The libertarian center cannot hold

This month's Cato Unbound is a debate over Brink Lindsey's Age of Affluence. In the lead essay arguing that the country is more and more libertarian, Lindsey allows the following caveat to his argument: [A]t best libertarianism exists as a diffuse, inchoate set of impulses that operate, not as an independent force, but as tendencies within the left and right and a check on how far each can stray in illiberal directions. Second, as I conceded in an earlier essay for Cato Unbound, American public opinion is noticeably unlibertarian in many important respects. In particular, economic illiteracy is rife; much of government spending ? especially the budget-busting middle-class entitlement programs ? remains highly popular; and the weakness for moralistic crusades, long an unfortunate feature of the American character, remains glaring (though today?s temperance movements direct their obsessive zeal toward advancing health and safety rather than virtue). At which point we flip over to Robin Toner's lead story in today's New York Times: On Capitol Hill and on the presidential campaign trail, Democrats are increasingly moving toward a full-throated populist critique of the current economy. Clearly influenced by some of their most successful candidates in last year?s Congressional elections, Democrats are talking more and more about the anemic growth in American wages and the negative effects of trade and a globalized economy on American jobs and communities. They deplore what they call a growing gap between the middle class, which is struggling to adjust to a changing job market, and the affluent elites who have prospered in the new economy.... Even as Mrs. Clinton has sought to associate herself with the economic growth of her husband?s administration, she, like other Democratic presidential candidates, has been expressing a sharp skepticism toward trade and globalization under President Bush. In recent weeks she has announced her opposition to the proposed South Korean Free Trade Agreement and denounced globalization that ?is working only for a few of us.? She accepted the endorsement of former Representative Richard A. Gephardt, who spent much of his political career fighting what he asserted were unfair trade agreements. And Mrs. Clinton has increasingly focused on ?rising inequality and rising pessimism in our work force,? and suggested that another progressive era is ? and ought to be ? at hand. Former Senator John Edwards, another Democratic candidate, staked out similar positions months ago and regularly notes that in the last 20 years, ?about half of America?s economic growth has gone to the top 1 percent.? Mr. Edwards praises recent efforts to raise taxes on private equity and hedge funds. His campaign manager, former Representative David E. Bonior, notes that Mr. Edwards has been sounding these themes since his first presidential campaign in 2004. ?John Edwards was there at the beginning of this,? Mr. Bonior said. While campaigning in Iowa last week, Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, suggested that even those who followed the standard advice for coping with a globalized economy ? get more education for higher-skilled jobs ? were losing out. ?People were told, you?ve got to be trained for high-tech jobs,? Mr. Obama said, ?and then it turned out that some of those high-tech jobs were being outsourced. And people were told, now you need to train for service jobs. And then it turned out the call centers were moving overseas.?.... Representative George Miller, the California Democrat who is chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, said, ?Trade may not be the reason, or the number one reason, they?re losing their jobs, but they think it is.? (emphasis added)Kudos to Miller for at least being honest that much of the Democrats ire is wildly misplaced. The Democrats are right to focus on stagnant wages and health care concerns -- those are their bread-and-butter issues. Conjuring up a trade bogeyman as the primary source of all of this.... well, let's just say it fuels Dani Rodrik's barbarians quite nicely. UPDATE: Kevin Drum asks some questions about this post -- and I provide some answers.