It must be clear by now that by whatever name, Tea Party, Libertarian or just plain old Conservative Republican, there is an ideological foundation to this movement. Those beliefs about small government, government intrusion, unfettered free enterprise, entitlement programs, "the nanny state", they come from somewhere. That somewhere is most clearly the thinking and writing of Dr. Milton Friedman, the Nobel Laureate, who reigned as the American economic guru through the second half of the 20th century. And yet, why is his name never mentioned by those espousing these ideas as fact about the natural law of small government, "unfettered free enterprise", the need to protect the "job creators", and the economic drag of ensuring the general welfare of the people? Could it be that we are watching a huge self-serving movement that very simply gets it wrong on purpose?
Just about every plank of the conservative ideology today was written by Dr. Friedman. Its in his book Capitalism and Freedom that he wrote and revised for a fortieth Anniversary Edition in 2009. Yes, that means that the politics of today have roots going back to 1969. A lot of time to plan and create a political movement out of theory and opinion.
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