I am a libertarian with a small "L". No, I am not a supporter of the US Libertarian Party or it's laissez-faire economic policies and flat-taxes. Nor do I have a NRA membership card. I am a registered Democrat who falls in the outerlying category of the Libertarian Socialist left.
Why should anyone care what my philosophies are? They probably shouldn't, but today I have a broader point to make rather than just wanting to get into a political theory discussion. I will spare you a forty paragraph analysis of myself and get to the point.
We Democrats have a huge opportunity here to bring a whole new group of voters into our big tent. They are the libertarian center.
No, I am not talking about psycho white power militiamen from Idaho and Montana. I am talking about mainstream Republicans who have a strong libertarian bent. I am talking about moderate western libertarian Republicans.
A few months ago, i had a comment exchange with some folks her on DKos about the differences between the libertarian left and the libertarian right. I felt that the two sides were so far apart there could be no common ground.
I still believe that in many ways our differences are unreconcilable. However, there is a whole swath of voters in the West who feel strongly about a handful of issues on which they base many of their votes. If our candidates hammer away at a few of these issues, i believe we can cause a fair amount of these folks to switch sides and vote for our candidates.
Democrats will never believe in economic deregulation. We will never believe in some sort of social Darwinism, a.k.a. survival of the fittest. However, we have a common feeling with libertarian Republicans that things have gone too far, that government is trying to squash dissent, legislate religion, and take away our basic rights and liberties. It is here we have common ground, and it is on these points which we must hammer away until our message is heard.
We have seen a recent movement toward Democrats in Montana, and I believe it may partly have to do with Rebuplican abandonment of liberty in all forms. What are the issues that we Dems have in common with moderate libertarian Republicans?
1. CIVIL LIBERTIES
This is a no-brainer for libertarians of all stripes. Every libertarian wants to avoid a big brother society like we have right now. No more illegal wire-taps. No surveillance of domestic groups. No government infiltration of groups. The right to protest and freely speak and write against our own government. These are basic freedoms being taken away by Republicans and we need to pounce.
2. PRIVACY
All libertarians right and left believe in this. Stay the fuck out of our bedrooms! Stay away from our schools unless you are protecting our rights. Don't take away a person's right to die. No illegal search and siezures on the grounds of terrorism. Stay away from our medical records! Stay away from our library records!
3. CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT POWER
If the President is going to be an all-powerful ass who decides that his sole purpose is to expand Executive powers, then we are clearly in big trouble. This is a constitutional crisis, and moderate Repubs are pissed too. We have seen congessional Republicans splitting on one major thing -- issues of liberty. Wiretaps, Patriot Act reauthorization, torture. It is western (and moderate New England) senators who are breaking ranks. And with bridges to nowhere and other pork projects out of control, we can make the argument that all of the GOP is drunk with power. They are undertaking a huge expansion of the government's role in all facets of our society -- the economy, the public square, what you see on TV, what is taught in schools. It is this reckless expansion to which many on the right and in the center object. The governemnt shouldn't tell us what to watch, what to read, what to teach, what to do, what to say, where to go, or anything else unless we are harming another person.
These are a few issues I can think of right now that libertarians of all stripes have in common. Perhaps you all can come up with some more.
I truly feel that if we hammer on these issues, hammer away at an out of control government, and stay away from the gun issue and economic entitlement program expansion, we can crush the GOP. They have become the party of government run amok.
We all know that government has a strong role to play in society, but that that primary role is to protect us from each other, not to tell us what to think and do. On the left we would like to see a government which exists to protect the masses from the evils of unfettered capitalism, and to protect our rights as citizens from being taken away by other citizens, corporations, orthe government itself. But all across the political spectrum, people are wondering why they are living an an increasingly hierarchical and oppressive state. I suggest we focus on this idea. We won't win in Kansas, but we can win in Colorado, Montana, and Neveada.