The "Libertarian Democrat" Myth

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Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos fame is pushing his "Libertarian Democrat" idea -- at the Cato Institute!

The problem is that, once you take away the pretty words and look at the meat of the matter, his idea of a "Libertarian Democrat" is indistinguishable from the "socialist authoritarian Democrat" we all know and hate.

The idea needs to be exposed for the fraud that it is.

http://digg.com/political_opinion/Markos_Moulitsas_is_still_not_a_libertarian

[FrankChodorov]

there is a much more substantive group on the left called the Democratic Freedom Caucus...

http://www.democraticfreedomcaucus.org/

I would say that Terry Michels who was head of the DNC back in the 80's is more intune than Markos at this time

http://www.terrymichael.net/

excerpt:
Born in the Agrarian Era of its founder, Jefferson, the Democratic Party?s original story was of a limited central government serving self-sufficient ?little people? (farmers, artisans, shop keepers) prizing and preserving individual liberty ? juxtaposed against the elitist federalists, and their seemingly monarchical, big central government ambition.

The Democratic Party narrative was refashioned in the Industrial Era, particularly with arrival of the New Deal, when one-size-fits-all, central authority, wealth re-distributive policies were appealing to many of those little guys. Most had traded self-sufficiency for wage labor that would have distressed Jefferson. Their economic lives revolved around big centralized economic units, corporations, against which they eventually were represented by big centralized labor unions.

or Carl Milsted, head of the Reform the LP group...

http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/002329.html

excerpt:
September 27, 2006
Freedom and Equality: They Go Together

by Carl S. Milsted, Jr.

I am a freedom lover. I hate taxes, paperwork, and standing in lines. When people talk about having more ?community? and ?democracy? I think of long boring parliamentary gatherings, and having to ask everyone?s permission before being able to do anything. Bleah!

For these reasons I was one strongly repelled by the Left, and most of my fellow freedom lovers still are to this day. Some are in the Libertarian Party; more are in the Republican Party, making a Faustian bargain with the Right.

It took a while, but I eventually learned that siding with the Right is a huge mistake. Throughout history, the bigger enemy of liberty has been the political Right: the aristocrats, the slave owners, and the mercantilists. Adam Smith was a liberal, and not just in the classical liberal sense of calling for more liberty. He also called for more economic equality. He attacked the industrial policies of his day which enriched the privileged. He stood against the feudal barons. He described policies which would reduce business profits and increase wages.

Much of this has been forgotten. The forces of economic freedom have been corrupted by their alliance with the Right against the menace of Marxism.

A free society requires more equality than we have today. A large gap between rich and poor requires a police state to enforce property rights. When most property is owned by the few, then fewer respect the institution of private property, and socialists gain strength at the ballot box. When capitalism is limited to a few mega corporations, then there are fewer capitalists voting to preserve the capitalist system. Libertarians should be allies with those who prefer locally owned small businesses to chains of big block stores.

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The DFC is fine, insofar as it's trying to drag the Democratic Party kicking and screaming towards more liberty.

My problem in the instant case is that Moulitsas is trying to pass off "the menace of Marxism" as libertarian.

[FrankChodorov]

The DFC is fine, insofar as it's trying to drag the Democratic Party kicking and screaming towards more liberty.

not more liberty...EQUAL liberty!

[Recumbent ReCycler]

The DFC is fine, insofar as it's trying to drag the Democratic Party kicking and screaming towards more liberty.

not more liberty...EQUAL liberty!

??? not more liberty?  Equal liberty like the way the Democrat party is trying to make everyone equally poor by taking their money according to their ability?

I, for one, want more liberty, and I think that most people should have more liberty.  Politicians who wish to take our liberty to make them feel safer should have less liberty.  JMHO

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Reminds me of the old joke: "They should have stopped writing the Bill of Rights at 'Congress shall make no law.'"

[FrankChodorov]

The DFC is fine, insofar as it's trying to drag the Democratic Party kicking and screaming towards more liberty.

not more liberty...EQUAL liberty!

??? not more liberty?  Equal liberty like the way the Democrat party is trying to make everyone equally poor by taking their money according to their ability?

I, for one, want more liberty, and I think that most people should have more liberty.  Politicians who wish to take our liberty to make them feel safer should have less liberty.  JMHO

do you believe equality must be traded off for freedom?

