The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

I’ve been re-reading ‘The Moon is a Harsh Mistress’ by Robert A. Heinlein. I hadn’t pickup up this title since the eighties some time. Wow! Where on Earth did the time go?!

I did encounter something confusing to me. At one point the Professor, Man, and Wyoming are having a conversation about politics. Actually Man wasn’t so much involved, the other two were discussing it in front of him would probably be more accurate.

At any rate, over the course of a page they rattle off several different political groups, a couple which exist today, a couple that are variations on the names of current groups, and the rest were pulled out of Heinlein’s vast imagination.

One of the groups mentioned was ‘Libertarians’ interestingly enough. The part that confuses me is that the book was written and copyrighted in 1965 and 1966, while my understanding is that the Libertarian national party was organized in 1971. I am a fledgling Libertarian, so please bear with me and forgive my ignorance.

Did the party get its name from the idea in the book? Or did Heinlein perhaps get the name from a new upstart party that hadn’t officially formed yet? Or was it a coincidence? If any of you know, please fill me in.

I had forgotten much of this book, but I am seeing way too many correlations to today already in it. If you haven’t read it yet, you really should. Some of his ideas are really ‘out there’ but the comparisons to our country are astonishing, even though the book is set in 2075.