Jeremy Scharlack's Blog: Libertarian Democrats?

May 03, 2003

Libertarian Democrats?

Jim Henley has an interesting post discussing Kos’ earlier post about how the Democrats can attract libertarian (with a small l) voters. He has this advice:

let the Dems put as much real energy into getting rid of big government they supposedly don’t like as adding big government they do. Campaign on ending the drug war and mean it. Dismantle corporate welfare instead of engaging in it. Restore the personal income tax exemption to its level in 1948 dollars while eliminating all or most itemized deductions. Promise to repeal all or most of the USA-PATRIOT Act, the RAVE Act and the DMCA. Stand as firmly for free trade as Clinton did. A party that did these things would still be very much a liberal party. Hell, it would be a more liberal party than the Dems are now. It would still support regulation and tax policies that libertarians hate, but it would have a credible claim to be Kos’s “party of personal liberty” in the non-economic sphere. If the Republicans did not clean up their own act, it would be a damned hard Democratic Party to say “no thanks” to.

I couldn’t agree more (except maybe the part about the taxes which I confess I don’t fully understand). This is exactly what the Democrats need. I am admittedly a libertarian leaning liberal, but I believe this could attract both liberals and libertarians to vote Democratic. Unfortunately the Democrats don’t have half enough balls to talk about even some of these ideas.

I was going to put this in the back entry but I felt it merited is own posting

Posted by Jeremy at 02:39 PM | Link | TrackBack (0)

Comments

I don't disagree with your comments about Democrats avoiding talking about some of the difficult issues you point out. I am a recent transplant from the Libertarian party to the Democratic party. I think now that the Democrats are going to be in the minority they will have to re-think their stances on many of the issues that drove people out of the Democratic party and moved elsewhere in the first place. One major point is affirmative action policies. The Democratic party does itself a disservice by calling for an end to racism as well as equality for all people yet supports policies (like affirmative action) that do exactly the opposite. The Democratic party wants to end racism by reverse discrimination. Thats exactly what affirmative action is. The Democratic party has tied itself too heavily to special interest groups and has strayed away from its original purpose of upholding the policies of the common man which was accomplished via laissez faire economic and social policies.

Posted by: Mike from here at August 18, 2003 10:00 AM | link

A few months after this post, I re-thought my party affiliation and have re-joined the Libertarian party. Although it is possible that the Democrats may revert back to their libertarian ways, I doubt it will come anytime soon and if they do it will mainly be done only to acquire power like the Republicans did. You can bet your bottom dollar that the Demcorats will return to the socialist parties that FDR embraced once they return to power. One reason for this is the draft bill floating around in Congress. If the Democrats are to be effective opponents of Dubya's imperialism, they cannot float statist proposals (like the draft) that exacerbate the warfare state.

Posted by: Mike from here at April 18, 2004 03:48 PM | link

A lot of libertarians are saying that the best way to keep the government small is through a divided government. One could also make the case that that causes the Democrats to fight for civil liberties and Republicans for economic liberties. It also stops a lot of pork barrel policies from being passed. I hate the Republicans (well most of them) too much to truly advocate a divided government, but I can see the point. Since congress isn't changing hands, you may want to consider voting for Kerry if for only that reason.

Posted by: Jeremy from here at April 18, 2004 08:24 PM | link