By Guy Page
A recent article in a magazine popular among libertarians and free thinkers profiles the moderate, decentralized Republican roots of John McClaughry of Kirby, a former Vemont state senator, Reagan White House advisor, and founder and longtime president of the Vermont free-market think tank Ethan Allen Institute.
Jesse Walker’s recent article, “The Anarchist and the Republican,” published in the May 2025 edition of Reason, offers a captivating exploration of the parallel journeys of two seemingly disparate figures, Karl Hess and McClaughry, who both championed the decentralization of power. While Hess famously journeyed from the Republican right to embrace anarchism, Walker’s piece compellingly details how McClaughry, a lifelong Republican, consistently advocated for similar ideals from within the established political system.
Founded in 1968, Reason bills itself as “the nation’s leading libertarian magazine. We produce hard-hitting independent journalism on civil liberties, politics, technology, culture, policy, and commerce.” In the last 10 years, McClaughry has authored seven Reason articles, one – on solving the housing crisis – as recently as this January.
While focusing on how two very different, original political thinkers learned just how much they have in common, “the Anarchist and the Republican” also offers a detailed look at the life of a man who perhaps more than any other Vermonter has influenced conservative thought and politics in Vermont for more than a generation.
Born in Detroit in 1937 and raised primarily by his grandmothers, McClaughry’s early political leanings were surprisingly Democratic, even leading “East Bay Senior Citizens for Kennedy-Johnson” at the age of 23. However, his inherent skepticism towards excessive government intervention, what he termed “too much statism,” prevented him from fully aligning with the Democrats. A turning point came with his exposure to the 1960 book Decisions for a Better America, a manifesto for moderate Republicans that resonated with his burgeoning concerns about government intrusion.
This led to an increasing involvement in Republican politics. A Harvard grad, McClaughry joined Vermont Senator Winston Prouty’s staff in 1964 and briefly participated in Nelson Rockefeller’s presidential campaign, though he held reservations about Rockefeller’s platform and was wary of Barry Goldwater’s rhetoric on nuclear weapons. He further contributed to Charles Percy’s successful Senate campaign and his subsequent staff.
Yet, McClaughry was far from a conventional political operative. He indulged in writing absurd letters to politicians and even had a penchant for hopping freight trains. He trained as a nuclear engineer. Alongside his political activities, McClaughry embraced decentralist principles in his personal life, building a cabin in Vermont without modern amenities. In 1967, he became the town moderator of Kirby, demonstrating a deep commitment to local governance.
Walker’s article highlights McClaughry’s intriguing engagement with the civil rights and black power movements. Despite an early departure from the March on Washington due to disagreements with a pro-Castro contingent, McClaughry coordinated the Republican Party’s civil rights activities on Capitol Hill. He held a profound respect for Nathan Wright, a key figure in the black power movement, and articulated a vision of empowering black communities with the resources and control to build their own futures and directly benefit from their efforts. This led to alliances with groups like the New Breed Committee in Chicago, where he assisted their leader, David Reed, in a Republican congressional challenge centered on local control.
McClaughry played a significant role in proposing decentralized alternatives to President Johnson’s Great Society programs. His thinking evolved from models involving federal assistance to a more libertarian approach focused on removing governmental barriers. Notably, he co-authored the Community Self-Determination Act of 1968 with a New Leftist, aiming to foster self-sustaining community development corporations (CDCs) through tax incentives and loans.
In a surprising turn, McClaughry served as an intermediary between Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign and black power activists in 1968, even contributing to a Nixon radio address that spoke of “black power, in the best, the constructive sense”. However, McClaughry found that Nixon’s subsequent focus on black capitalism prioritized federal loans over dismantling obstacles to entrepreneurship. Returning to Vermont, McClaughry served two terms in the State Senate and founded a think tank that later critically assessed and recommended the closure of the Office of Minority Business Enterprise, a byproduct of Nixon’s initiative, deeming it ineffectual.
Walker underscores McClaughry’s deep interest in worker self-management and, particularly, worker ownership. He argued in a 1972 study that a free society necessitates widely dispersed property ownership, including through employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). As a policy advisor in the Reagan White House for about a year, McClaughry was part of a group that promoted ESOPs, even exploring their potential to support the Solidarity movement in Poland. Later, McClaughry became a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, contributing to numerous radio scripts and a significant but ultimately unbroadcast election eve speech in 1980. This “lost speech” championed libertarian ideas, praised human-scale institutions, and supported tenant and worker ownership, even quoting Nathan Wright, revealing the unexpected influence of McClaughry’s decentralist vision within the Republican party.
Despite his Republican affiliation, McClaughry consistently engaged in dialogue with individuals across the political spectrum who shared his interest in decentralizing power. He maintained a friendly correspondence with forme Vemont AFL-CIO President David Van Deusen, an anarcho-syndicalist, finding common ground on issues such as opposition to fascism and regressive taxes and an aversion to gun control.
Walker’s article reveals John McClaughry as a complex and principled figure, whose commitment to decentralization transcends conventional political boundaries.