THE LIBERTARIAN DEMOCRAT

From the Daily Kos:

Traditional "libertarianism" holds that government is evil and thus must be minimized. Any and all government intrusion is bad. While practical libertarians (as opposed to those who waste their votes on the Libertarian Party) have traditionally aligned themselves with the Republicans, it's clear that the modern GOP has no qualms about trampling on personal liberties. Heck, it's become their raison d' etre.

The problem with this form of libertarianism is that it assumes that only two forces can infringe on liberty -- the government and other individuals.

The Libertarian Democrat understands that there is a third danger to personal liberty -- the corporation. The Libertarian Dem understands that corporations, left unchecked, can be huge dangers to our personal liberties.

Libertarian Dems are not hostile to government like traditional libertarians. But unlike the liberal Democrats of old times (now all but extinct), the Libertarian Dem doesn't believe government is the solution for everything. But it sure as heck is effective in checking the power of corporations.

In other words, government can protect our liberties from those who would infringe upon them -- corporations and other individuals.

Click here for the rest.

Okay, this is an interesting idea, a true moderate position unlike what's currently touted as moderate in mainstream discourse. It's also an idea that's very appealing to me. While I would certainly love to see us all in something of a Marxist situation, where we produce only what we need, and therefore need to work only four hours a day for a living wage, which would free us for our own personal and social pursuits, we've got to walk before we can run, and this Libertarian Democrat concept is a very big step in the right direction. It's also appealing to me because, despite all my left-wing rantings, I'm pretty conservative in that I believe we should proceed toward radical social change only with great caution, slowly, so that we can minimize the massive screw-ups that are necessarily a part of the process--the Soviets and the Chinese tried to achieve economic justice overnight, and killed a lot of people in the process; we do not want to repeat their tragic and barbaric mistakes.

Hell, I might even settle for a hybrid capitalist-socialist society if it appears to get us closer to justice. If it becomes widespread, I could see myself getting behind this left Libertarian thing.

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