[PowerPenguin]

I don't know about him, but I would say that more freedom can help everyone attain more equality, but that equality without freedom is A) a bad theory, and anyway B) does not become the reality in real life. Look at Communist regimes.

[Michael Fisher]

The problem is that, once you take away the pretty words and look at the meat of the matter, his idea of a "Libertarian Democrat" is indistinguishable from the "socialist authoritarian Democrat" we all know and hate.

Yeah, like some troll I know...   

[CNHT]

Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos fame is pushing his "Libertarian Democrat" idea -- at the Cato Institute!

The problem is that, once you take away the pretty words and look at the meat of the matter, his idea of a "Libertarian Democrat" is indistinguishable from the "socialist authoritarian Democrat" we all know and hate.

The idea needs to be exposed for the fraud that it is.

http://digg.com/political_opinion/Markos_Moulitsas_is_still_not_a_libertarian

As I've always said, the Democrats like to look for that crack through which they can squeeze their socialist ideas under the guise of libertarianism.
They will find the weakest link and exploit it.
I've warned about this for a while now.
I don't trust the DFC /DFNH - they are about as authoritarian as you can get.

[Michael Fisher]

The "anarchist" myth is the worst: The vast majority of those who identify themselves as "anarchists" are actually 100% for personal freedom and 0% for economic freedom.

In other words, they're pure socialists who want to set up a GOVERNMENT that will redistribute everyone's income and enforce a COMPLETE BAN on property ownership. They are NOT anarchists.

Sorry guys, but government != anarchism. PERIOD!!!

That drives me crazy!

[FrankChodorov]

The "anarchist" myth is the worst: The vast majority of those who identify themselves as "anarchists" are actually 100% for personal freedom and 0% for economic freedom.

In other words, they're pure socialists who want to set up a GOVERNMENT that will redistribute everyone's income and enforce a COMPLETE BAN on property ownership. They are NOT anarchists.

Sorry guys, but government != anarchism. PERIOD!!!

That drives me crazy!

historicallly anarchists have been socialists (or better anti-capitalists) because they rejected all illegitimate authority that creates hierarchy...capitalism is an authoritarian system that uses the state to seperate workers from the means of production that creates hierarchy as opposed to the free market WITHOUT ANY GRANTING OF PRIVILEGE.

there are two different wings of the left anarchist movement...a collectivist wing (anarcho-communist) and an individualist wing (mutualism).

on the right (called the old right) the traditionalist wing (in fusion with libertarianism & anti-communism) made up of folks like Richard Weaver and Russel Kirk had it's roots in both:

1. southern agrarianism
2. catholic distributism

they were both critiques of socialism and capitalism.

the contemporary mutualist Kevin Carson has done the most to attempt to bring together the Austrian and individualist anarchist schools...

http://mutualist.org/id10.html

the only real difference between the radical Lockean mutualism and georgism movement is over the "use and occupancy" view of land ownership.

mutualism does not allow landlordism and georgism does not allow the private collection of economic rent.

[lildog]

do you believe equality must be traded off for freedom?

There are two different types of "equality".

The first grows with more freedom.  The equality that when you apply for a job they will treat everyone equal instead of trying to meet quotas of a magical diversity with the right blend of men and woman all of the right mix of colors and races.  The freedom that you pay for your own wants, instead of a socialistic approach in which people pay for things you want simply because they earn more.  Etc.

The other, will decrease with freedom because it's not a true equality.  All men are NOT created equal.  That's a nice sounding statement but it's bogus.  I will NEVER be able to play baseball as good as Jetter, I will never play guitar as well as Hendrix etc.  There are things I can do better then others, and there are things others can do better then me.  We need to stop trying to use government to force these things to be equal.  We need to stop forcing companies to hire the right mix of people are start looking at who's actually the best.

[FrankChodorov]

All men are NOT created equal

the statement refers to the fact that all men are created with the human capacity to act equally moral and that our subjective view of are own path to happiness is equally valid.

privilege is the opposite of equal access opportunitity rights because it gives exclusive rights to some to exclude others.

justice can only be served by balancing these exclusive rights granted by privilege otherwise you destroy natural property rights of which the basis is human labor.

[CNHT]

I will never play guitar as well as Hendrix etc. 

Shoot! You're out of MY band then!