October, 2006

Coming in November: Majority Fools: Irrationality and the Limits of Democracy

On Tuesday, November 7th, American voters will go to the polls for the mid-term elections. On Monday, November 6th, George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan, author of the forthcoming book The Myth of the Rational Voter, will argue that we can’t count on voters to make rational decisions in the lead essay of the November [...]

Read: Coming in November: Majority Fools: Irrationality and the Limits of Democracy

Soccer Moms and Xbox Dads

by Bruce Reed

October 18th, 2006

Don’t listen to Nick Gillespie: just because you’re libertarians doesn’t mean you have to think of yourselves as hopeless political nomads, consigned to spend the rest of your lives wandering the ideological wilderness.
Trust the marketplace! If David Boaz and David Kirby are right that libertarians represent 10-20% of the electorate, both parties will come calling, [...]

Read: Soccer Moms and Xbox Dads

Don’t Wait for Inspiration, Do Something!

by Markos Moulitsas

October 18th, 2006

Nick writes, “What we’ve seen since the Republicans took control of Washington is appalling. What we’ve seen from the Democrats in this Cato Unbound debate (and on the campaign trail so far) is uninspiring. That suggests to me that libertarian voters will remain an underutilized resource in American politics.”
Isn’t that the story of modern-day politics? [...]

Read: Don’t Wait for Inspiration, Do Something!

Best of the Blogs: Why Democrats Should Become More Libertarian

Michael Strong, CEO and Chief Visionary Officer of FLOW, argues that Democrats should embrace free-market policy initiatives if they really want to achieve traditional liberal aims.

Read: Best of the Blogs: Why Democrats Should Become More Libertarian

Libertarians Still Wandering the Wilderness

by Nick Gillespie

October 18th, 2006

Harold Meyerson is right, I think, that many, perhaps most, libertarians are put off by the seeming, sometimes seething, intolerance at work in today’s Southern-dominated GOP. With every gay-bashing innuendo that a Republican lobs, they surely lose more libertarian votes. For the latest instance of this (and evidence that it’s not just white, Southern Republicans [...]

Read: Libertarians Still Wandering the Wilderness

Best of the Blogs: Crashing the Democratic Gates

Logan Ferree of the Freedom Democrats blogs says, “I don’t believe that libertarians should just sit around and wait for the Democratic Party to make the first move. We live in a democracy, at least it still pretends to be one, and participation in the political parties is open to all. It is time to crash the Democratic gates.” Ferree sets out a plan. . . .

Read: Best of the Blogs: Crashing the Democratic Gates

Southern Conservatism, Libertarian Estrangement

by Harold Meyerson

October 17th, 2006

The Davids, Boaz and Kirby, have produced an important work of political scholarship in their assessment of the libertarian vote in American politics. For my part, I’d like to look at the considerable shift towards the Democrats that they document among libertarian voters between 2000 and 2004, which exists at the presidential (19 points), congressional [...]

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The Libertarian Vote

Speaking of the libertarian vote, Cato Institute executive vice president David Boaz with David Kirby, executive director of the America’s Future Foundation, have just published a new Cato study exploring just that:
We find 9 to 13 percent libertarians in the Gallup surveys, 14 percent in the Pew Research Center Typology Survey, and 13 percent [...]

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Should Conservatives Vote Republican?

by Bruce Reed

October 16th, 2006

When this forum was planned a few months ago, Cato was well ahead of the curve in asking if libertarians should vote Democrat. But the way things have been going for the GOP, it won’t be long before Heritage corrupts another Cato idea by holding an online forum, “Should conservatives vote Republican?”
That, in its own [...]

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How Should Libertarians Decide?

by Nick Gillespie

October 13th, 2006

I’m not convinced the Republicans have dominated political discourse the way Kos says they have–yes, they’ve got super-slim majorities in Congress, and they’ve eked out a couple of narrow presidential wins the last two times around. But that’s not really dominance. Certainly nothing like the vast majorities Dems commanded not so long ago. So if [...]

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The Internal Democratic Struggle

by Markos Moulitsas

October 13th, 2006

Why won’t Democrats stand for those civil liberties they believe in, like gay marriage and free speech? Because they are weak. The GOP has so utterly dominated the political discourse, via their partisan media machine, their think tanks, their leadership and training institutes, and their dominance of the federal and many state governments, that it’s [...]

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Pander, Dammit!

by Nick Gillespie

October 13th, 2006

We might end up on more fertile ground if the discussion shifts from “Should libertarians vote for Democrats” to whether they will vote for Democrats in the midterms (2008 is way too far off in the distance to prognosticate about).
I think Kos’ dismissive attitude toward actual libertarian ideas — “All those libertarians seeking some pandering, [...]

Read: Pander, Dammit!

If You Want Government to Screw Things Up, Vote Republican

by Harold Meyerson

October 13th, 2006

It seems to me that how libertarians vote will be dictated by which of two maxims guides their deliberations. If they believe that the government that governs best governs least, then both parties will, of course, disappoint them, but they could go either way if they decide to vote for the lesser evil as they [...]

