Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Eric Alterman on Libertarianism

Great quote today by someone I admire, Eric Alterman, on libertarianism:

"I feel that libertarianism, as I understand it, is overly concerned with theoretical liberty at the expense of its actual practice. The freedom to starve, to see one's labor unfairly exploited, to drink polluted water or breath polluted air, are not freedoms I strongly value. And to battle these and others like them, society requires collective institutional action and in many cases, government (or labor union) protection. I'm no fan of "big government" per se--and neither was Dewey. It's merely that powerful forces like global corporations require powerful forces to balance them."


from TPM

Also see

Michael Gerson - The Libertarian Jesus - washingtonpost.com

"Just as Jesus the leftist revolutionary is a distortion, so is Jesus the libertarian."

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