Radicals define the moderate position

Among the variety of political labels I claim for myself is “Left Libertarian”. That should, however, be a redundancy and I believe that it will come to be regarded as such. Genuine libertarianism is very much left wing. It’s revolutionary. The long and tragic alliance of libertarians with the right against the spectre of state socialism is coming to a close, as it served no purpose after the fall of the Soviet Union and so-called “conservatives” have subsequently taken to letting their true big-government-on-steroids colors fly.

I believe that in the period since the demise of the Soviet Union, both the radicals and moderates among the left have been subconsciously seeking a new radical creed to orient themselves upon to replace Marxism.

I’m a radical libertarian, an anarchist specifically and most specifically an Agorist. I believe that radical libertarians, such as myself, will be most effective when they overcome any lingering right wing cultural contamination of their libertarian views and embrace their inherent radicalism — which is most at home on the left. For as the radicals go, so do the moderates grudgingly follow in small steps. As an example, let me direct your attention to the following post on Daily Kos — Democrats: the Party of Jefferson. Also, please check out the Freedom Democrats web site.

It’s time for libertarians to stop fighting the left and take up the challenge of leading the left.

Update: Roderick Long adds some important words very much in line with my own views and that I include here for purposes of clarification:

“…the proper aim of the left-libertarian movement is both to lead the left back to its libertarian roots, and to lead libertarians back to their leftist roots. We might call this “left-libertarian reunification.”

Very much the case. I want to emphasize that many if not most libertarians today are unworthy of leading the left, largely due to their own failure to correctly apply libertarian principles — a tendency Kevin Carson refers to as “vulgar libertarianism“. It is a challenge that libertarians need to take up, humbly and with an eye toward developing depth and sophistication in their own views.