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# Posted 4:41 PM by Anonymous

FRANCIS FUKUYAMA’S OBITUARY OF LIBERTARIANISM met its own death yesterday at the hands of bloggers. It was just one day old.

He has been roundly and elegantly chastised already. On this very page, Josh makes the point that the heroism of cops and the necessity of war do not automatically impugn low taxes and trim bureaucracy. Libertarianism is not, as Fukuyama says, “an ideological hostility to the state in all its manifestations.” It is, instead, the view that the state must be large enough to preserve a free way of life, but not so large as to sap citizens of the capacity to be free. There is a difference between having firemen and FICA taxes.

But the point can be taken further. Fukuyama casually assumes that an attack on the country, namely on her symbols, made Americans think collectively and revere the collective institutions of state. “[I]t is not surprising that Americans met this challenge collectively with flags and patriotism, rather than the yellow ribbons of individual victimization.” The result is that Americans turned their backs on libertarianism: “Sept. 11 ended this line of argument. It was a reminder to Americans of why government exists.”

Wait a minute.

Patriotism makes us statist? Perhaps it makes us think about what makes us unique – about the essence of our patria. For millions of Americans, that essence is the system of limited government. 9/11 did not make everyone revere Washington. For many, it was a reminder to cherish a free way of life. People uttered “liberty” five times more often on CNN in the week after the attacks than the week before.

Americans also bought guns in droves. In Texas, applications to purchase concealed weapons tripled in the two months after 9/11, and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System of the FBI performed 937,042 checks in the month after the attacks, 20 percent more than in the same period last year. Even as we placed more faith in state institutions, Americans were deploying a right to take their defenses into their own hands. As Fukuyama surely is aware, U.S. gun owners tend not to be statists.

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