Reason editor Matt Welch takes to the NYT op-ed page to make the libertarian case against John McCain. According to Welch, the common theme to McCain's political outlook is a hostility to individualism, making him a most un-libertarian presidential candidate.

The presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican Party has seduced the press and the public with frank confessions of his failings, from his hard-living flyboy days to his adulterous first marriage to the Keating Five scandal. But in both legislation and rhetoric, Mr. McCain has consistently sought to restrict the very freedoms he once exercised, in the common national enterprise of "serving a cause greater than self-interest."

Such sentiment can sound stirring coming from a lone citizen freely choosing public service. But from a potential president, Mr. McCain's exaltation of sacrifice over the private pursuit of happiness — "I did it out of patriotism, not for profit," he snarled to Mitt Romney during the final Republican presidential debate — reflects a worryingly militaristic view of citizenship. . . .

Like many country-first, party-second military officers who began second careers in Washington, Mr. McCain is often mischaracterized as a politician without any identifiable ideology. But all of his actions can be seen as an attempt to use the federal government to restore your faith in ... the federal government. Once we all put our shoulder on the same wheel, there's nothing this country can't do.

It can be a bracing approach when his issues line up with yours — I, for one, would welcome President McCain's unilateral wars on pork-barrel spending and waterboarding — but it's treacherous territory for those of us who consider "the pursuit of happiness" as something best defined by individuals, not crusading presidents-to-be.

Welch previously made the libertarian case against McCain here. He is also the author of a book on the Arizona Senator, McCain: The Myth of a Maverick.