Today's Washington Post and why libertarians fear Dems

[wdcbooks]

I am an infrequent poster to the Politics forum, but an avid reader. I am a fairly mainstream statist libertarian who has historically voted Democrat. The Dem gains in recent elections should have made me happy as I am no fan of Bush, and I am always happy to see the religious right take a beating.

Two items in today's Washington Post have me reconsidering whether we didn't exchange one set of problems for another.

First we have a headline, "Toyota Expects to be World's No.1 Automaker Next Year". I actually choked a bit on my coffee when I read this quote by Representative John Dingell,

"If Toyota's worldwide productions surpasses General Motors, it will simply provide further evidence of the need for the U.S. government to pursue policies that maintan and strengthen the U.S. industrial base."

To any reasonable person the preeminence of Toyota is a reflection of the poor quality of GM products and profligate spending spanning decades. The idea that my tax dollars will be sought to prop up a lousy business model makes no sense. I had hoped this thinking was a relic of the old Democratic party, but I find I am collecting examples every day as the Dems prepare to implement their agenda.

The second item is an op-ed piece by Byron Dorgan and Sherrod Brown. I am not sure I even need to quote the text as the title says all we really need to know, "How Free Trade Hurts". Ok, I will grace you with one quote:

The American market is the most desirable in the world. Every country wants access to it. That gives us a great deal of leverage, if only we'd use it. "

I am not quite sure what I am trying to accomplish with this post. I guess I am asking Iron and other reasonable Democrats if they can understand why this rhetoric is deeply troubing to economic conservatives who would be their allies? Is the curbing of free trade an indispensable part of the mainstream Democratic agenda, or is this analagous to the endless mutterings over abortion? Something said to appease the base without an intention to make it policy?