Progressives and Libertarians Unite! Final Word after One Year of PfRP

Today marks the completion of one year writing and publishing this blog. I am not encouraged that my ideas here have made any significant impact on either progressives of libertarians. The one certainty that remains is this Ron Paul will not be nominated by the Republican Party. I had hoped he would gain a plurality of votes and delegates by embracing a coalition strategy early on. It appears too late to do this now, but maybe he will change his mind after Super Tuesday.

Regardless, even if Ron Paul went to Tampa Bay with a majority of votes and delegates, the GOP establishment would not allow him to be nominated. They would find some means, like using super delegates, to overrule popular support and to keep their power undiminished.

It seems, therefore, inevitable that Ron Paul will run third party or independent or endorse Gary Johnson's LP campaign. That last option will result in the weakest showing.

A Ron Paul 3rd party campaign is needed but what is more needful is a Ron Paul victory. If he can get 18% right now in the general election, just think of what he could get if he had a Dennis Kucinich or a Bernie Sanders as his running mate and together they developed a platform that stressed agreements between libertarians and progressives like non interventionism, civil liberties, and ending the drug wars.

What if they went beyond that and ironed out a deal which called for significant and real reductions in federal government spending, replaced income taxes with a progressive consumption tax and human rights based tariffs? What if they designated half of the savings from reduced spending as well as half of any gains in revenues to paying down debt and the other half of savings and revenue gains to block grants for the states based exclusively on population to be used by each state as it sees fit with only one condition: reporting publicly and online where every dime is spent? What if they agreed to consolidate several domestic departments and cut their budgets by 25% while putting progressives in those fewer cabinet posts?

My hunch is such a coalition campaign could win and such a coalition government would be exactly what our country needs. Why settle for 18% when he could get 40% and the White House? If libertarians and progressives would get beyond their sectarian ways and come to the realization that separately they are two too-small minorities but in temporary alliance they could constitute a plurality and with success in governance,  a super-majority.

This blog has been dedicated not just to getting Ron Paul elected president but also to outlining a number of other creative strategies and policy ideas that can simultaneously advance both libertarian and progressive causes.

I understand the desire of both libertarians and progressives to gain an ideologically exclusive mandate through a landslide victory, but we all know that can't happen in 2012. What still can happen is that both groups could come together and compromise on a number of issues in a way that preserved each group's core principles and ultimate goals. It might take 4 or 8 years to get halfway where both of us want to go. After that we can have our battle, sans the two-headed Corporate Beast, to win over the American people.

I know that both progressives and libertarians would like to realize their cultural, economic and political ideals without having do any deal making. However, that strategy, if either side chooses it (or should I say, continues to choose it), will keep the Corporate Beast in charge. Let's not do something so blatantly stupid and miss this exceedingly rare opportunity to do something much better for our nation and our world.

Let's end the military industrial catastrophe and all other forms of corporate cronyism for good! Let's remove the burden of insane debt from backs of future generations! Let's begin to build, at least at state and local levels, whether through public and/or private funding, the prosperous and peaceful green economy we all desire! And together along the way, I bet we can end the fed!

If I may paraphrase Engel's tired cliche: "Progressives and libertarians unite; you have nothing to loose but your chains!"



Thanks to all my readers and followers. Whether you have liked what I have said or not, I appreciate your willingness to hear me for this past year.