Trump's authoritarianism warrants a return of the "liberaltarian."
These are dark days in Washington, but a tiny bit of good news broke on Monday— an earnest across-the-aisle gesture, made in good faith, that should give heart to the anti-Trump resistance in its infancy, and perhaps even suggest a path forward for defending American democracy.
In a show of solidarity with their left-leaning brethren, the libertarian group Students for Liberty posted an open letter to College Democrats, commiserating about the direction of the country and offering to work with them on issues where they agree—namely immigration, criminal justice reform, aversion to military intervention, and First Amendment rights. They even offered resources to Democrats.
“We provide grants, training, activism resources, and access to a network of pro-liberty students not just in the United States, but all around the world,” the group wrote. “Whatever your issue of choice is, we’re here to help make sure pro-liberty beliefs, whether expressed by libertarians or liberals/progressives, are represented on college campuses across the country (and world)! We’ll never subject you to a purity test or demand allegiance to any particular candidate or approach. As long as your message is pro-liberty, we’re more than happy to help.”
Politics periodically makes for strange bedfellows, and cooperation between libertarians and the left is a storied, if sporadic, tradition.
As Ed Kilgore wrote in The New Republic in 2010, “These two groups were driven together, in the main, by common hostility to huge chunks of the [George W.] Bush administration’s agenda: endless, pointless wars; assaults on civil liberties; cynical vote-buying with federal dollars; and statist panders to the Christian right.” This alliance peaked in the 2006 midterms, when nearly half of libertarian voters backed Democratic congressional candidates. Everyone from Daily Kos’ Markos Moulitsas to the Cato Institute’s Brink Lindsey were hailing the arrival of the libertarian Democrat—or “liberaltarians,” as Lindsey coined them in a New Republic essay that sparked political opinion for years to come.
[…] Wherever libertarians organize in opposition to Trump—from college campuses to Capitol Hill—Democrats should be ready to find common ground with them. Against his authoritarianism, liberals and libertarians should link arms, hoist that Gadsden flag high, and declare together: “Don’t tread on me.”
Click HERE to read the remainder of the article.
Poster’s Comment:
Hondo, Deckard and Buckeroo:
This may be “Fake News.”
Who would ever think that libertarians align themselves “in a show of solidarity with their left-leaning brethren, the Democrats?”
***Snicker***
