A political party rant.

November 26, 2002

Edited/Expanded 11/26 11:00

Today the PRS is talking about former congressman Bob Barr going off to consult for the ACLU. Bob Barr just lost his re-election campaign in Georgia because he was “too conservative.” PRS recommends that we rethink our definition of the ACLU as a liberal organization. I think, however, we should rethink our definitions of liberal and conservative. I mean, if you think about it there’s a lot of silliness thrown at both the Republicans and Democrats when they really are quite a diverse group.

You are probably pretty well familiar with either one of these characterizations: If you are a “liberal” — whatever that means — conservatives are right-wing uzi-toting Christian-nation numbnuts who think children should pray to Jesus in school to ask His protection of the right to own shoulder-fired Stinger missles. If you are a conservative, liberals are bleeding-heart left-wing fairy princess lesbians who write angry letters to LEGO because some LEGO people carry tiny plastic ray-guns.

Of course, not all people are this crazy by a long shot, but in our modern reductionist politics voting Republican means you are Bubba Bo Bob the Michigan Millitiast and voting Democrat means you are Leslie Fairydust Moonbeam the Angry Fairy Dyke Witch.

Does it not seem odd to you that both parties insist they are the party of true freedom? Is it possible that this confusion is more than double-speak?

The fact is each party has a bit of the authoritarian and the liberatarian. There are liberals who want to control how people think just as much as conservatives do. Philosophies may differ but as far as basic desires are concerned there is precious little difference between PETA and Operation Rescue.

The libertarians have made a deal with their parties depending on what they think is more important. Economic libertarians — the DotCom folks, or Enron boys — went Republican because the Authoritarian Right doesn’t care what you do with your business just as long as you pray to Jesus every night. Gays and Free-Speech advocates went Democrat, because Authoritarian Liberals don’t care much about whether people are gay or not, they just think you should be forced to like ‘em. This is something of a devil’s deal, however, because the libertarians have been throwing their support behind what is essentially the Authoritarian cause.

That might be changing, however. The post-Christian Right takeover of the Republicans have pushed them too far Authoritarian and the libertarian Republicans are abandoning the new Christian Nation, Total Information Awareness Republicans. At the moment the very dramatic problem of the Democratic party is that both the Authoritarian Left (PETA) and Libertarian Left (the ACLU and CBLDF) are ticked at the Authoritarian Right-leaning Clinton/Leiberman DNC.

This is a good thing. Those of us who are libertarians need to speak loud enough that the people who are disinterested understand what is at stake. Do you think a large part of the electorate might — just might — be libertarian? And that is why they pay so little attention? No one is addressing their issues. No one is saying “Get your government and capitalist hands away from me.” Maybe someone should try that approach. It might work.

It would certainly get my vote.

The Political Compass says I am:
-6.12 Economic Left/Right (very lefty)
-3.69 Libertarian/Authoritarian (more Libertarian)
Which puts me in roughly the same position as Gandhi, Naomi Klein, Thomas Paine, Naom Chomsky, and J. K. Galbraith.

Posted in Politics