As the liberty movement is propelled into a position of serious influence and power by the combined forces of the Ron Paul Revolution and the overwhelmingly meddlesome, ever-growing Bush-Obama state, two serious questions of strategy arise:

1) How should libertarians advance the cause of liberty:  through political action or through gradual social change?

Gradual social change has been the goal of numerous organizations and think tanks for decades. Ayn Rand preferred this path, believing the current American society to be unfit for genuine freedom. Organizations like Students for Liberty focus on this method exclusively.

Most actual social change in the libertarian direction to date seems to have occurred as a result of the more obscene assaults by the state on individual liberty. While the organizations in the libertarian movement have certainly supplied the right ideas at the right times, their concrete influence appears thoroughly limited. Hillary Clinton did give partial credit to the Cato Institute for toppling her universal healthcare bid, but the ultimate trophy invariably ends up in the hands of politicians and special interests with agendas that favor liberty only when it suits them.