The "Triple R" Revolution

The "Triple R" Revolution
by Michael R. Allen

December 1999 saw the publication of the final issue of the ten-year-old Rothbard Rockwell Report -- affectionately called the "Triple R." While many people have not noticed the end of its run, those who have are in an interesting situation: the report is no more, but with the Internet everything it did and more is being done for a wider audience. So, this column is not an obituary, but a reflection on the end of an era.

The Rothbard-Rockwell Report was the pre-eminent journal of principled anti-statist political philosophy (and, for some time, the only one). Founded by the late, great Murray Rothbard, editor Lew Rockwell and publisher Burton Blumert, this journal stood for unswervingly consistent libertarianism. How was that different from, say, that of the Libertarian Party and Reason magazine?

Well, when Reason called for manning the ramparts during the Gulf War, the RRR reminded us that the state couldn't thrive without its warfare. As others used kid gloves to handle thorny issues like race and religion, Rothbard and Rockwell told the truth. If Christians are now increasingly embracing libertarianism, thank the RRR. Above all else, this journal was responsible for bringing together anarchists, cultural conservatives and Christians who were seen as nutty cousins in the libertarian family.

The RRR not only defended consistent libertarian values, it helped spread them. When Pat Buchanan opposed the Gulf War, few doubted whose influence he was under. Likewise, the split of longtime conservatives from the Republican Party is an indirect result of the RRR's influence on conservative and libertarian opinion. The Cato Institute knocked itself silly throwing parties for Dick Armey, while Rothbard's last newspaper commentary proclaimed: "Newt Gingrich Is No Libertarian." The seeds are sprouting online at places like FreeRepublic.com, where few posters can be found who vote a straight Republican ticket.

As Lew Rockwell wrote in the final issue: "we were the anti-war, anti-GOP right before it became mainstream to hold these views." Before the failed Gingrich years, theRRR warned of the duplicity of the "Republican Revolutionaries." Before Kosovo, it foretold the state's need for another war. Recent political movement shows that such anti-statist messages were eventually received on the right.

I am among the many who have been touched by these radical views. Though I only started subscribing to the RRR in its final year, I had read it for quite some time. I had been a conventional conservative when I first gave politics any great consideration, and then tested the system of beliefs I held and found them evolving. It soon was apparent that I was a libertarian, though still in the mainstream. When I first read an article by Murray Rothbard, I was left in doubt of the practicability of limited government. Soon, I was reading work by others who called themselves "paleo-libertarians," who were more politically incorrect than the mainstream writers I'd read. Their appeal to me was instant; I began using the label for myself.

As I developed my monthly online magazine, Spintech, I aimed to follow in the tradition of the RRR. Spintech always has embraced controversy, which is a necessary thing for challenging the status quo. Religion, culture, war and sex are written about openly in the cyber pages of my magazine. All the while, Spintech is imbibed with that love of life that was always found in the RRR. There is no need to take politics so seriously that there is no fun to be had in smashing the state.

It would be presumptuous to say that Spintech could replace the RRR, or even come close. There is no replacing it, nor is there a need to. The best testament to the Report's success is that so many have been influenced by it without ever having to copy it. Unlike other movement periodicals, it never aimed to groom unctuous acolytes -- just to publish the words that needed to be read.

Though the RRR has left a legacy on political thought, its mission is ongoing. Rockwell has launched LewRockwell.com as a daily site that carries more material than ever was possible in print. It also reaches an audience larger and wider than the print journal ever did. It may not be the same thing, but LewRockwell.com is the new frontier for the merry intellectual warriors of the "Triple R" revolution.

An old song asks, "how do you thank someone who has taken you from crayons to perfume?" The RRR indeed took me from my youthful libertarianism into the world of total opposition to the state. I cannot adequately pay the debt I owe for such a transformation, but I will always try.

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