Markos Moulitaszulongname makes the slightest bit of a lame attempt at courting an alliance with libertarians, and this is how much of his crew responds:

I am no libertarian Democrat. I am a redistribution-of-wealth, tax the fuck out of the rich, regluate the shit out of business, much-stronger-than-we-have-now safety net Democrat.
-user “ChurchOfBruce”

Yuk.  I’m for the Common Good / Civic Virtue Democratic Party.
-user “philgoblue”

It’s your blog, you can post whatever you want, whenever you want Kos, but that doesn’t make it any more appealing to real Democrats to see our party, the party of FDR and active government for the common good, to be tarred with the brush of libertarianism, which stands above all for “me first, devil take the hindmost”.  You can put all the lipstick you want on that pig, but it’s still a pig.
-user “geordie”

Bravo geordie, I couldn’t have said it better myself. I mean, WTF? True Democrats can never form an alliance with Libertarians. Period. My experience communicating with Libertarians about politics is the same as yours … they hate Government in all forms but most of all in the form of taxation and gun control. They want business unregulated. Maybe they are softening now but I would hate for the Democratics to even give them an ear. Their party doesn’t have the support to make much progress because their ideas suck. That is their problem and the last thing the Dems should do, IMHO, is whore out to the Anarchy Party for votes when we are gaining momentum.  I mean really…Kos, this is your place but to court an alliance with a party that disdains the very values most Dems hold dear (social programs) is beyond belief.
-user “COTeach”

People need to get the following through their heads:

  • government cannot have the power to grant you things you didn’t earn without having the power to take what you did*.
  • centralized political power is INHERENTLY unrepresentative, as its complexity bars the average person from understanding it enough to sway anything.  By default, the levers of the State fall into the hands of people who want to game the system for their own benefit.
  • when you “regulate the shit out of business”, business will regulate the shit out of YOU in retaliation.
  • the “common good” assumes unanimous agreement, which cannot exist in a free society
  • civic virtue does not assume state action
  • active government “for the common good” is a myth.  In practice it will serve the interests of whoever the hell happens to be in power at the time.
  • Active government for it’s OWN sake is unspeakably ridiculous.
  • One cannot simultaneously believe that the capacity of the government to conduct unwarranted surveillance should be nullified & that only officers of said government should be trusted with firearms without being a hypocrite.

Oh, yeah, one more thing: if you truly think “social programs” are a value to hold dear, you need to get out more.

(* -  case in point: The shit-obvious answer to the dumbest question to libertarians I have ever heard.)