A Libertarian’s Favorite President

On President’s Day George Will published a wonderful article in Newsweek on libertarian Congressman and GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-TX):

Most congressional offices are decorated with photos of representatives gripping and grinning with presidents and other eminences. Paul, who thinks the presidency has swollen to anticonstitutional proportions, has photos of two Austrian School economists, Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, who warned against what Hayek called “the fatal conceit” of governments thinking they can allocate wealth and opportunity more reasonably than can markets. Paul’s office has a picture of one president—Grover Cleveland, the conservative Democrat who asked, “What is the use of being elected or re-elected unless you stand for something?”

I knew that Paul had strong Austrian influences (economic and political) and I knew he would agree that presidential powers have grown to dangerously authoritarian levels (which are two prime reasons why I am supporting his run for the presidency), what I was pleasantly surprised to find was that his favorite president, like mine, was Grover Cleveland. It lead me to consider the best “libertarian” presidents.

(I put “libertarian” in quotations because being a good Objectivist I am of course supposed to despise the label as it lacks definition and philosophical substance and such. Let me then define best “libertarian” presidents as the presidents who best embodied the principles of individual liberty and limited government in their time.)

I think that Grover Cleveland has to be at the top of the list. The empirical evidence shows this, but I postulate that many, if not most, “libertarians” would put the former sheriff from Buffalo at the top of their list. A senior faculty member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Thomas J. Dilorenzo, wrote back in 2004 that Cleveland was the best president in line with a limited government tradition (“The Last Good Democrat”). Its a very interesting article, and his stance reaffirms my claim that Grover is the libertarian’s favorite president.

So here are my rankings.

Best “Libertarian” Presidents: 1) Grover Cleveland. 2) George Washington. 3) Calvin Coolidge. 4) Ronald Reagan. Honorable Mention) Thomas Jefferson. Andrew Jackson.

Defeated Presidential Candidates: Samuel Tilden. Barry Goldwater.