Solomon : It would be nice if I could agree with you about the diminutive reach of Libertarianism. It is true, of course, that the Libertarian Party isn't much more than a blip on the radar. What is their fraction of the electorate ? In the 1 % or 2 % range. However, Libertarian influence, which was what I was talking about, is far greater. Year after year of advocacy has had an impact. To the extent that the Republican Party is influenced at leadership levels. This is especially true if you include devotees of Ayn Rand in the "Libertarian" mix. At a minimum, ex-Republicans who now call themselves Independents include a good number of them. But there also is Left Libertarianism, that part of the movement which started in the aftermath of the sixties. And, while this is little known generally, some version of Libertarianism is official doctrine in the Mormon Church. One past LDS president had a "revelation" to this effect. Maybe not all that many Mormons take this too seriously, I doubt if Romney does, but at a minimum they know about it and are obliged to at least move in this direction politically. This said, where I do agree is that it makes far better sense to focus attention on self-identified moderates / centrists. There certainly are exceptions to the rule, that is, Libertarians who are open to new ideas, who are critical thinkers, etc, but most I have come across are people for whom politics is their religion, especially --these days-- Paulistas. For them Ron Paul is a political savior. Too strong of a characterization in any literal sense, but to get the idea across. You said : " Spending time trying to reason someone out of an opinion that is hard wired into their brains because of ideological reasons is almost always a waste of time." I completely agree. But this is not the point. The idea is to have a set of ideas ready for political discussion which deals with Libertarian concerns, one way of the other. As I also said, the objective is twofold (1) identify whatever commonalities are possible, which turns out to be a limited set, mostly focused on the high value of free speech, and (2) to educate ourselves to Libertarian weaknesses so that we can demolish their arguments when we need to do so. Well, things are not so simple. Some people are semi-Libertarian and filled with worthwhile ideas which dovetail with Radical Centrism nicely, but to keep this e-mail relatively brief. Libertarianism comes up in discussions here every few months. Sometimes more frequently. One of the reasons that I became interested enough to try and do something with the theme this year was listening to Michael Sandel on educational TV this past Summer, the Harvard professor who teaches the popular social justice course, for which he has written a book. Sandel places emphasis on the Libertarian critique and does so, I believe, to good effect. And like us, his view is that there are aspects of that philosophy that cannot be ignored even if the greater part offers little or nothing, or even offers bad ideas. But it should be taken seriously. In terms of political persuasion, the process is almost always one of long term individual shifts of opinion. But no-one will switch to something else unless that something has accessible ideas. The phrase "Radical Centrism" has been gaining recognition over the years since our group started up in 2004. Senator Warner self-identifies with RC and, of course, so do any number of people who are associated one way or another with the Atlantic magazine or the New America Foundation. By and large we regard them as proponents of Radical Centrism Lite. There are others in the mostly rural and Western "Quivira Coalition." But the terminology crops up more and more these days, often ridiculously misunderstood, and we have an educational task ahead of us. This is also an opportunity. Any Independents who are looking for a set of workable political ideas based on the premise that we can and should learn from Left / Right / Other but who also feel that LRO often deserve serious criticism is our natural political "market." When you have the chance, look over the RC.org website. There already is a significant body of work by way of defining Radical Centrism and the kinds of issues we usually have the greatest interest in. There is more every few weeks, sometimes every few days. Much more to say about such things but to give you a general overview. Billy 11/30/2011 [email protected] writes:
You're making some fundamental misreadings about independents. All that independent means, in the context of politics, is you're not a member of a party. The majority of us are already centrists and moderates, but some are roughly as ideologically to the left and right as democrats and republicans, while a very vocal minority are off on the fringes, like Libertarians and Greens (among smaller groups). There is no such thing as a default for such a diverse classification. People change their minds slowly, and emotionally. Spending time trying to reason someone out of an opinion that is hard wired into their brains because of ideological reasons is almost always a waste of time. You'd get much more out of finding people who already largely agree with you and working to get them more involved in politics. Libertarians aren't competing for the same people as centrists are - not even close. They're farther away from the center than your average democrat or republican. Rejecting the two major parties does not mean you share common goals on a wide range of issue. Plus libertarians are a truly small subsection of the American Electorate. You're wasting your time with them, when there are geometrically more people out there who already are in agreement with centrist ideals - they just are used to not having any political actors represent their views and have become largely disengaged in politics. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: _http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism_ (http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism) Radical Centrism website and blog: _http://RadicalCentrism.org_ (http://RadicalCentrism.org) -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
