YOU SHALL NOT CRUCIFY LIBERTARIANS ON A CROSS OF OLD:

The Bush Betrayal (David Boaz, November 30, 2003, Washington Post)

Bush and his aides should be worrying about the possibility that libertarians, economic conservatives and fed-up taxpayers won't be in his corner in 2004 in the same numbers as 2000.

Republican strategists are likely to say that libertarians and economic conservatives have nowhere else to go. Many of the disappointed will indeed sigh a deep sigh and vote for Bush as a lesser evil.

But Karl Rove, who is fascinated by the role Mark Hanna played in building the post-1896 Republican majority, should remember one aspect of that era: In the late 19th century, the Democratic Party of Jefferson, Jackson and Cleveland was known as "the party of personal liberty." More so than the Republicans, it was committed to economic and cultural laissez-faire and opposed to Prohibition, protectionism and inflation.

When the big-government populist William Jennings Bryan claimed the Democratic nomination in 1896, many assumed he would draw industrial workers from the Republicans and bring new voters to the polls. Instead, Bryan lost in a landslide, and turnout declined for the next few elections. As the more libertarian Democrats found less reason to go to the polls, the Republicans dominated national politics for the next 36 years.

One can't help but admire the candor with which Mr. Boaz notes that social libertarians are actually Democrats, not conservatives, and have historically been on the losing side of the American political equation, opposite the moralists. You seldom hear anyone threaten to show their anger by sentencing themself to oblivion, but it is refreshing.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 2, 2003 9:31 AM