Marge,
Others can speak for themselves, but I am pretty active in spreading libertarian ideas in forums populated by non-libertarians. I'm interested in working with people on both sides of the conventional political spectrum, on issues where we agree -- though not at the expense of libertarian ideas. I aim to make folks in other groups more libertarian, not to become more statist myself. I think it's important to have that resolve when working with people of other political persuasions. If you aren't sure you do have that resolve, it's better to continue talking with libertarians and learning more about the ideas until your knowledge and confidence in freedom is unshakeable, before spending too much time/energy working in coalition with folks of other perspectives. If this is to become a world of non-aggression, those who understand the desirability of this must be more committed to our ideas than they are to theirs.
Re: "Those of you who believe in small government" -- my impression from being on this list as long as it's been around is that the only people here who don't believe in small government are those who believe in no government at all! But there have occasionally been list members who've seemed to me (at least from their comments) to be fairly invested in either the conventional left-wing perspective, or the conventional right-wing perspective. I would count you among them. Perhaps I am mistaken, but I get the sense that you'd like Libertarians to cooperate more with conservatives, but not necessarily more with the left.
Even if I'm right of course, it doesn't necessarily mean your suggestion to get more involved with the Tea Parties is bad advice. I just haven't gotten a strong sense that your worldview is libertarian at heart rather than conservative (possibly because I'm forgetting various messages or haven't been reading what you post closely enough). If you are more conservative, that doesn't make you unwelcome here of course. Indeed, I would be interested to hear more about your beliefs, and discuss.
My own feeling is that Libertarians should be balanced enough in how we prioritize our issues that we can appeal roughly equally to people on both sides of the conventional political spectrum, because if we become too close to one perspective or the other, we risk losing our focus on freedom across-the-board. One analogy I use is that we're like a boat sailing on stormy seas. If we lean too far to starboard, we will start taking on water from the starboard side, and lean over more to that side, which will cause us to take on even more water, until eventually we sink. Another analogy is that we are like a small mouse (or porcupine, if you prefer) running between a large donkey on one side and an elephant on the other. If we stray into the path of either of them, we will be trampled! Although being in San Francisco, I think it's perhaps more important here that we work with and appeal to people on the left, since about 80% of the city and most of the Bay Area leans more toward that camp.
But the fact that we're kind of the radical middle, and can appeal to both popular factions, is cause for optimism. Libertarian ideas aren't that uncommon in society, either. We are certainly not alone compared with the adherents of many historical causes who labored in small numbers for many years before succeeding. They had to endure much worse than we do, and didn't get discouraged or lose faith, so we shouldn't either. I have no doubts whatsoever that freedom is far, far, better than statism, and from what I can tell, I don't think the rest of you do either. Furthermore, in the larger scale of history, humanity continues to move in the right direction. So let's have the courage of our convictions!
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
