Matt Kibbe is referenced in The Bob Zadek Show as the author of a book whose formulation of libertarianism — rendered in the excerpts as “Don’t hurt me and don’t take my stuff” — is quoted by host Bob Zadek as a summary of the libertarian position. Kibbe does not appear in the excerpts as a guest, and no excerpt identifies his title, his organization, or the book by name. All three appearances of his name occur inside statements by Bob Zadek.
The formulation and its uses
Bob Zadek first invokes Kibbe while questioning Will Wilkinson about why a libertarian would concern himself with the electoral fortunes of the Republican Party. Introducing Wilkinson as someone with deep libertarian roots who believes in libertarian policy, Bob characterizes that policy as, in Kibbe’s words, “Don’t hurt me and don’t take my stuff.” Will Wilkinson: G.O.P. Should Embrace the Welfare State (2017) The phrase serves in that episode as a definitional anchor: Bob uses it to establish what he takes Wilkinson’s core commitments to be before asking what Republican success has to do with those commitments.
The same formulation recurs in a later episode on living in a statist world, where Bob offers it as a way of explaining libertarianism to non-libertarians, particularly progressives. He describes the core difference between libertarianism and non-libertarian positions as a matter of compulsion: progressivism, in his account, cannot be promoted except with the ally of force and the taking of property, whereas libertarians simply say, as Kibbe said in the title of what Bob calls a wonderful book, “All libertarians want is: don’t harm me and don’t take my stuff.” How to Stay Sane in a Statist World (2017) Bob presents the statement as not susceptible to dispute and as a very easy philosophy to embrace.
In a third episode, on the libertarian ethos, Bob again uses Kibbe’s phrase to paraphrase the libertarian relationship to government, this time in the course of rejecting the misconception that libertarians are all anarchists who want no government whatever. He says that libertarians, at least himself, desperately want government — to protect him, to give him the freedom to live as he wants, and to make sure nobody harms him or takes his stuff, to paraphrase Matt Kibbe. David Boaz on the Libertarian Ethos (2018) The citation here is to Bob’s paraphrase rather than to a direct quotation of Kibbe’s words.
The welfare state debate
The first of these episodes is the only one in which the Kibbe formulation is put to work in an extended argument. Bob introduces Wilkinson by noting that the article under discussion was not Wilkinson’s first foray into exploring whether a big government approach, and specifically a more embracing welfare policy, is indeed a libertarian approach and indeed the secret for the GOP to establish more firmly its electoral majority. Will Wilkinson: G.O.P. Should Embrace the Welfare State (2017)
Wilkinson’s answer concerns the Republicans’ inability to legislate despite holding the White House, both houses of Congress, and a majority in the Supreme Court. He describes the party as caught in a bind: Donald Trump ran directly against the Reagan formula of smaller government and free markets, promising not to cut Medicare or Social Security, and Republican voters — older, white, non-urban, and many of them dependent on Medicare and Medicaid — responded favorably. Once in office, Wilkinson argues, Trump had no think tanks, policy journals, or pool of talent behind him and was left with the GOP status quo committed to supply-side economics. Wilkinson points to the Senate healthcare reform bill, which he calls the most unpopular bill in the history of bills and much less popular than the bill it was supposed to replace, even among Republicans, and says it was being pushed through to create space for a bigger tax cut.
Wilkinson’s own stated reason for caring about Republican success is that both major parties should operate according to reasonable ideas, and that Republicans constantly speak of liberty and free markets while fundamentally misunderstanding what free markets are and how they raise living standards. He says their attitude toward the welfare state is undermining political demand for free-market reform. The excerpt breaks off mid-sentence as he begins to describe a mistake about confusing how much money the government — and stops there.
Force, protection, and the anarchist alternative
The second episode’s treatment of the Kibbe phrase occurs in a multi-speaker exchange about whether libertarianism can be framed as the philosophy that avoids force. Bob advances the argument that every element of progressivism has baked into it a compulsion, and that once a progressive is challenged to explain how the view is promoted without a gun and a jail cell, they become mute. How to Stay Sane in a Statist World (2017)
Charlie Deist responds with uneasiness about that framing, noting that libertarians do not advocate abolishing laws or jail cells or taking guns away from police, except on the anarcho-capitalist side of the spectrum, and suggesting that more violence rests inside each individual and is mirrored in the institutions developed to contain it. Bob then revises his position, saying libertarianism is not passivity and not the total absence of guns, force, and power, but that in libertarianism guns and force and power are used only for protection. He invokes the Declaration of Independence as establishing an institution to protect inherent rights, and says he embraces an army and a police force for the sole purpose of protecting him.
Dr. Michael Edelstein offers a different view as a libertarian anarchist, arguing that anything people want that is not coercive will be provided on a free market, including police or military. Deist then raises the thought experiment of dismantling the state and asks whether private agencies would reach a stable equilibrium or revert to one monopoly protection agency, invoking the theories of Walter Block and Murray Rothbard. The excerpt ends there.
Limited government and the market
In the third episode, the Kibbe phrase appears within a discussion with David Boaz about the role of limited government. Bob paraphrases Adam Smith on the baker and the daily bread, argues that any modifier on the word competition is painful to him, and describes competition as businesses and individuals competing to give you what you want at the price you can afford. Boaz agrees and calls this the core of the modern world, defined by the fundamental libertarian values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, with markets as the most productive way to produce for everyone. David Boaz on the Libertarian Ethos (2018)
Bob then raises the misconception that libertarians are all anarchists who want no government whatever, and uses Kibbe’s phrase in his paraphrase of what libertarians do want. Boaz answers that government has an important purpose: protecting rights to life, liberty, and property, and to the pursuit of happiness. He specifies a national defense to protect against threats from abroad — which he distinguishes from a national offense conducting 15-year wars around the world — a court system for disputes people cannot settle themselves, and police to prevent, apprehend, arrest, and eventually try people who commit crimes. Libertarians, Boaz says, want a government that does those tasks well and does not intrude into bedrooms, kitchens, or businesses.
Across episodes: no development
The excerpts show no development in the treatment of Matt Kibbe. His name appears only as the source of a single quoted formulation, and in each of the three episodes Bob Zadek uses that formulation for a different local purpose — establishing Wilkinson’s libertarian premises, explaining libertarianism to progressives, and correcting the anarchist misconception — without any episode revisiting, revising, or expanding on Kibbe’s own views. No excerpt contains an interview with Kibbe, a discussion of his arguments, or any statement by him.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not identify Kibbe’s book by title, give its publication date, or state Kibbe’s profession, organizational affiliation, or any biographical detail. They do not indicate whether he ever appeared as a guest on the program, and no excerpt contains words spoken by him. The excerpts also do not state what the book argues beyond the quoted formulation, nor how the formulation relates to the positions taken by Wilkinson, Deist, Edelstein, or Boaz.