Read: If You Want Government to Screw Things Up, Vote Republican

A New Breed of Democrats

by Markos Moulitsas

October 13th, 2006

Amidst all the debate that my “Libertarian Democrat” piece spawned, there’s one particular misconception that I feel needs to be dealt with upfront — the notion that this is all a ploy to convince libertarians to vote Democratic. That, of course, was fueled by the title of the Cato Unbound package, “Should Libertarians Vote Democrat?” [...]

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Best of the Blogs: Matthew Yglesias vs. Tim Lee

Matthew Yglesias’ very smart post on libertarian Democrats and Tim Lee’s very smart reply are what blogs, and Cato Unbound, are good for…

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Libertarian Democrats: The Titillating Myth

by Nick Gillespie

October 11th, 2006

Nick Gillespie, editor-in-chief of Reason, likes the idea of libertarian Democrats, and notes that there are a few, but “when it comes to their own party, they feel sort of like Trotsky during his Mexico City days.” Commenting on the previous essays, Gillespie writes that “even as Moulitsas is ostensibly trying to woo libertarians to vote for Democrats, he spends a good chunk of his essay lecturing his audience like a Hyde Park autodidact about the need for publicly financed roads and education, and railing against that great abstraction of ‘unaccountable corporations’ that lead us into war, make us breathe dirty air, and steal our retirement savings.” Gillespie finds Reed “even less engaging,” while Meyerson’s “uncomplicated nostalgia for the New Deal suggests he thinks he’s living in 1936 rather than 2006.”

Read: Libertarian Democrats: The Titillating Myth

Democrats, Liberals, and Libertarians

by Harold Meyerson

October 10th, 2006

Washington Post columnist and The American Prospect editor-at-large Harold Meyerson argues that Democratic overlap with libertarianism in matters of civil liberties cannot extend to the economic domain. “The central insight of 20th century liberalism,” Meyerson writes, “was that freedoms conflict, that a company’s freedom to dominate the marketplace was often in conflict with a consumer’s freedom to find a product at a fair price, or a workers’ freedom to find a decent job or form a union, or a citizen’s freedom to have an equal voice in the legislative process.” Today, Meyerson argues an increase in economic insecurity demands an increased role for the state. “Ultimately, the Democrats aren’t going to proceed very far down the libertarian road, for one simple reason that’s far more pragmatic than philosophic: It doesn’t lead anywhere.”

Read: Democrats, Liberals, and Libertarians

Best of the Blogs: Jane Galt on Democrats and Economic Freedom

Jane Galt (aka Megan McCardle) of Asymmetrical Information makes the case that until Democrats take economic liberty more seriously, true “libertarian Democrats” will remain as rare as “Feline Dogs.”

Read: Best of the Blogs: Jane Galt on Democrats and Economic Freedom

Best of the Blogs: Two from Somin

At the Volokh Conspiracy blog, George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin offers a thoughtful analysis of the idea of libertarian Democrats, and a set of suggestions of things Democrats could do to attract more libertarian votes…

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Best of the Blogs: State Power and Corporate Power

One of key claims in Markos Moulitsas’ lead essay is that the growing power of corporations threatens individual liberties and that placing a check on corporate power is therefore a central task of government. Moulitsas approvingly quotes Daily Kos diarist hekebolos: “The fundamental reason that “libertarian” has become “libertarian democrat” is that corporations are becoming more powerful than governments.” This claim about the relative power of governments and corporations has spawned a great deal of intelligent commentary across the blogoshere…

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Governing Well Is the Best Revenge

by Bruce Reed

October 4th, 2006

In his reply to Moulitsas, Bruce Reed, president of the Democratic Leadership Council, does not try to claim the libertarian mantle: “[I]f you’re looking for government to close up shop, don’t vote Democratic,” Reed recommends. But, Reed argues, there are reasons for more moderate libertarians to support Democrats. “Which party can provide smaller, more efficient government?” Reed asks. “Which party takes the responsibilities of government and limited government seriously enough to actually deliver it? Which party believes in competition enough to wean the country from its dangerous addiction to corporate welfare and make free enterprise work?” Reed’s answer: The Democratic Party.

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The Case for the Libertarian Democrat

by Markos Moulitsas

October 2nd, 2006

Kicking off this month’s discussion, “Should Libertarians Vote Democrat?”, Markos “Kos” Moulitsas, proprietor of DailyKos.com, argues that the libertarian Democrat’s time has come. Moulitsas says that GOP dominance has been a disaster for limited government and civil liberties, and that growing corporate power poses a grave threat to individual liberty and necessitates government action. “[W]e’ve seen that [the Republican Party] is now committed to subverting individual freedoms,” writes Moulitsas, “while the [Democratic Party] is growing increasingly comfortable with moving in a new direction, one in which restrained government, fiscal responsibility and—most important of all—individual freedoms are paramount.”

Read: The Case for the Libertarian Democrat