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?” It was a title that I hadn’t seen until my piece was up and posted.
If I had written an essay on why libertarians should vote Democratic, it would’ve been a short essay: divided government, ’nuff said.
My piece wasn’t a play for the libertarian vote. Rather, it was a formulation for a new breed of Democrat that is finding success in the Mountain West and other parts of the country and an attempt to figure out why I — a former Republican — find the Democratic Party a comfortable place despite the fact that on an issue-by-issue analysis, I haven’t changed much politically since I was 18.
The fact is, there is a new breed of libertarian-flavored Democrats that is emerging on the scene. They are no more traditionally libertarian than I am. We don’t advocate the elimination of safety-net programs or the abolition of publicly funded education or any of the more extreme manifestations of libertarianism. We don’t think that “corporations derive their power from government,” hence less regulation will magically make corporations respect my individual liberties (a notion I find patently ridiculous). We are Democrats, after all. Yet we Democrats are also struggling to find a coherent philosophy in a world where globalization has made many of its core precepts increasingly archaic.
So this is my contribution to what is really, ultimately, an internal debate inside the Democratic Party as it seeks solid mooring in a rapidly changing world. I don’t claim to have all the answers, but there’s no doubt I find great kinship with Democrats like Montana’s John Tester, Ohio’s Paul Hackett, and Virginia’s Jim Webb. And if such Dems win and encourage others like them to successfully seek and win public office, then we’ll see an inevitable transformation in what the Democratic Party is and what it stands for.
This is really about the future of the party, rather than what it has traditionally been.
So all those libertarians seeking some pandering, too bad. This isn’t about you. It’s about us. Now libertarians have a choice — continue to be taken for granted and pandered to inside a Republican Party hostile to just about everything important to libertarians, or help fuel the libertarian left. Of course, they can vote big “L” Libertarian or sit elections out. But if they want to have a real effect on the political process, the two major parties are pretty much it. And, fact is, one party is moving closer to traditional libertarian principles while the other is moving away from them.
In the short term, libertarians should vote Democratic simply because divided government is in everyone’s interests. A good dose of gridlock will slow Bush’s insatiable appetite for ever-growing, deficit-devouring big government. Mid-term, a Democratic trifecta (White House and Congress) would help reverse many of Bush’s worst excesses. But 10 to 15 years down the road, libertarians will hopefully have better reasons to move into the “D” column.
And if that happens, it won’t be because they were pandered to and wooed, and not because Democrats have become doctrinaire traditional libertarians, but because Democrats will be clearly (in word and in deed) the party of individual liberty. Until then, I and many like me will be fighting that battle inside our own party.
October 13th, 2006 at 5:21 pm
[...] Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos has a new article up discussing his view of Libertarianism within the Democratic Party. It’s a followup to this essay and this blog article. [...]
October 13th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
[...] There’s been a lot of back-and-forth over libertarian Democrats. I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. The West doesn’t have a libertarian streak. It has a “f*ck you” streak. It’s the streak that gives us the people in bars who hate their boss for telling ‘em what to do, their union for taking part of their paycheck, the government for taking part of their paycheck, the church for judging ‘em, the schools for telling their kids what to think, and on and on and on. [...]
October 13th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
[...] Cato Unbound » Blog Archive » A New Breed of Democrats Kos making the pitch to libertarians again. I don’t totaly disgree with him. (tags: politics) [...]
October 15th, 2006 at 11:35 pm
[...] The fact is, there is a new breed of libertarian-flavored Democrats that is emerging on the scene. They are no more traditionally libertarian than I am. We don’t advocate the elimination of safety-net programs or the abolition of publicly funded education or any of the more extreme manifestations of libertarianism. We don’t think that “corporations derive their power from government,” hence less regulation will magically make corporations respect my individual liberties (a notion I find patently ridiculous). We are Democrats, after all. Yet we Democrats are also struggling to find a coherent philosophy in a world where globalization has made many of its core precepts increasingly archaic. — Markos Moulitsas [...]
October 16th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
[...] There’s been a lot of back-and-forth over libertarian Democrats. I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. The West doesn’t have a libertarian streak. It has a “f*ck you” streak. It’s the streak that gives us the people in bars who hate their boss for telling ‘em what to do, their union for taking part of their paycheck, the government for taking part of their paycheck, the church for judging ‘em, the schools for telling their kids what to think, and on and on and on. [via leftinthewest ] [...]
October 17th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Pragmatism and “libertarian Democrats”; the blogs continue to discuss
McQ, is weighing on the More From Kos on Libertarian Democrats at Cato Unbound (which more from Kos is here). Unsurprisingly, McQ isn’t buying Kos’s arguments, and for that matter, Logan Ferree at Freedom Democrats isn’t too amused with Kos, eit…
October 18th, 2006 at 6:50 am
[...] Cato Unbound -» Blog Archive -» A New Breed of Democrats So all those libertarians seeking some pandering, too bad. This isn’t about you. It’s about us. Now libertarians have a choice - continue to be taken for granted and pandered to inside a Republican Party hostile to just about everything important to libertarians, or help fuel the libertarian left. Of course, they can vote big “L” Libertarian or sit elections out. But if they want to have a real effect on the political process, the two major parties are pretty much it. And, fact is, one party is moving closer to traditional libertarian principles while the other is moving away from them.In the short term, libertarians should vote Democratic simply because divided government is in everyone’s interests. A good dose of gridlock will slow Bush’s insatiable appetite for ever-growing, deficit-devouring big government. Mid-term, a Democratic trifecta (White House and Congress) would help reverse many of Bush’s worst excesses. But 10 to 15 years down the road, libertarians will hopefully have better reasons to move into the “D” column. [...]
October 19th, 2006 at 8:41 am
[...] There is much exortation from Democrats and the Left to join them this November in vanquishing the Republican majority, and from Republicians and the Right for their supporters not to stay home when said vanquishing begins. It occurs to me that what the severely political set is missing about the average voter is that, to these voters, the franchise has a value. If you contemplate a person’s vote as a sort of commodity one that can only be sold in the political market,* you may recognize that in order for someone to part with that vote, their minimum price must be met. [...]
October 21st, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Libertarian Egalitarianism: Myth or Reality?
Bruce McQuain responds to my post that questioned his earlier statement that libertarianism and egalitarianism are not compatible. All sparked by the discussion on libertarian Democrats from Markos. Got all that? Good. Moving first to his main point: