One thing is certain: whether Americans elect Donald Trump or Kamala Harris won't matter one whit in terms of achieving the free society. That's because both of them will continue the welfare-warfare state, regulated-managed economy way of life that needs to be dismantled if we are going to achieve a genuinely free society.

When it come to freedom, my favorite period in history is 1880-1910 America. Sure, the standard of living was lower than it is today. That's to be expected given that they were building on what had been a relatively poor country — that is, one without a large capital base. But when it comes to the principles of a genuinely free society, there is no question but that the American people who lived during that 30-year period experienced a society that was closer to the libertarian ideal than anyone else has ever gotten. If they could do it, then why can't we?

No, it wasn't a perfect libertarian panacea, and so let's set that point aside right away. There were tariffs. There were violations of women's rights. There was the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first immigration-control act in U.S. history. There was the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. There were subsidies to railroads. There were economic regulations at the state level. There was compulsory school attendance in Massachusetts. There was the Spanish-American War in 1898.