OK, one more before I go.
Libertarians are, for obvious reasons, disillusioned with the contemporary Republican party, which has done more to expand the executive power of the federal government than any regime in the last 50 years.
Will they get fed up and leave the party? Vote for Dems?
The American West has a particular concentration of libertarian sentiment (which, by the way, I share, particularly on social matters). What's stopped them from voting Dem in the past: gun control, big government, and environmentalism. Dems have largely dropped the gun thing, Republicans have taken over the big-government mantle, and ... environmentalism? Can the new environmentalism -- focused more on market mechanisms, public-private partnerships, land conservancies, etc. -- win over Western libertarians?
The inimitable Jim Henley discusses.
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TariffDude Posted 3:51 pm
18 Jul 2006
If it's really a toss-up between Democrats and Republicans for the libertarians, I don't see the environment playing out in the Democrats' favor. Hardcore libertarians won't support any conservation that isn't purely private conservation, because their basic take on the environment is that private property owners will preserve the quality of their land so as not to lower its economic value - which is almost always a bogus concept for several reasons, most importantly that the adverse economic effects of environmental degredation are simply too obscure and far-removed for the invisible hand to work its magic among the proverbial winners and losers.
What you refer to as market mechanisms, I assume, would be interventions in the market whose object is to cause it to reflect more accurately the cost of environmental harm. Of course, libertarians always favor less regulation, even if their belief that it will result in an ideal market is not always practical; such measures would likely not sit well with them, coming off as "just another tax".
I hate to call it a lost cause, but it seems to me that fundamental libertarian principles are totally at odds with any kind of political environmentalism we might hope to implement.
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tjacorn Posted 12:29 am
19 Jul 2006
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