A Better Political Manifesto Than I Can Write

Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos has articulated a political viewpoint that I have been struggling with for quite a while. After reading this essay on the Cato Institute's blog I finally realized what I am not a libertarian as I thought I might have been, but a Libertarian Democrat.

I had nearly jumped ship on the Democrats before finding this essay. I went to a few meeting of the Penn Libertarians even. Too bad their actual ideology borders on anarchism, which as nice as it sounds in theory, is as impractical as communism. And so, we come back to this.

We cherish freedom, and will embrace any who would protect it. But that necessarily includes, in this day and age, the government.

Problems I Have With the Current Political System

Republican leadership has been a diasaster from the standpoint of individual freedoms.

On social issues, we are seeing a government aggressively seeking to meddle in people’s bedrooms, doctor’s offices, and churches. They want to dictate when life begins, when life ends, and which consenting adults can marry. They want to pass a new Amendment eliminating the non-existent threat posed by flag burning—a serious effort to limit the freedoms protected by the First Amendment.

And

The nation’s current wars have given conservatives yet more excuses to make a mockery of the protections we supposedly enjoy under the Bill of Rights, from the PATRIOT Act, to the NSA spying on American citizens, to violations of habeas corpus. Republicans seem to have even abandoned even more fundamental Constitutional principles, such as “separation of powers.”

But the Democrats are no better. Most of them voted for the Iraq War and the Patriot Act as well. And in Pennsylvania, we've replaced Rick Santorum with Bob Casey, who at best is only marginally better.

We can't seriously say that the Republicans are the party of small government anymore, not when Bush is the biggest spending President in 30 years. The Democrats, though traditionally the party in favor of bigger government, are starting to see a turnaround, led by the Mountain States.

Ideals

1. Free Market, except: Markets should be totally free to competition in any non-coercive, non-deceptive way. Those are the only two elements that must be regulated. More or less, to preserve the market, information must flow freely and clearly. This is a better check on destructive corporations than any bureaucracy can be. Consumers, if they have accurate information about the products they are buying, will make rational choices. This means, that coroporations must have accountability. They should not be able to keep their business practices secret.

2. Education: The government should provide for an excellent education for everyone. The way I see this working, is the government should fund public schools so obscenely well that they will drive private schools out of business. Even in the most impoverished neighborhoods the school will be a beacon of hope and opportunity, the ony shiny new building in an otherwise condemned neighborhood. There's no reason that the residents of inner city Detroit should not get the same education as the students at Phillips-Exeter. That is the only way there will be equality of opportunity.

Anyways, this is way too long. The essay itself is great, much better written than anything I can put together. So here's the link again. READ IT!

The Case for the Libertarian Democrat,
Markos Moulitsas