“And That’s The Way It Is”

On Monday, December 18, 1972 I was at home having dinner with my parents in our kitchen. In another room the evening news was on the television when Walter Cronkite suddenly announced that a renegade Republican Virginia Elector, one Roger Lea MacBride, had cast his electoral votes for presidential and vice presidential candidates John Hospers and Theodora Nathan of the Libertarian Party instead of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew. A couple of years later a colleague who had a closely attuned ear in prominent Libertarian circles reported to me Cronkite’s thoughts: “The Libertarian Party is the most important development in American politics. AND THAT’S WHY IT IS SO DANGEROUS.” Coming from the dean of establishment mainstream media, this arrogant dismissive retort explains perhaps more than anything else how and why the Libertarian Party, Ron Paul, and libertarianism in general has received the cavalier hostile treatment since that cold December day.

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