Looks like Wyoming may be the next state in the Mountain West to turn blue. Kos has the details of a movement by Republicans to organize and cross party lines in support of Gary Trauner, the Democratic candidate for Wyomning's lone House seat. What's prompting the switch?
Notice the things about Cubin that have upset Simonton -- the budget deficit, the growth of government, state rights, Terry Schiavo, lack of protection of the public lands, the congressional pay raise, the debacle in Iraq, and the increase of governmental powers.
Every single one of those issues is anathema to libertarians, and all of them are issues that Libertarian Democrats are using to fuel their resurgence in the Mountain West.
A decade ago, the idea that a libertarian could find a home in the Democratic Party was laughable. But as the Republican Party has drifted further and further right, moving away from a small government conservatism towards a more radical, big government social conservatism, libertarians have had no choice but to flee the party.
I'm actually a fairly good example off that trend. Back in the late 1980's, when I was given my first opportunity to vote, I actually registered as and voted for a libertarian candidate. I've always believed that government interference in the private lives of individuals should be kept to an absolute minimum, and that when in doubt, we should always choose against intervention. But as I matured through my twenties, I came to understand that government intervention, particularly in some economic matters, is essential to creating a strong, vibrant society. In a nation of 300 million, some problems are of such an enormous magnitude that individual action will never be enough, and in those cases, government is the only agent with enough size and strength to help us collectively arrive at a solution.
Of course, even conservatives once understood this. Milton Friedman, the guru of conservative economic gurus, was, for example, a strong advocate of government intervention into the economy to protect the environment. From an economic standpoint, he understood that this was a problem the private markets would never solve on their own, since the costs of pollution are almost never borne by the company that creates it. to Friedman, it would therefore come as now surprise that Westerners are now rallying to support legislation that allows states to strengthen the protection of public lands.
Anyway, it looks like the Dems might be making a race of the seat once held by VP Cheney himself. That would make for a nice symbolic victory, wouldn't it?
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