The Orbis

Issue date: 2/20/07 Section: Opinion

Markos ("Kos") Moulitsas Zúniga

Markos "Kos" Moulitsas, creator of the weblog DailyKos, recently stirred up controversy among liberals and libertarians alike when he made a case for what he called "the libertarian Democrat." According to Kos, a libertarian Democrat refers to someone fundamentally interested in individual liberty in the same way libertarians purport to be. Kos offers freshmen Democratic senators James Webb (Va.) and Jon Tester (Mont.) as examples of the libertarian Democrat ideal. Both men's strong support for gun rights, sense of individualism and skepticism toward Washington political culture helped propel them to victory in the 2006 midterm elections. Like traditional libertarians, Kos argues, "libertarian Democrats reject efforts to strip away rights enumerated by the Bill of Rights and rejects government efforts to intrude in our bedrooms and churches."

However, where libertarians have a characteristic hostility to all forms of government and rigid preference for market-driven solutions to problems, Kos differs by adding the characteristically liberal argument that there are a host of social conditions that need to be met to ensure that people can realize their freedom. For Kos, these conditions include public amenities like roads, transportation, education, healthcare and social security, and both Webb and Tester have indeed often struck populist notes on economic issues. Nonetheless, Kos adds that the libertarian Democrat understands government is not always the answer to society's problems and is often wary of government encroachment on the private sector.

Kos has made this pitch in the libertarian magazine Reason, as well as on several extensive posts on the libertarian Cato Institute's weblog. The way he sees it, the libertarian Democrat prototype isn't just a new way of framing progressive politics; it is an opportunity to build an alliance between libertarians and liberals to forge a powerful fusionist movement in the Democratic Party.

The rhetoric has gained some traction among libertarians. For instance, Brink Lindsey, the Cato Institute's Vice President for research recently penned a piece in The New Republic arguing for "a new kind of fusionism" in which the two ideologies could come together to form a political alliance in the interest of achieving common goals.

This idea for a "new fusionism" comes at an interesting time for many libertarians frustrated by the GOP's disregard for many civil liberties and the runaway federal spending that is funding the Iraq War. The fusionism that bound together social traditionalist and libertarian strands in the Republican Party for so long, some libertarians argue, is now unraveling as the GOP finds itself in disarray.

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