Professor Bainbridge has a post where he scoffs at the notion that libertarians and liberals/progressives/whatever-they-call-themselves can get together and make nice. There’s a fantastic comment to the post that I wanted to excerpt because I think it’s summarizes my own politics pretty well:
This is ultimately the problem with Progressives. Any real, sustained objection to their clawing for power is going too far. Here’s a very simple idea: if you, Mr. Just, Wise and Thoughtful Liberal believe certain things must happen why don’t you gasp go out and do them yourself? Why don’t you get your own resources together, get your friends together, and use your time, your efforts and your resources to build something useful and convince the rest of us to join in? You fascist Democrats talk about community, but you have no idea what it is: people willingly and freely working together. What you can’t get through your self-righteous head is that freedom is FREEDOM. There’s nothing dogmatic about it. There’s nothing immoderate about it. You’re free to go live in a commune in the hills not making your own food, your own clothes or your own electricity, and the rest of us won’t stop you. Go ahead. We’re that respectful of you that we want you to be happy doing what you want to do. So long as you don’t make us do it, too. But that’s not good enough for you. Because what you want is not the moderate thing: freedom. What you want is the ugly, immoderate thing: power.
If interested, here’s the post.