Thiel on giving women the vote
Libertarian businessman Peter Thiel, one of my favorites, is drawing a lot of comment for a controversial essay he wrote for the Cato Institute, “The Education of a Libertarian,” particularly for this arresting passage: “The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of ‘capitalist democracy’ into an oxymoron.”
Thiel’s comment about the effects of women’s suffrage on propects for free market politics drew an attack from Michael Lind at Salon magazine (“The right floats off to Neverland. No girls allowed!”), a defense from Jason Kuznicki at Cato and commentary from Will Wilkinson.
