If you are not familiar with the show Parks & Recreation on NBC, I highly recommend it. One of the heroes of the sitcom is a character named Ron Swanson, played by Nick Offerman. Ron Swanson is a staunch libertarian, and his “meta joke” for the show is that he’s the head of the Parks Department in the town of Pawnee, Indiana—and his goal in life is to shut down that department (and most others) because they are useless wastes of time and the hard-earned money of the people.

In a recent episode, a repeat, Ron explained to a fourth grader who John Locke was. And by helping himself to 40 percent of the girl’s lunch, how taxes work. Her assignment was to write an essay on “Why does government matter?” After a few hours with Ron, she handed in a two-word essay to her teacher: “It doesn’t.”

It made me smile, and of course Ron Swanson was beaming from ear to ear. He is the best sitcom character on TV—a libertarian who is not mocked but is instead the sensible one on this popular NBC sitcom. This is on network TV! I have a feeling the Hollywood writers who created this character did  not intend him to be a hero, but it’s a beneficial mistake.

In the episode mentioned above, Ron looks at the camera and tells the documentarian/audience about his excitement at having a young skull of mush to shape into a freedom-loving libertarian—countering the statist bilge she’s hearing in the public school:

Another classic scene on the show has Ron Swanson coaching a basketball team of ten year olds. Discussing legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success, Ron unveils to the kids his “Pyramid of Greatness.” You can see it below. It’s in keeping with the libertarian ethos of the character, and hilarious.

(Click on the image below to see it larger. I’ve pasted a video clip of the scene below the image.)

(Cross-posted at Somewhat Reasonable.)