As a general point on all the libertarian talk flying around the lefty blogosphere lately, when did Democrats decide libertarians either had no critique of state intervention in the economy or are no longer attached to it? And could we stop?
During this moment, it's certainly true that Democrats and libertarians are finding a lot to agree on: Terry Schiavo, gay marriage, Iraq, and all the rest. But while many of them may pull the lever for the left in 2006, as soon as Democrats take power, they'll be reminded that Dems favor large social programs and heaping helpings of government regulation. Attracting people who despise the core tenets of your domestic philosophy is probably not the way to a durable majority. My libertarian friends and I uneasily joke about how our amicable bond will disintegrate once Democrats take power again, and we all remember why we hate each other.
Alternately, some Democrats appear to believe that a) libertarians are really just civil libertarians who never really cared about economics, b) political innocents who never considered the idea that state intervention can be useful, or c) people who live in the interior west and don't like Pat Robertson. Now, all these subgroups may be out there, but they're not libertarians, not insofar as the word actually has meaning.
