A day after elections, I am now proposing a Minarchist Caucus within the Democratic Party. It would parallel the Republican Libertarian Caucus and the Democratic Freedom Caucus.
The reason I am advocating forming it within the Democratic Party initially is because the state I live in is a one-party state with the Republicans dominant. In many of races on the ballot yesterday, there was only a Republican candidate running unopposed or a Republican versus a Libertarian.
In 2002 I ran for Congress in a four way race: Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, and Green. The Democratic Party candidate for 2002 was a fairly weak one-issue candidate as no other Democrats wanted to run and lose in this Republican district. Later in 2004 the same Green Party candidate of 2002 ran as a Democrat where no Democrats would bother to do so. By joining the non-incumbent major party, he had secured a platform for his message he would not have otherwise had. I have been thinking about his tactic for two years now.
This Green Party candidate also ran as a Democrat in 2006. Given the mood of the nation yesterday, he did surprisingly well in the polls. I wonder how much better a minarchist Democrat with a message of small government and civil liberties might have fared in this Republican stronghold. In addition to gaining a platform for spreading your message, running as a candidate of the non-incumbent major party puts you in a position for victory when there is a strong anti-incumbent sentiment such as the vote yesterday.
I think the DeLay race also deserves some mention here. I think the lesson to members of the Libertarian Party should be obvious. This is another reason I am now advocating a caucus within a major party instead of working through a new third party.
If you are interested in this proposal for a Democratic Minarchist Caucus, please join me in discussion on our mailing list.
Posts
1 comment:
David, elsewhere you mention an essay by Peter Schwartz allegedly about "libertarianism."
I read that nonsense several years ago and I still burn with anger and indignation at the utter stupidity of an allegedly intelligent person.
One of Ayn Rand's favorite words was "context."
Schwartz has taken out of context some comments (some of which I found dumb, even reprehensible) and then built an entire, but flimsy, structure, "proving" that libertarianism is worthless.
I could go on and on, but, in brief, libertarianism is purely a political philosophy, dealing with morals and ethics, and based on and devoted to advancing liberty.
Objectivism is a complete philosophy, including aesthetics and metaphysics and epistemology.
With Randroids such as Peter Schwartz, it won't be needing any enemies.
While Objectivism has as its politics a libertarian premise, libertarianism is derived from several different premises, all of which proclaim the value of individualism and individual rights and individual liberty.
Post a Comment