The overall political slant of LIBERTY is toward the classical liberal (oh how words change!) tradition, with an emphasis on limited government, free trade, and individual rights, but the magazine is anything but a newsletter for the Libertarian Party. Publisher/editor R. W. Bradford shows that organization as little mercy as he does Republicans and Democrats, and intelligent viewpoints from left, right, center, and elsewhere grace each issue's pages.
As a preview, let's look inside this month's issue. It features a debate on the Iraq war, an analysis of Bush's "conservative" spending practices, book reviews on F. A. Hayek and Michael Moore, an anarchist critique of the Constitution, even a story on Pete Rose and a rebuttal of Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath". You'd be hard-pressed to find such real content in a year's worth of most news magazines, and that's just one issue. I haven't even mentioned the short "reflections" or political cartoons, most of which are quite funny, when not thought-provoking or downright frightening.
In short, if you have the sneaking suspicion that the 24-hour news channels aren't telling you the whole story, or if the color of your views isn't represented by red or blue on a map, then you owe it to yourself to subscribe to LIBERTY now.
Each article comes from a base of knowledge by people who have a real understanding of their subject. So it gets you to thinking and perhaps changing your opinion. At least you can see another point of view and see why it might be valid.
But basically the magazine promotes Libertarian ideas and ideals and is a strong proponent of the free market. I absolutely love this magazine and can't imagine not reading it. In fact, I prefer it to "Reason" . . . although I think a Libertarian is wise to read both.
It has been said that "Liberty" has the voice of the editor. Well, it does but that's not a bad thing. The editor has some issues with the LP. But he doesn't let that color the objectivity of the magazine. And I would not respect a person who strictly followed "any" party line and didn't think for himself.
This is a well written magazine and it deals with issues that are important to people on the left, right and in the middle. It perhaps leans a bit to the liberal side on some social issues, as one reviewer said. But it is not so liberal as to not hold some of the Ayn Rand philosophies and some of the more conservative Libertarian ideas.
If you care deeply about the issues and want a unique view, you need to subscribe to this wonderful magazine.
Susanna K. HutchesonCreative DirectorPowerwriting.com LLC
What I could do without: (1) There is the occasional God-bashing article, either implying or stating right out that those of us who are devout in our religion can't think straight, and (2) some of the articles are closer to anarchist thinking.
