Introducing Me
(posted by Angelica)
Hi. My name is Angelica Oung. Some of you might know me as Battlepanda from my own blog.
Unlike Mona, I am a liberal. But I tend to find that many of my most productive political conversations, um OK, arguments, have been with libertarian rather than Republicans and conservatives. This is because even though we disagree on the proper size and functions of the government, I share more common values and ideas about what is broadly desirable with libertarians than Republicans.
(As for why I am not a libertarian and don’t think I’ll ever be, that’s another post. )
I am happy to be a part of the Art of the Possible project. I think there is a lot of room for mutual growth, synergy and even a potential political alliance to be forged between left-leaning libertarians and liberals, just as many right-leaning libertarians have found a place within the Republican party.
Like Mona, many libertarians now find themselves increasingly out of alignment with the Republicans as the disastrous Bush administration piled on the foreign adventures and attacked civil liberties. One of my best friends, Mark, is a libertarian who supports Ron Paul. But his second choice? Mike Gravel.
Despite this, most of us still have the impression that libertarians belong to the right. I think a lot of liberals have a strong knee-jerk reaction against libertarians because when they think ‘libertarian’ they think Glenn Reynolds or Jane Galt. In reality, libertarians are a diverse bunch and I know from past experience not to try and put everyone in the same bucket.
As for cataloging the different varieties of libertarians I’ve come across, that’s again another subject for another post.
Please check back to the Art of the Possible often and join in the conversation.
Tags: Angelica, different flavors of libertarianism, libertarian/liberal alliance
February 7th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Hi Angelica. For the past year — and during several periods before that — I’ve been posting at Jim Henley’s. That’s the “kind” of libertarian I am these days, tho Jim and I do not agree on all things.
I’ve also done some guest posting at Greenwald’s pre-Salon blog, and consider him libertarianish, tho he himself refuses to accept any ideological label.
In any event, I checked out your blog, and we will have much to aqree on, and also much to question the other about.
Laissez les bons temps rouler!
February 13th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Thanks for the mention. Actually, I like Gravel a bit more than Ron Paul. He just got eliminated sooner. It’s not that strange supporting those two, though. They both spoke out against the Patriot Act’s erosion of our civil liberties (Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinnich even wrote a replacement bill), they both had the moral integrity to stand against the invasion of Iraq from the beginning (Mike Gravel also did a one man filibuster during the Vietnam war to stop the draft), both want to drastically reduce the size of the state and the number of citizens in prison, and both want to scrap our convoluted income tax system. Unfortunately, Ron Paul managed only limited success despite excellent fundrasing, and Kucinnich and Gravel’s campaigns were complete failures.
I guess civil liberties aren’t a very big issue for most American voters.