Finally -- Some Honorable Opponents!

I was heartened to see, as I surveyed this week's blogosphere, that the libertarians are asserting themselves -- loudly and proudly -- in the political fray. Even though I have determined that I am no libertarian myself, this is good news to me.

Ron Paul's supporters refuse to go away. They are stuffing the Republican suggestion-box with input about the direction they believe the Party must take. And they are absolutely right. Big-government Republicans inevitably degenerate into fascists. For far too long, the GOP has been controlled by bullies, brownshirts and theocratic, hyper-militaristic nuts.

A good many Republicans are also defecting to the Libertarian Party. They're fed up with the antichrist, counterfeit "Christianity" that has hijacked their former Party. I've come to believe that a third party can do no more than influence the major party ideologically closest to it; I don't think it stands much of a chance of becoming a major party. The United States is basically a two-party country, and the Republicans and the Democrats are too entrenched to be deposed as the top two anytime in this century. But the Libertarians have gotten big and bold enough to make some real noise.

The GOP refuses to listen to this noise only at its own peril. It will not recover in less than a generation from the thuggery and corruption of the Junior Bush Administration. As a Democrat, I rejoice in this. But I realize how easily the Democrats can go soft and stupid. Hell, they've been that way since the Seventies.

I'm a progressive first, and a Democrat second. I'm only a member of the Democratic Party because I think it's necessary to belong to a major party in order to make much of a difference as a citizen in this country. I don't hold out any hope that the party, in and of itself, is ever going to be much of a vehicle for positive change -- unless the progressive wing, under President Obama, is able to really get some traction.

I guess I should say that I DO hold out at least some hope for this. And I hope, as well, that the Republicans -- heavily influenced by the libertarians -- will provide some energetic opposition. No political party, however successful at the polls, can do much genuine good if it is unopposed. Opposition keeps it honest.

Here's to worthy opposition. Go get 'em, you Ron Paulites! Though libertarianism is far too minimalist, in its philosophy of government, to hold in check the rapacious powers of mega-capitalism (which, left unchecked, will lead only to tyranny of a different form), it can definitely provide an important counterbalance against the sort of dopey nannyism Democrats tend to push for when they get their own way too much of the time.

Finally, the Dems have some honorable opponents. Though they'll only be able to do some good if they're successful in taking back the Republican Party from the Nazis who run it now.

May the ghost of Goldwater rise again!