HAPPY TOGETHER :

There's Something About Cato (Lakshmi Chaudhry, May 8, 2002, AlterNet)

The truth is that since Sept. 11, liberals have found themselves increasingly on the same side of the political fence as their arch-enemy (the Cato Institute). And some of them have begun to take notice. [...]

Does this mean we can look forward to a Left/Right love-fest coming to a protest rally near you? Boaz says it all depends on Dubya's War on Terror. "The more this all-encompassing global war drags on, the more opportunities there will be for libertarians and liberals to join together against the national security state," he says. If the war wraps up quickly, the two sides will return to business as usual. That is, screaming insults at each other from opposite sides of the barricade at the next Seattle. [...]

What everyone seems to agree on is that old distinctions of Left and Right are no longer useful. The old fault-lines are increasingly losing relevance. [...] Politics these days entails a lot of bed-hopping. It is entirely likely that some lefties will continue to find something good about Cato, while others never will.

This is a profoundly bizarre essay about what the Left can learn from its newfound common cause with Libertarians. In the first place, it's worth noting that the differences between libertarianism and leftism are less significant than the writer posits. Both are utopian philosophies, based on a belief that Man is perfectible--was in fact once perfect-with libertarians believing in a time past and a time to come when each lived in peace, surviving on his own devices, and leftism believing in a time past and a time to come when all lived in peace, sharing the wealth equally. Both believe that Man was subsequently corrupted by institutions--the Left faults economics, the libertarians government--which once removed will allow a rebirth of Man in pure form. Together they share a loathing of religion, specifically Judeo-Christian religion, which teaches that not only is Man imperfect by his very nature but that he is unperfectible. Though different then, there are similarities between Leftism and libertarianism.

But then the question arises, why would the Left be so happy to find itself allied with the libertarian 1% ? As a conservative, I value the assistance of libertarians, many of whom make up in brain power and enthusiasm what they lack in numbers, but I recognize that the lack of numbers suggests something about how limited their appeal is and how unpopular are the issues on which we're allied. This author notes that the Left and libertarians find themselves in agreement on opposition to the war on terrorism and to the steps John Ashcroft has taken against domestic terrorism. We wish them well together, but they are joined in an incredibly small minority on these issues. When you find yourself on the margins, it may be nice to have company, but you're still in trouble.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 13, 2002 12:51 PM