But, never paid attention to. *Sigh*
Andrew Sullivan has been chronicling a growing debate of the overlap between “liberals” and “libertarians.” I add quotation marks, because I question whether these words still have any meaning, having been stretched too far to encompass individuals who don’t even come close to resembling the original intention of the parties.
I have been saying this for years – however, I’m not sure that I have yet chronicled it in the millions of words already on this blog in the 8 months it has been up and running. But, I prefer the terms progressives and social libertarians. I consider myself a leftist libertarian in the mold of Thomas Jefferson, not a bad model IMO.
I think we are seeing this “coming together” in the form of the Millennial generation. They are socially very liberal, i.e. libertarian, but are seeing the utterly corrupted end state of a completely deregulated free-market economy. We just need a similar takeover of ideals and solution-oriented togetherness in the Senate that we have seen in the White House and are seeing in the House of Reps.
It’s clear that a free (and fair) market system is the most democratic. I know I’m ready to compromise with free market libertarians and I’m pretty sure I can make the socially beneficial case for free higher education, single-payer healthcare (cheaper for preventative reasons – sorry insurance companies), and strict enforcement of anti-trust laws. I’m even willing to step back from my living wage stance to help accommodate. If we maintain many smaller businesses, I think we can begin to flatten the obscene wealth gaps in this country and begin to restore the middle class.
Now only if we can get a new round of low-interest small business loans for startups for all the architects and everybody else currently out of work (to be timed with the cash flow from the initial stimulus plans). As Muhammad Yunus has shown, everybody possesses the entrepreneurial gene (only few have the means to do anything about it), not just the few barons of industry exemplared in times of extreme centralization…which incidentally always seem to lead to a crash!
