Let's look at the list of recent events. Democrats organized in the Senate to filibuster the extension of the Patriot Act. It's revealed that President Bush has authorized unconstitutional spying on American citizens. All of this causes blogger James Leroy Wilson to wonder at The Partial Observer if
real conservatives will now become Democrats. It's a good question and so I've stolen the title for a diary.
The revelations of unconstitutional spying by the NSA was cause for DarkSyde to
call on libertarians and conservatives to cross over and support the Democrats. Violating the constitution is one of those fundamental issues that transcend the normal political spectrum of the left and right. Everyone should be opposed to it!
However a quick glance through many of the replies at the above diary shows that people are either of the opinion that libertarians and conservatives are hopeless and will never break away from the Republican Party, or that true libertarians and conservatives are already fed up with the Republican Party and are trying to work within the Democratic Party. The latter at times pointed out that the behavior of the former was counter productive. My own diary on the topic pointed out that too many Democrats are counter productive in attacking libertarians when there's a lot of common ground between liberals and libertarians. The result? Replies attacking libertarianism.
The attitude can be summed up as: "[J]ust saying the word "libertarian" gets some people riled up. Libertarians are greedy bastards, end of story. Some had the attitude of, "A LIBERTARIAN is voting for us? We don't want that!"
Heaven forbid that the Democratic Party attracts more voters!
Too many Democrats have stuck their fingers in their ears and are yelling "la-la-la-la" and refusing to hear anything that challenges their preconceived notions of politics. When Senator Obama attacked Republicans as Social Darwinists who want to dismantle government he was ignoring the fact that George W. Bush has presided over the largest expansion of federal spending in modern times. Bigger even than LBJ. Dismantling the government? No, they are making the government stronger and more controlling! As one libertarian said, "It drives me nuts when GOPers claim to be for small government, and it makes me even madder for Democrats to concede this ground to the GOP."
I am a libertarian Democrat and I am not going to concede this ground to the GOP! And I am not alone. Terry Michael, former press secretary for the DNC and long time Democratic activist, has launched his new website "Thoughts from a libertarian Democrat." There are two former Libertarian Party members running for Congress in 2006 as Democrats, Kevin Anderson in the Texas 4th and Frank Gonzalez in the Florida 21st. Frank Gonzalez in particular will most likely run an amazing grassroots campaign that builds off of his 2004 showing in which he received more votes as an under funded third party candidate than any Democrat has ever received in the district.
David Boelke, National Director of the Democratic Freedom Caucus, is encouraging every single Democratic candidate in 2006 to "not refer to Republicans without the words "Big Government" on front of it." He concluded in his e-mail to the DFC mailing list:
I should also note that retired Sen. William Proxmire (D-WI) died recently at the age of 90. He was a tireless opponent of wasteful spending and someone who I wish the current Congressional Democrats would study and learn from. The paradigm has shifted, and it's high time that the Democrats in Congress recognized it and used it to their advantage. It's now the Big Government Republicans against the Reformer Democrats. If the public perception remains the security-minded, wartime Republicans against the obstructionist, visionless Democrats, the Democrats' gains in 2006 will be blunted, because people will only have a party to vote against, not one to vote for.
I cannot repeat enough that we are facing Big Government Republicans and we shouldn't pretend that they are in favor of small government anymore. There are some of us out there that want small government and know that the Republicans aren't offering it. I have been working hard to bring down the idea that Republicans are in favor of small government. Recently I put together a scorecard of the so-called Liberty Caucus, a group of 23 Republican Congressmen including former Libertarian Party Presidential candidate Ron Paul. I urge you to check out all of the scorecard, but I will summarize the results here.
I looked at ten key votes that had been identified through Action Alerts as votes of particular importance for Ron Paul, who is viewed by many libertarian activists as the Congressperson most consistent in voting liberty. Needless to say he scored a perfect 100%. But the rest? Only 7 members of the Liberty Caucus voted with Ron Paul 50% or more! Not only that, but Democrats did BETTER even than members of the Liberty Caucus. Two Democrats voted with Ron Paul eighty percent of the time: Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. Thirty-three other Democrats voted with Ron Paul seven times out of ten, more than any member of the Liberty Caucus! Even Bernie Sanders, professing a socialist ideology, voted with Ron Paul on seven of the ten votes.
In responding to the results of the scorecard, James Leroy Wilson writes:
When it comes to protecting civil liberties and even national sovereignty, Democrats are coming out ahead of Republicans.
I hate to use the cliche, but we are witnessing a paradigm shift. The libertarian-conservative coalition in the Republican Party, once represented by the likes of Robert Taft, Goldwater, and Reagan, has been pushed aside. The neoconservatives and the Religious Right, neither of whom care much about freedom or limited government, are in charge of the Party.
Where can the paleoconservatives and the libertarians go? Do the Democrats see the opportunity here? True, there isn't too much in common between libertarians and modern progressives, between America First conservatives and neo-liberal internationalists. But recently, two elder statesmen of the Democratic Party passed away, the anti-war Eugene McCarthy and the dogged fighter against government waste, William Proxmire. If the leadership of the Democratic Party will embrace their legacies, a new coalition can form. Is it possible to imagine a Democratic Party that stands for peace, civil liberties, and fiscal responsibility? That stands against the wasteful and tyrannical policies of the past five years?
Politics make strange bedfellows indeed. But compared to George WMD Bush and Dick Cheney, Bill Richardson and Russ Feingold don't look so bad.
I'll leave it at that.