I worked with David for 40 years. His zeal for a civil society based on libertarian principles is unparalleled. He consistently applied his razor-sharp mind to the cause of freedom. He will be sorely missed, but his legacy of liberty will live on.
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David Boaz: Mentor, Scholar, and Friend
My fear of moving into an office next to David Boaz seemed justified. It was 2013, and I had just accepted a new role at Cato. After all, David was the longtime executive vice president, and Cato stood on the principle that “Boaz Knows”—he’s always watching and reading. David had skewered too much of my work for me to think I was in for smooth sailing.
Soon enough, something about David made me embrace the challenge and preparation needed to walk into his office and enter intellectual combat—whether it was for feedback or when he’d ask for help searching for an email (neither of us figured out the Outlook search function). I embraced the challenge because I wanted to learn, and David wanted to teach. His mentorship abilities were only eclipsed by his vast knowledge.
David was accessible, open, and honest. He loved discussing any issue, and our conversations would veer from classic movies (his specialty) to modern technology (a pretend specialty of mine; I had an edge on him). David did not intend to demotivate or belittle with occasional sharp responses or follow-up questions. He was honing my skills and knowledge as a communicator, problem solver, libertarian, and leader. Occasionally (and more often as the years passed), he’d say, “I think that’s right,” in his Kentucky accent, and I’d walk out beaming.
David was principled, sharp, and humble. He lived by the values that he insisted on and dedicated his life to ensuring that the Cato Institute exemplified. His humility often led him to downplay his importance not only to mainstreaming libertarianism but also to fostering the next generation of libertarians. Yet, on these two items, few have done more than David.
David has influenced the careers, professional development, and lives of too many individuals to count. Whether it was his fantastic staff writers or a visiting freedom fighter from Africa, David always sat down with anyone who wanted to talk—or those who were made to speak to him. Staff would pile up outside my office waiting for David—some to answer a “Boaz Knows” message, no doubt, and I could see the fear in their eyes. Yet he always seemed ready to engage the next person charitably. David was generous with his time, which he spent pursuing truth, knowledge, and liberty.
When I asked David what he was most proud of in his career, he said the fact that libertarianism is now recognized as a legitimate intellectual position worthy of attention. But this will always be a struggle, and we should not, for example, take for granted that Cato scholars are regularly quoted on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and cited as libertarians. We cannot take for granted that libertarianism will remain in the mainstream—Cato must never surrender its mission to move the climate of ideas and debate toward liberty. As David wrote, “to live up to these expectations, it’s everyone’s job to … keep Cato Cato, and keep Cato sharp.”
We will always have this in mind, David. We must, for as you said often in speeches, “there’s never been a golden age of liberty, and there never will be. There will always be people who want to live their lives in peace, and there will always be people who want to exploit them or impose their own ideas on others. There will always be a conflict between liberty and power. And that’s why we’ll always need a movement for freedom. We can’t count on politicians to protect freedom. It’s up to us. That’s why we are here.”
I am beyond lucky to have had my office next to David’s and to have been one of the many who count him as a major mentor. David’s legacy as a vanguard of libertarianism and the Cato Institute is monumental, and his impact on so many people professionally and personally will ensure these institutions thrive and grow. Thank you, David.
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David Boaz, Son of Liberty
David Boaz, the longtime executive vice president and later distinguished senior fellow of the Cato Institute, was a leader and a legend of the libertarian movement. He wrote the book on libertarianism—and the Encyclopedia Britannica entry, too. In the years that I was privileged to work for him as staff writer, he taught me everything from why all libertarians should be feminists to why one must never hyphenate adverbs ending in ‑ly.
Like Hayek, David believed that “We must make the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage.” Writing about the Boston Tea Party and the bravery of the Sons of Liberty, David once enjoined:
We need Sons and Daughters of Liberty today in America. We need them in the schools, and in the media, and in every workplace. We need them on the Internet and sometimes on the picket lines. We need them to make sure officeholders never forget what it’s like to live under the laws and pay the taxes, and we need them to run for office themselves. We even need a few of them in Washington, in the belly of the beast.
David took that charge seriously, moving with Cato from its first office in San Francisco—a mostly windowless former warehouse—to Washington DC, where he would oversee its growth from a small upstart organization to a leading think tank. A news junkie at heart, David always took care to remind people that Cato moved to the capital not to be closer to the government, but to be closer to journalists.
