Here is a blog post from a leftist dude who thinks that because Julian Sanchez is a libertarian and works for the Koch-funded Cato Institute, Sanchez favors MORE government spying.
I wouldn't ordinarily link to a guy who thinks that "libertarian" means "someone who opposes civil liberties," but I've linked to an obvious ignoramus because this points up a larger problem. Progressives favor civil liberties and peace. Libertarians favor civil liberties and peace. (It's right there on the Cato Web site, John Francis Lee — "The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization — a think tank – dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace.")
I realize that most libertarians and most leftists are unlikely to get together on, say, the virtues of public employee unions or whether nationalizing the domestic steel industry is a good idea, but isn't it a good idea to form coalitions to fight endless war and the surveillance state? If Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich could work together on peace issues, why not John Francis Lee and Julian Sanchez?
I've put up "ecumenical" peace links on this Web site. I don't think most folks would consider Tom Hayden (e.g. "Peace Exchange Bulletin") a libertarian.
4 comments:
Most "libertarians," and most "leftists," are merely poseurs.
They aren't really working, together or apart, for anything other than their own feeling of self-importance. What the Koch brothers are working for should be obvious.
I am not sure that it is easy to do this, because these people do not disagree on just what problems there are but also how to go around solving those problems. There are people in both camps of this that believe war is necessary, I think I even heard jon stawart say that america should re-introduce conscrption, I might have misheard, but if true I thought that comment was anathema to any leftist politic.
I am also a very ignorant english person, who has very hard time understanding american politics. It seems to be a shifted grid from that of english politics.
Drew Zi,
Because there are even many leftists and libertarians who seem to favor war, it seems important to me for antiwar folks of all persuasions to drop the issues that divide them and unite against war.
I wish very much we had a parliamentary system of government such as Britain does; I think it would open up space for more ideas to be given a public airing.
I agree wholeheartedly with you. I wish people would give up wars, it's a waste and does not solve anything. I get the impression that people will only come to their senses after some major catastrophe goes down, not that I think it should happen like that, but some people need seriously jolting out of their sleep, before they come to their senses.
What advantages does a parlimentary system have, over that which you have in america?
I think the political stance I take is what in america would be called social libartarianism, over in europe we call this anarchism. if I say that to americans they think I am talking about rothbard. I think you know the deal though. I am just trying to be funny. I tried to talk about this when I had my blog up, but there are much better commentators on anarchism than me.
If you want to hear a posh english anarchist, who is sometimes very insightful try anarchopac. It is pretty funny hearing a posh wippersnapper proclaim that he is an anarchist...
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