sailingaway
06-17-2013, 09:12 PM
but then it was written by someone who bills himself as an x libertarian. :p
Kidding, but it isn't snark central which is what usually seems to pass for ideas over there.
Take a look. In part:
As a young, liberal American, I am worried about the future of the Democratic Party and of liberalism in general in this country. I will be blunt: The presidency of Barack Obama has been a major setback to both. It has been a deep disappointment, and a betrayal of trust.
Most importantly, the Obama presidency -- and the current political agenda of mainstream Democratic Party politicians overall -- risks alienating an entire generation of once enthusiastic Democratic voters and giving new life to a Republican Party that is searching for a replacement for the dying social conservative message.
I see more and more young people giving up on the possibility of good government and turning to libertarianism. In many cases, they don't agree with libertarian economic policies, but after Obama, they simply no longer believe that it is even possible in America today for the federal government to do good, rather than all the bad things it's doing. Once people come to that belief, they naturally decide "screw government!" and they start voting for Ron Paul, Rand Paul, and other exponents of the philosophy that government doesn't work and therefore it should be cut to the bone.
I was a member of the Libertarian Party about 15 years ago, when I was in college. Bush turned me into a liberal, and I remain a liberal. But when I was a libertarian, it was mainly because I believed in the mantra of Harry Browne, the LP candidate at the time, who wrote a book called Government Doesn't Work. Browne's message was simple: The government never does what you want it to do; it always ends up doing the things you don't want it to do. Therefore, it is logical to support a smaller and less powerful government.
I'm sorry to say, but this cynical anti-government message is going to start resonating with more and more people, unless the Democratic Party boldly casts aside the center-right path of Barack Obama and embraces a new progressive revival. People want middle class jobs, not Big Brother listening to your phone calls and reading your emails. They want student loans, not bailouts for an obscenely wealthy investment banking industry. They want increased funding for health care and education, not cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
Too many Democrats have a smug assurance that the younger generations will automatically keep voting Democratic; that "demographic change" will condemn the GOP to permanent minority status in just a couple decades. But if the American people elect Democrats and then those Democrats keep cutting government services for the poor, elderly, and disadvantaged, while continuing to expand the military-industrial-security state and serving the Wall Street lobbyists that people were actually voting against, why are they going to bother to vote for Democrats again? "Because they have no other choice," right? I don't think that's going to work much longer.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/17/1216862/-Democrats-Risk-Losing-a-Generation-to-Cynical-Libertarianism#
the only problem is that progressivism doesn't give you any of the things he wants.
Kidding, but it isn't snark central which is what usually seems to pass for ideas over there.
Take a look. In part:
As a young, liberal American, I am worried about the future of the Democratic Party and of liberalism in general in this country. I will be blunt: The presidency of Barack Obama has been a major setback to both. It has been a deep disappointment, and a betrayal of trust.
Most importantly, the Obama presidency -- and the current political agenda of mainstream Democratic Party politicians overall -- risks alienating an entire generation of once enthusiastic Democratic voters and giving new life to a Republican Party that is searching for a replacement for the dying social conservative message.
I see more and more young people giving up on the possibility of good government and turning to libertarianism. In many cases, they don't agree with libertarian economic policies, but after Obama, they simply no longer believe that it is even possible in America today for the federal government to do good, rather than all the bad things it's doing. Once people come to that belief, they naturally decide "screw government!" and they start voting for Ron Paul, Rand Paul, and other exponents of the philosophy that government doesn't work and therefore it should be cut to the bone.
I was a member of the Libertarian Party about 15 years ago, when I was in college. Bush turned me into a liberal, and I remain a liberal. But when I was a libertarian, it was mainly because I believed in the mantra of Harry Browne, the LP candidate at the time, who wrote a book called Government Doesn't Work. Browne's message was simple: The government never does what you want it to do; it always ends up doing the things you don't want it to do. Therefore, it is logical to support a smaller and less powerful government.
I'm sorry to say, but this cynical anti-government message is going to start resonating with more and more people, unless the Democratic Party boldly casts aside the center-right path of Barack Obama and embraces a new progressive revival. People want middle class jobs, not Big Brother listening to your phone calls and reading your emails. They want student loans, not bailouts for an obscenely wealthy investment banking industry. They want increased funding for health care and education, not cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
Too many Democrats have a smug assurance that the younger generations will automatically keep voting Democratic; that "demographic change" will condemn the GOP to permanent minority status in just a couple decades. But if the American people elect Democrats and then those Democrats keep cutting government services for the poor, elderly, and disadvantaged, while continuing to expand the military-industrial-security state and serving the Wall Street lobbyists that people were actually voting against, why are they going to bother to vote for Democrats again? "Because they have no other choice," right? I don't think that's going to work much longer.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/17/1216862/-Democrats-Risk-Losing-a-Generation-to-Cynical-Libertarianism#
the only problem is that progressivism doesn't give you any of the things he wants.