Salon writer Tom Watson launched a broadside against the Libertarian Party and liberty activists yesterday over an upcoming NSA rally. Watson’s piece, Don’t ally with libertarians, rejects the Stop Watching Us rally because libertarian groups including the LP are involved in the event.
I cannot support this coalition or the rally. It is fatally compromised by the prominent leadership and participation of the Libertarian Party and other libertarian student groups; their hard-core ideology stands in direct opposition to almost everything I believe in as a social democrat.
The Libertarian Party itself – inaccurately described by Stop Watching Us as a “public advocacy organization” – is a right-wing political party that opposes all gun control laws and public healthcare, supported the government shutdown, dismisses public education, opposes organized labor, favors the end of Social Security as we know it, and argues in its formal political manifesto that “we should eliminate the entire social welfare system” while supporting “unrestricted competition among banks and depository institutions of all types.”
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Going “all in” with the libertarian purists is a fatal and unnecessary compromise; reform is clearly needed, but the presence of anti-government laissez-faire wingers at the beating heart of the privacy movement will surely sour the very political actors that movement desperately needs to make actual – and not symbolic, link bait – progress in its fight.
In doing so Watson ignores the participation of quite a few progressive groups including Green Party of Rhode Island and the Green Party of the United States, not to mention the ACLU, EFF, and Daily Kos.
He further disparages the Greens by insisting:
For those whose feet still touch the ground, the path to NSA reform so clearly lies inside the Democrats’ big tent – and runs through its liberal wing.
Never mind that the NSA is being run by President Obama, a Democrat from its liberal wing, with support from many other liberal Dems.
Most of the article is rant against libertarians, and so outrageous as to be comical:
Or libertarianism itself will rise, and our loss of liberty will be greater still. That’s because libertarianism is a form of authoritarianism disguised in a narrow slice of civil liberties.
But the backhanded swipes at the Green Party and other non-Democrat progressives should be a wake-up call to them as well.
Of sourse there will be pushback from the state socialist watermelon greens to libertarian greens, just as there will be pushback from the “pave the earth” libertarians to green libertarians.
Yes, I have read it an know it is possible and some Greens do that, but they are drowned out by the more socialist factions in the party.
Carol Brouillet is an example, but got criticized by Irregular Times for it.
http://irregulartimes.com/2012/04/06/a-sickly-shade-of-green/
It is referred to as a libertarian infiltration of the Green Party.
Did you read this yet?
http://aaeblog.com/2006/11/24/greensleeves-was-all-my-joy/
There is a whole different approach to the Green Party’s Ten Key Values that is completely compatible with libertarianism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Delingpole
This reminds me of a book.
Watermelons: How Environmentalists are Killing the Planet, Destroying the Economy and Stealing your Children’s Future. Biteback Publishing. 2012. p. 320. ISBN 978-1849544054.
Green parties world over are just putting a thin green layer over a red socialism/communism. Just compare platforms of greens with socialists and communists. Even ideas that are vague will tend to be interpreted in a socialists or communist way. Green parties are more mainstream and get more votes due solely to the green layer. Compare the Green Party of Canada for example to the Communist Party of Canada or the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist).
http://aaeblog.com/2006/11/24/greensleeves-was-all-my-joy/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_politics
There are various schools of green politics.
Eco/Green Capitalism
Eco/Green Feminism
Eco/Green Socialism
Eco/Green Anarchism
Eco/Green Conservatism
Eco/Green Leftism
Eco/Green Liberalism
Eco/Green Libertarianism
Eco/Green Zionism
Eco/Green Syndicalism
Eco/Green Free Marketism (Free Market Environmentalism)
Greens are inconsistent on what green politics means in the Green Party though. At times, they have claimed a big ten approach that welcomes everyone. Jill Stein say “neither left nor right but forward”. Despite this, she and her Shadow Cabinet have released socialist leaning press releases that blame all societies problems on Capitalism. Free Markets, Liberalism, Conservatism, Libertarianism, etc. Greens don’t say consistently whether or not they are a left wing party.
According to Wikipedia, green politics, progressivism, social democracy, grassroots democracy, socialism, populism, and civil libertarianism form the ideology and/or internal factions of the party.
One page lists socialism, populism, and civil libertarianism as internal factions; it listed green politics, progressivism, social democracy, and grassroots democracy as the party wide ideologies. Another page lists progressivism, grassroots democracy, socialism, and populism as internal factions; it listed green politics, social democracy, and civil libertarianism as the party wide ideologies.
Green politics and social democracy seem to be the ideology of the party. Socialism and populism seem to be internal factions. Progressivism, grassroots democracy, and civil libertarianism are unclear as to what status they have in the party.
Well, Independent Greens in your case, but still…
The Green Party was founded on very libertarian ideas. In some places around the globe libertarians are a fundamental and vocal group within the Green Party. For the author to claim that any solution lies within the two large parties is bunk. The facts are quite different.
I’ll stay in the Green Party, thank you.
The left at least pays some lip service to libertarianism on peace and civil liberties, much as the right does on economics. Some of both groups really mean it, while others, such as the writer of this Salon piece demonstrate they do not.
It’s Salon. They are slightly left of George Soros and George Phillies.
Another take on the absurd article:
http://networkedblogs.com/Qm61r
Seriously, a hit piece like this is the best indicator yet that we are SCARING THE HECK out of the powers that be!!!
Carla Howell to LNC:
Who’s co-opting whom? The LP has been at the forefront of defending the Fourth Amendment for over 40 years:
Scroll to 6:07 in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VOg-s4xVPM
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2013/10/22/libertarian-baiting-the-anti-nsa-movement/
http://blog.independent.org/2013/10/22/the-myth-of-the-civil-libertarian-democrat/
http://reason.com/blog/2013/10/21/better-not-to-protest-the-nsa-than-to-ho
Maybe he just winged it?
I guess he would advocate for fewer privacy violations… This equates for an argument for fewer lashes by our masters.
Libertarian “purests” would prefer no lashes, no masters, and most definitely NO privacy violations by the NSA… If this makes me a radical “purest” then I wear that label proudly!
However, “Right Wing” is not accurate. Libertarians are not part of ANY wing. we prefer our wings to be our own, and everyone else’s wings to be his/her own. In addition, one’s wing should be kept to him/herself unless others express interest in sharing….
This guy is advocating Fascism, which is ALSO neither right or left… it is about top down control, or freedom.
Sincerely,
Steve Scheetz