Markos's Libertarian Dem diary from yesterday garnered a lot of attention from Libertarian Blogesphere.
I found a thoughtful article from CATO writers particulary interesting, helpful and worthy of attention from Kossacks.
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/...
snips:
"Kos rightly points out that libertarians have very little in common with the GOP in its present incarnation. So what is to prevent libertarians from siding with the Democrats in elections?"
more:
First he says the studies on personality traits show that liberals and libertarians are remarkably similiar in showing strong signs of "openness to experience" something very absent from most conservative-leaning voters.
He says "the barrier between liberals and libertarians has almost entirely to do with different answers to empirical questions about the way markets and governments function."
and then:
"The thing that keeps me from throwing my lot in with Democrats has everything to do with their consistent underestimation of the efficacy and justice of institutions that make the most of the information carried by market prices, and their consistent overestimation of the efficacy and justice of bureaucratic political management. Love markets more, and love the state less, and libertarians may come a knockin`."
In other words, a little flexibility in means can lead to much better ends. We can't be so rigid. We need to communicate this willingness to innovate and let go of talking points.
In responding the Kos's words on "the corporation" we see te most concise and brilliant rebuttal:
"I think Kos underestimates just how wary of corporations libertarians generally are. Classical liberal political economy tells us that the greater the scope and power of state coercion, the stronger the incentive for economically powerful private interests, such as corporations, to use it to their own advantage, squashing competition, consolidating advantage, and channeling taxpayer dollars into corporate coffers. Libertarians have never believed in leaving corporations unchecked. The way you check corporations is by taking political power off the table."
That alone should really jar some liberals into reconsidering the way they approach corruption and corporatism. This why I push for simpler taxes that cannot be manipulated with ACCE$$!
He asserts that taking some openly libertarian positions on matters of corporatism, PORK, frivolous spending, minimum income policies and I'll add small business regulations and simplfied tax reform among others, libertarians would
come in droves.
Jesse Walker from Reason is much more concise:
http://www.reason.com/...
1.Be good on the issues where the left is supposed to be good: social issues and foreign policy.
2.When you talk about tolerance, mean it...for everyone, no excpetions even hunters and smokers! Go after tobacco subsidies..leave smokers alone.
3.Don't be a slave to the bureaucracy!!!!!!!!!!!
"there are ways to achieve progressive goals without expanding the federal government, and if you're willing to entertain enough of those ideas, you'll be more appealing than a "free-market" president who makes LBJ look thrifty. You could talk about the harm done by agriculture subsidies, by occupational licensing, by eminent domain, by the insane tangle of patent law. And no, I don't expect you to call for abolishing the welfare state -- but maybe you'd like to replace those top-heavy bureacracies with a negative income tax?"