Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Was Gov. Schweitzer's Convention Speech Libertarian?

Here's the text of Gov. Schweitzer's speech last night, and here you can watch the video. I want to call attention to the following lines:

"...we have cut more taxes for more Montanans than any time in history...and we created the largest budget surplus in the history of Montana.... We need them all to create a strong American energy system, a system built on American innovation... Now he wants to give the oil companies another 4 billion dollars in tax breaks. Four billion in tax breaks for big oil?...It will give you a tax credit if you buy a fuel-efficient car or truck, increase fuel-efficiency standards and put a million plug-in hybrids on the road."

Now, I want to suggest, contra David Weigel, that all of these ideas are compatible with being a libertarian Democrat, if not a libertarian.

Cutting taxes, a budget surplus, innovation, taking away tax breaks from large corporations and giving them to individuals, these are libertarian ideas within our current system. From the point of view of a libertarian Democrat, for example, there is no reason to have the government run a deficit. If we are going to have a program, then we should fund it. The assets of the American people are vastly larger than government budgets, and so there is no good reason for the government to borrow money. So let me add a balanced budget to the ideas put forward by libertarian Democrats. Adding a tax burden to later generations could well have a definite adverse effect on future liberty, and should not be accepted.

I would also add giving tax breaks to individuals, as opposed to a business or corporation, to be a position of the libertarian Democrat. Surely it is better to focus on individuals than on groups if possible.

So Weigel is incorrect that Schweitzer did not advance the ideas of the libertarian Democrat, although he is correct that he did not make a point of advancing libertarianism. However, since the idea of the libertarian Democrat seems to be on a level below ridicule, I accept the fact that Schweitzer was scheduled to speak in a featured position as a sign that the libertarian Democrat agenda is being slowly advanced.

So Weigel is incorrect when he says, "In short, the libertarian Democrat Schweitzer became an overnight party celebrity without sounding a single libertarian note." Libertarianism is about advancing the cause of individual liberty, not about a simple set of policy positions which someone defines as the pure position.

Weigel should be applauding any libertarian idea being advanced by anyone, not judging every politician or person by his own ideals which might or might not be achievable, or even desirable.
The libertarian Democrat is devoted to advancing individual liberty in the real world, and by that standard Gov. Schweitzer is clearly a step forward.

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