Chlorophyll

The excellent and prolific Kevin Carson reports that SDS (yes, that SDS) has been revived. He then goes on to discuss the efforts of the libertarian right and the libertarian left to get along and even unite. In recent history, that means the flirtations between the Green Party and the Libertarian Party. (Kevin is well-informed on Cobb and Badnarik.)

While the two parties have resolutely mixed feelings about each other, there is clearly a common ground. Greens emerged from a widespread dissatisfaction with the old left, and a major part of that dissatisfaction was with its authoritarianism. That's why we are anti-authoritarian and decentralized almost to a fault. I've discussed this before.

I don't want to say that we should join forces, because neither the Libertarians nor we Greens are really joiners, nor do we have a lot in the way of forces, in terms of sheer numbers. What we could do is write up memoranda of understanding, a sort of "non-agression pact" in which Greens and Libertarians agree not to run against each other, in return for which Greens give greater emphasis to libertarian issues (cutting taxes, devolving power to the local level, maintaining gun rights, etc.) and Libertarians give greater emphasis to Green issues (ending corporate personhood, prioritizing the environment, fair trade, etc.). By definition, such agreements would have to bubble up from the local level.

Kevin does a good job distinguishing between what he calls "vulgar libertarians" (which I call "economic libertines") and genuine liberating thought. This is where we can separate out those who are Libertarians because it's convenient to paste an ideology over their desire to convert everything and everyone in their path into money and those who genuinely think that citizens are wise enough to control their own destiny without help from the Democratic Party's welfare state or the Republican Party's warfare state.