David Boaz, an apostle of “reasonable radical libertarianism” who argued that Americans have the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness without government meddling in their bedrooms, boardrooms or with their cannabis, died Friday in his House in Arlington, Virginia. He was 70.
The cause was complications from esophageal cancer, said his long-time partner Steve Miller.
Mr. Boaz summed up libertarianism, the philosophy that prioritizes individual freedom over government overreach, with characteristic clarity:
“You learn the essence of libertarianism in kindergarten,” he wrote in “Libertarianism: A Primer,” a 1997 book that was updated and republished in 2015 as “The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom.” “Don’t hit other people, don’t take their things, and keep your promises.”
As executive vice president of the Cato Institute, the Washington-based libertarian think tank, Mr. Boaz was a frequent contributor to its Reason magazine since 1989. He also wrote opinion essays for the New York Times and other publications, promoting a philosophy that had been advocated for centuries by thinkers such as John Locke, Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, Ayn Rand, and Milton Friedman, but whose practical application presented some potential challenges Younger.
Mr. Boaz summed up his holistic view of individual freedom to the Times in 1984: “I don’t believe it is the job of government to protect people from themselves, whether by seat belts, cyclamates or marijuana.”
He also argued that it makes no sense to deny gays legal equality. For example, state benefits should not be withheld from same-sex partners in stable relationships if children of single parents or unmarried heterosexual partners received this support. Mr. Boaz was openly gay and a founding member of the Independent Gay Forum, a website that collected articles from gay conservative economists in the mid-1990s.
Mr. Boaz made an early case for declaring the administration’s declared war on drugs unsuccessful, saying anti-drug laws violated privacy and had failed.
“Either we can intensify the war on drugs, which would have serious implications for civil liberties and the right to privacy, or we can find a way to withdraw gracefully,” Mr. Boaz, who neither drank nor smoked, wrote in the 1988 Times. “Withdrawal should not be viewed as an endorsement of drug use; it would simply be an admission that the costs of this war – billions of dollars, skyrocketing crime and restrictions on our personal freedom – are too high.”
In an explanatory article for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Mr. Boaz wrote that libertarians believe that the primary purpose of government is to protect citizens from the unlawful use of force and that “individuals should be free to exercise their own discretion.” behave and dispose of one’s property. provided their actions do not violate the equal freedom of others.”
For libertarians, he added, “the central philosophical question is not individuality versus community, but consent versus coercion.”
David Douglas Boaz was born on August 29, 1953, in Mayfield, Kentucky, to Seth Thomas Boaz Jr., an elected circuit court judge, and Martha (Pruitt) Boaz, who earned a master’s degree in economics and was housekeeper. born. An uncle by marriage, Frank Albert Stubblefield, was a Democratic congressman from Kentucky.
In addition to Mr. Miller, Mr. Boaz is survived by his sister, Mary Boaz, and his brother, Seth Thomas Boaz III.
Mr. Boaz first became interested in libertarianism when he read Henry Hazlitt’s 1946 book “Economics in One Lesson” on his mother’s bookshelf. He then earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Vanderbilt University in 1975 and joined the conservative group Young Americans for Freedom.
“In my misguided youth, I was a youthful young Democrat, a college Republican, and a young adult Libertarian Party activist before I gave up politics,” he once recalled.
When he broke away from the Young Americans, he persuaded Edward H. Crane, chairman of the Libertarian Party and founder of the Cato Institute, to join him in the campaigns of Edward Clark, a libertarian, for governor of California in 1978 and president discontinued in 1980.
Described by National Review as “a titan of the freedom movement,” Mr. Boaz served at Cato for more than 43 years, retiring as executive vice president in 2022. When he died, he was a distinguished senior fellow at the institute, a position only three other people, all Nobel Prize winners in economics, hold the title.
Mr. Boaz described libertarianism as classical liberalism and rejected what he called “the creeping forces of populism.” He told NPR in 2002 that to maintain his independence, he did not join the Libertarian Party, adding that if Libertarians had put a gun to their heads in the 2016 presidential campaign and “had to choose between Clinton and Trump, The correct answer would be “take the ball.”
But in April, looking ahead to a 2024 contest between President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump, he told CNN: “The big freedom issue that Biden has over Trump is that Trump tried to steal an election. “
Mr. Boaz challenged the foggy fantasies of American history. “I am particularly impressed by libertarians and conservatives who celebrate the freedom of early America and lament our decline since those halcyon days,” he wrote in 2010, “without bothering to mention the existence of slavery.”
Asked in 1998 why he spent his career advocating for a seemingly Sisyphean movement, Mr. Boaz told Reason editor Brian Doherty: “Especially if you’re a libertarian, you can’t say it’s morally obligatory “To fight” for these values – but it feels right, and on another level it’s more than just right, it’s fun. That’s what I want to do.”
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2024-06-11 19:21:27
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