How to Spot a Paranoid Libertarian

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- In a recent essay in the NewRepublic, Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz contendsthat Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange reflecta political impulse he calls “paranoid libertarianism.”Wilentz claims that far from being “truth-telling comradesintent on protecting the state and the Constitution fromauthoritarian malefactors,” they “despise the modern liberalstate, and they want to wound it.”

Wilentz gives credit to Richard Hofstadter for the term“paranoid libertarianism,” but he is being generous. AlthoughHofstadter wrote an influential essay called “The ParanoidStyle in American Politics,” he didn’t call special attentionto its libertarian manifestation. Wilentz has performed animportant public service in doing exactly that.