A Shift in Conscience

So, noted playwright and filmmaker David Mamet has outed himself as an ex-Liberal -- in the Village Voice no less! Basically, his turn towards libertarianism has happened for the same reason he was originally became a liberal in the 1960s: a believe that government is inept in the best of times, and corrupt and oppressive in the worst. In the 1960s, that belief led many to liberalism, which then stood in support of civil rights and the Voting Act, and against the Vietnam war. In other words, the biggest gains for the cause of liberty and freedom could be found in the left-wing movement. But in the aughts, distrust of government and support for civil liberties nearly necessitates some libertarian tendencies, and so Mamet moved in that direction.

I suspect that many people in the coming years will go in the "left-libertarian" direction that is best represented (at this point in time) by Obama. In this view, the government isn't a nanny but a tool; it isn't an end but a means. Of course, who knows what an Obama presidency would look like, so this might be a projection, but one could hope that the left principles of full social equality for everyone might meet the right principles of government skepticism to forge a new coalition dedicated to liberty, but without coercion.