Over at CATO they have been debating whether libertarians should join the Democratic Party. Nick Gillespie lays out the case against libertarians making jackasses of themselves and becoming Democrats. As Nick points out, the Democrats are bad on economic liberty, squishy on opposition to war, and proponents of sacrificing civil liberties to the police/nanny state.

For those still not convinced of the evils of the Democratic Party, check out CounterPunch where Joshua Franks details how Clinton pushed through an early version of the PATRIOT Act in response to the Oklahoma City bombings. In fact, many of the PATRIOT Act’s most egregious provisions where items sought by Janet Reno’s Justice Department, but rejected by a Congress that still understood the dangers of trading liberty for illusions of security.
Monday, I received first-hand evidence of Democratic unreliability on the question of war and peace at a left-right forum on “The Peace Voter’s Dilemma.” I asked the leftists on the panel about the contradiction between opposing Iraq yet calling for intervention in Darfur. One leftist said she hoped the problem could be resolved without military force, but pointedly did not rule out sending in the troops. Another leftist said his group opposed “unilateral” US military action in Darfur–meaning he has no problem with US military intervention as long as the soldiers are clad in UN blue.

For all the noise they make about opposing the GOP’s war and deficits the Democrats have a long way to go before any self-respecting libertarian could even consider joining their party.