When I first started working for David, I was advised by former employees that, at a minimum, I’d need to start reading the Washington Post cover to cover every morning if I wanted any hope of keeping up with him. David’s voracious news consumption combined with his remarkable memory meant that he had an encyclopedic knowledge of just about any topic. And not just politics and policy—he trounced much younger colleagues in pop culture trivia. He was always up on the latest, writing, “I want to find out what happens next—in everything from sports to politics to TV soaps to the newest scientific discoveries.”
In Cato Policy Report, which he edited for several decades, his editorials and humorous “To Be Governed” section showcased his wit. The quintessential libertarian, no political party was safe from his barbs, whether he was opining that, “When a liberal talks about patriotism, it’s a good idea to watch your wallet,” or that “Electing a Republican government, like entering a second marriage, is a triumph of hope over experience.”
Libertarians are sometimes caricatured as grouchy, “atomistic” individualists who always think the sky is falling. David frequently and eloquently debunked the idea that individualism and community are at odds:
In fact, we consider cooperation so essential to human flourishing that we don’t just want to talk about it; we want to create social institutions that make it possible. That’s what property rights, limited government, and the rule of law are all about.
And he was a relentless voice of optimism, reminding us that we live in one of the best and freest times to be alive:
More people in more countries than ever before in history enjoy religious freedom, personal freedom, democratic governance, the freedom to own and trade property, the chance to start a business, equal rights, civility, respect, and a longer life expectancy.
War, disease, violence, slavery, and inhumanity have been dramatically reduced.
And it is libertarian ideas and liberty‐minded people that have made that happen.
It’s true that libertarians can sometimes be defeatist. It’s hard not to be discouraged by all the ways that government restricts liberty. But if we truly believe in the power of ideas to change the world, David’s contributions were more consequential than any government statute could ever be.
David defined libertarianism for my generation, and for generations to come. He reminded us daily that classical liberal ideas have already won out against superstition and tyranny; that freedom and progress have triumphed time and again against despotism. That cultural shifts to a more cosmopolitan and tolerant society have brought down more barriers and given people more choice than many changes in law or politics. We should not be despondent—like David, we should be excited to see what happens next.
As he might observe, in the words of Dr. Johnson:
How small, of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!
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David Boaz Gave Liberty a Bright Future
Almost no one has had a greater impact on my life than David Boaz. I couldn’t even pronounce his name correctly when I first met him, but growing up, David “Bo-az” was the final word on policy. His books and articles applying the principles of the Declaration of Independence to the problems of modern America lined our shelves.
Without him, I never would have heard of the Cato Institute, nor could I have imagined a libertarian policy position. Being the sole light in a post‑9/11 world of policy darkness, the writings of Boaz and Cato—which were effectively synonymous in my mind—were the reason I abandoned my dream of being an engineer to devote my life to policy. I may have been a libertarian, somewhere, doing something, but it would have been an impoverished version without the depth, joy, and optimism of Boaz libertarianism.
His first email to me after hiring me was just a terse correction of my formatting of ellipses, but as many of our mistakes as he caught at Cato, I know he prevented far more. Boaz’s mere existence at Cato was a constant reminder to elevate your work to the loftiness of his standards and to remember the deeper purpose of why we write: not for citations or clicks or even academic curiosity, but to respectably represent the cause of liberty.
When I think about the effect that he has had and will continue to have on my life, I cannot help but think about all the millions of other people who he has affected who will never work at Cato but who will nevertheless carry on the torch of liberty. I recently received an email thanking me for writing The Libertarian Mind. I wish! But the error motivated me to open it and read David’s conclusion again: “Libertarianism is not just a framework for utopia, it is the indispensable framework for the future.”
Well said, as always. And I believe that no one can claim to have done more to give that framework a bright future than David Boaz.
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David Boaz: A Life Well Lived
David Boaz was one of the most extraordinary people I have ever met. He was a great conveyor of ideas, a witty conversationalist, and an omnivore of ideas.
And, of course, he was a libertarian. When I asked him how he came to his ideological views, he said, “I think instinctually I always was a libertarian. It just took me a while to fully get it.” Well, once he got it, he really got it.
Some have argued that the key question for libertarians is: “Do you hate the state?” I think David felt something like hatred – “contempt” would be a better word – when, for instance, the state imprisoned people for hurting no one but themselves and when it locked families in cycles of poverty. But I believe David would have framed the question differently: “Do you love humanity?”
