Jonas is no libertarian

George Jonas:

I replied promptly: “No, I’m not a libertarian,” and then described briefly what I consider myself to be: an old-fashioned liberal, a type also called laissez-faire or 19th-century liberal. Or classical liberal. I’m what all liberals used to be before many, if not most, became supporters of the interventionist state. Nineteenth-century liberals didn’t leave liberalism, liberalism left them. To be a liberal isn’t complicated: One simply has to revert to being one.

... I’m what a liberal used to be.” It was a comment on liberals, not libertarians. It was also an expression of regret that, in just a few generations, Liberal parties of liberty have become illiberal parties of the social-engineering state.