Will the Democrats be Willing to Pretend to be Libertarian to Get Our Votes?

Tristero leads me to despair of libertarians’ finding common ground with Democrats: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_digbysblog_archive.html#115016467939408795


“What libertarians fail to understand - and it is what makes me characterize libertarianism as utopian and naive - is that essentially *all* political action is social engineering.

Neither conservatives nor the extreme right - neither of which is naive - make that mistake, even if, for polemical reasons, they reframe what they're up to as not social engineering. The argument between liberals, conservatives, and the extreme right revolves around what kind of social engineering is best. Tax breaks for corporations? Affirmative action? Coathangers? A strong FEMA? But the reality of government as social engineer is accepted as a given.

Libertarians were sold a bill of goods by Republicans. As all, repeat all, recent Republican history has shown, they are as much the party of Big Government as the Democrats. Before going blue, however, libertarians will need seriously to refine their notion of what government is. Make no mistake: Democrats do not loathe government. They recognize that there are some functions a government must do. And they are honest - unlike their red counterparts - about their belief that there are some things governments should do.”

I would rather Democrats discover liberty rather than having libertarians embrace the state. Tristero also suspects that libertarians’ advocacy of federalism is disguised racism rather than a commitment to decentralization as a check on government power. I fear that many liberals share this view, and it may be necessary for libertarians to allay these suspicions in order to win support for federalism. The most high profile appeals to states’ rights have involved states’ wanting the power to oppress people, and a lot of folks conflate the argument with the worst uses of it.