her philosophy of individual responsibility and liberty. Her reaction was not only to avoid identifying with them but to differentiate herself whenever she could.
Ironically, many Republican leaders give lip service to decentralized government but they fight hard for centralized national government making. Many want Congress to make laws governing abortion and other family planning techniques. Some want the state to decide, but almost no Republicans want to leave these personal decisions to the local government much less the family and women involved. In business regulation as well, republican fight tooth and nail to have Federal legislation prempt state and local government about tort liability for defective products, and they always prefer that the Federal SEC make all the rules and regulations about selling stocks and bonds and do not want state or local government to “interfere”. Likewise, they have emasculated the state governments when it comes to authority over the state militias where virtually all the controls and promotions are decided by Congress and the Department of Defense and not by Governors or local politicians. Ther are many other examples. In most of the solid Republican Southern States, the local school boards cannot even select the textbooks that schools will use and the Republicans centralize this with the State government and state legislatures which they control. Democrats also are generally opposed to decentralization except for large cities having control along with the Federal government but otherwise they too do not want decentralization. For national political parties, what is the point of winning national elections of the big decisions are made locally?
Jonathan Charles Rauch is an American author, journalist, and activist. After graduating from Yale University, Rauch worked at the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina, for National Journal, and later for The Economist and as a freelance writer. He is currently a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
