Jesse Walker on how to make a half-assed appeal to pro-liberty voters (he uses the word "libertarian," but then he's writing for Reason's Hit & Run):
The short answer -- and this applies to Republican candidates too -- is: (a) Don't be as bad as the other guy, and (b) Be actively good on at least one important issue. As far as Democrats in particular are concerned, I have three specific pieces of advice:
1. Be good on the issues where the left is supposed to be good....In general, don't be afraid to condemn an ill-conceived intervention abroad, and don't forget that freedoms exist that do not involve the word "reproductive."
2. When you talk about tolerance, mean it. I'm glad to see you sticking up for gays and religious minorities. Don't wreck the effect by picking on smokers and gun owners.
3. Don't be a slave to the bureaucracy.We have airline deregulation today because consumer groups, liberal politicians, and left-wing muckrakers wanted to break up the old airline cartel. But in the years since then, few Democratic leaders have emulated their example and looked for ways to shrink the state. In the presidential races, the two significant exceptions are Gary Hart and Jerry Brown, and of course they both lost. (When Brown ran in '92, he called for abolishing the Department of Education. Sounds a lot better than No Child Left Behind.)
So that's all I ask. When Republicans are bad on civil liberties and foreign policy, be an alternative. Extend your social tolerance to folks to the other side of the culture war. And if you can't be as pro-market as Hayek, try at least to be as pro-market as Jerry Brown.
Two words: never happen.
Posted by Craig Ceely at June 9, 2006 09:48 AMUgh tolerance.
Posted by: Marnee at June 9, 2006 01:39 PMThe Democrats of today have totally embraced altruism. They will never argue for any pro-capitalist or pro-war postion. Both would require some resistance to altruism. This is not possible. As it is, the Republicans can barely muster any pro-capitalist sentiment and their war effort is only slightly less pascifistic than what the Left would have done.
This idea that the Democrats are going to search for "better" ideas is absurd. They are going to take the same altruist/collectivist ideas they have been relying on for decades and attempt to repackage them for a new generation. That's all they can do.
We are witnessing the abysmal end of post-modernism. All we can really do is watch.
Posted by: D. Eastbrook at June 9, 2006 03:36 PM"their war effort is only slightly less pascifistic than what the Left would have done"
So the occupation and destruction of Iraq is a "kindler, gentler" kind of war? Where do you get your news from? Your sleep?
Uhh where do you get your reading skills?
He wrote LESS PACIFISTIC than the Left.
LESS
This means more agressive. But only slight so. Get it?
Posted by: What the at June 14, 2006 12:37 PM