He did not claim that liberty should be the highest personal value. But he did think it was the highest political value because it permitted people to pursue their ends as they best saw fit, to be fully human. He was correct about that, as he was so many things.
It was one of the great fortunes of my life to have known David for 30 years. He was a true and steadfast friend with a magnanimous spirit. I will miss him dearly.
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David Boaz Is with Us
David Boaz led an exemplary life. To know him is to admire him and even to love him. Through him, so many people were introduced to the humane, decent, rational, and compassionate case for “the simple system of natural liberty.” So many successful and happy careers were launched. So many people were gently taught how to be effective promoters of their principles, to be good colleagues, and to be better people. So many tears are being shed for the loss of our guide, our inspiration, our friend.
David came from Kentucky and he never quite lost the Kentucky twang. He became active in the promotion of liberty in college. He embraced the principles of treating every human being with respect and the presumption of liberty, and those principles infused his thought and his actions until his last days.
I was 18 and David was 21 when we met in August 1975 in New York at the national nominating convention of the (then) Libertarian Party. I saw a handsome man sitting on a display table swinging his legs and parrying arguments about whether a stateless society could be stable and free; he didn’t think it could be and he defended constitutionally limited government as the best we could get. I was attracted like a bumblebee to a daisy. He was funny and clever and yet modest.
Over 49 years that combination of wit and intellect and humility characterized him. For five decades he worked to secure equal liberty for each and every human being. It was his life mission, to which he hewed with extraordinary steadfastness. He was a passionate champion of ending the drug war and was active in and served on the advisory board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, despite never having tried marijuana, tobacco, or any other intoxicating substance. (David never drank alcohol or smoked anything. His only vice was his preference for Coca-Cola, which would lead him to choose restaurants on the basis of which cola products they served.)
He was honest. He was generous of spirit; he never questioned the motives of others, but sought to understand them, to learn from them, and to win them over to the cause of liberty, the only political idea that can be embraced by every human being without conflict or violence.
His book The Libertarian Mind is one of the finest, most accessible, and most reasonable cases for liberty. David wrote it to introduce, to persuade, to motivate. Like his dear friend P. J. O’Rourke, who effectively rewrote Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson, which in turn was a rewriting of Frédéric Bastiat’s “What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen,” David knew that writers who are today teenagers will need to make the case for liberty anew for their generation. And that the case will need to be made again by people yet unborn. (The Libertarian Mind will come out next year in a revised paperback edition, David’s last gift to us.)
David’s steadfastness is an example to us all. Many people become enthusiastically involved in the cause of liberty, or one of its subsidiary campaigns, and then become discouraged and drop away when the Great Victory doesn’t happen in one, two, three, or even ten years. Not David. He always knew that the changes he sought may not happen until he would not be with us to celebrate them. Some did happen. The fall of the USSR and its empire of irrationality and cruelty. The end of apartheid’s humiliation and oppression. Marriage equality. Legalization of marijuana. Through it all, through failures and successes, through slow and incremental steps, he worked tirelessly for the realization of goals that he knew would not happen until long after we are dust and ashes.
One of David’s oft used anecdotes concerned when he was challenged to name a success of the libertarian movement.
I was asked once by some skeptics what the most important libertarian accomplishment ever was. I said, “the abolition of slavery.” Okay, they conceded. Name another. I thought more carefully and said “bringing power under the rule of law.” That was a revolutionary achievement, but it’s incomplete. It’s what we still fight for. Heroes like Mao Yushi, Chen Guangcheng, and thousands of others fight for it. We fight for it here.
We still fight for it. We will never stop fighting for it. David Boaz is our inspiration. He never stopped. He never will, because when we fight for the rule of law, he is with us. He will always be with us.
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David Boaz, Our Great Persuader
When I think of the most effective advocates of individual freedom in my generation, David Boaz is Number One, and there is no Number Two. No one has combined a more discerning judgment, a more unflagging dedication to principle, a more deft command of tone, such a relish in and curiosity for knowledge for its own sake, such a concern with being fair to opponents, such a knack for reaching so many kinds of audience. Wherever my work takes me I meet his students, readers, and admirers, those he has helped and influenced.
David was regularly described as the heart and soul of Cato. He is the reason I am at the institute, having reached out to bring me on board as a fellow in 2010. He knew Cato, he knew his old friends, and his instincts as to how I could best fit in were always right. Through Cato’s work and in a hundred other ways, my friend David’s light will shine on.