Goldwater Democrats? - Democratic Underground

Pirate Smile

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Mon Oct-02-06 12:54 PM
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Goldwater Democrats?

Edited on Mon Oct-02-06 12:55 PM by Pirate Smile

Andrew Sullivan

Goldwater Democrats?

02 Oct 2006 01:33 pm

Well, we've had Reagan Democrats. And we've had Goldwater Republicans. Why not a new version: Goldwater Democrats? By Goldwater Democrats, I mean old-style libertarian conservatives who actually believe in fiscal responsibility, small government, prudent foreign policy and live-and-let-live social policy. After being told we are completely unwelcome among Republicans, should we shift to the Dems?

I have never thought of myself as a Democrat or left-liberal in any way. And there are plenty of people among Democrats I do not agree with at all. But it's getting to the point that the illiberal, authoritarian big government Christianism of the GOP makes me completely supportive of backing the Democrats this time around. My one reservation is, of course, spending. But at this point, could they be worse than the GOP? No Congress has been worse on spending than the current crew since FDR! The war? Again, at this point, we desperately need some check on an administration utterly without prudence or a capacity for self-correction.

And so I find myself in a very uneasy alliance with Markos Moulitsas, who writes the lead essay in the libertarian magazine Cato Unbound. Strange bedfellows. But these are strange times.

http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/10/goldwater_democ.html

Kos

Should Libertarians vote Democratic?

by kos
Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 09:01:45 AM PDT

I have written the lead essay for this month's issue of CATO Unbound, the libertarian think tank's online magazine.

The case against the libertarian Republican is so easy to make that I almost feel compelled to stipulate it and move on. It is the case for the libertarian Democrat that has created much discussion and not a small amount of controversy when I first introduced the notion in what was, in reality, a throwaway blog post on Daily Kos on a slow news day in early June 2006.

But that post--as coarse, raw, and incomplete as it was--touched a surprising nerve. It generated the predictable criticism from libertarian circles (Reason and several Cato scholars piled on) as well as from conservatives who perhaps recognized their own slipping grasp of libertarian principles but were unwilling to cede any ground to a liberal. But more surprising (and unexpected) to me was the positive reaction: there's a whole swath of Americans who are uncomfortable with Republican/conservative efforts to erode our civil liberties while intruding into our bedrooms and churches; they don't like unaccountable corporations invading their privacy, holding undue control over their economic fortunes, and despoiling our natural surroundings; yet they also don't appreciate the nanny state, the over-regulation of small businesses, the knee-jerk distrust of the free market, or the meddlesome intrusions into mundane personal matters.

Like me, these were people who didn't instinctively reject the ability of government to protect our personal liberties, who saw government as a good, not an evil, but didn't necessarily see the government as the source of first resort when seeking solutions to problems facing our country. They also saw the markets as a good, not an evil, but didn't necessarily see an unregulated market run amok as a positive thing. Some of these were reluctant Republicans, seeking an excuse to abandon a party that has failed them. Others were reluctant Democrats, looking for a reason to fully embrace their party. And still others were stuck in the middle, despairing at their options--despondent at a two-party system in which both parties were committed to Big Government principles.

Over the coming days, CATO will add responses by the DLC's Bruce Reed, famed labor writer Harold Meyerson, and Reason's editor-in-chief Nick Gillespie.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/2/12145/1105