“The Conscience of a Libertarian – Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gambling, and Tax Cuts”
Author: Wayne Allyn Root

Book Review
By Austin Petersen

    In “The Conscience of a Libertarian,” Wayne Allyn Root, the great sports prognosticator (and S.O.B.) spies a citizen revolution brewing in his crystal ball. It’s hard to tell whether he’ll be proved right as the book is not so much a prediction of the future as it is a shield beating, torch bearing, meat cleaver swinging call to revolution for what he calls the “battered voters” of the United States.

    W.A.R. dons on his fathers bloody apron and ties the string tight as he hacks away mercilessly at the left wing socialist administration currently occupying the White House. He doesn’t mince words for either side of the Republican and Democrat divide (no surprise there isn’t one).

    Root is a small businessman who was heavily affected by the legislation that banned online poker. He rails against the moral authoritarians while offering the libertarian compromise as an alternative to faith based policy. He sees federal intervention in Jeffersonian terms as intervention by a foreign government.

    Quoting heavily from Goldwater, his intellectual hero, W.A.R. obliterates government intrusion into gay marriage/civil union issues. I read for the first time Senator Goldwater’s quote, “I don’t care if a soldier is straight, as long as he shoots straight.” A rare insight into a man I am looking forward to learning more about thanks to Wayne’s Book.

    Root is obviously earnest in his desire to work for a libertarian future. I think there are valid criticisms that he is too overbearing in appearances, which is also reflected in how his book reads. You feel as if you are being yelled at all the time. In reading “The Conscience…” the reader wants to tell him to calm down and explain slowly so we can get the message. Also the Francophobia is a bit much.

    Regardless of the criticisms (that only drive him on harder), the libertarian movement in general needs all the help it can get from this man. He’s genuinely interesting even if you are extremely radical, or the most prudish pragmatist in the party.

If you’re the type to read a book because you want to get fired up, learn some facts you might not have known, and get to know more about an LP celeb, then definitely get the book.