In the short-term, there are things libertarians can do, though most wouldn't be recognized as particularly libertarian because they'd be seen as single-issue advocacy and action. But in the long run, the libertarian goal is the end of politics as we know it. This is the confusion behind libertarianism within the US political system, it doesn't have much success because it fails to realize 1) how radical it is in principle & 2) that such radicalism is not a bad thing. The movement would be more intellectually honest — and IMO more effective — if rather than try to accept mainstream politics its adherents split off based on what their number one issue was, presenting (only when asked) the sum of its parts as being “pragmatic anarchism”, nothing more, nothing less.

Under McCain's proposals, the lowest quintile's income would rise .9 percent, the top .1 percent's income would rise 11.6 percent, and the 95-99th percentile's income would rise 5.3 percent.

Capital is sacred to Republicans, if you get your income in this form, they tax if more favorably than if your income takes the form of wages and salaries. As a result of this policy difference and others, as Larry Bartels has shown, under Democratic administrations the poor and rich gain income alike, under Republican administrations, only the rich gain (and the economy as a whole grows less rapidly than it does under Democrats).

If Wilkinson means to suggest that unclubble (illegal) immigrant workers are mistreated and exploited, and that this should be a matter of prime concern to us all, I take his point. But if he means to suggest that the working class–the lower half and especially lowest tenth of the income distribution–doesn't fare better under Democrats than under Republicans, I believe that the record demonstrates otherwise, and that, judging from the candidates' tax proposals, this partisan pattern will persist. Under McCain the “working class” will lack the necessary means to exercise their rights in a worthwhile way, and it will seem pointless for them to dream up some relatively long-term plans, because for good reason they will doubt whether they will be able to enact them. But the dreams of the rich, even allowing for the very good run they've had the last seven years, will be fulfilled as never before.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame?

I can respect KJ's point, which is that to effect change you have to step into the fray, and politics is wild enough that if you have to become a bit of a hack or a soldier, so be it.

But the criticism of those “on the sidelines” is a bit over the top. People on the sidelines serve a purpose, and people in the fray serve a purpose. We all seek out the spot that seems best for us.

I'm heartened that 10-20% of Americans are Independents. I don't know if that could really translate into a movement against pandering, dishonesty and hackishness in politics. Probably not, because even those people are probably pretty irrational.

Basically I see GNP as the slow ritual leftward shift of the Republican party and Conservative politics in general. The pragmatic left that has guided this country quite well when given the chance will continue to be right about most things, the Republicans will realize it 10-30 years after the fact, and Libertarians will squeal from the sidelines wondering why no one wants to implement their Utopian logic. Get in the partisan game already and pick a side. There's too much to bicker about within the partisan gates to stand outside of them throwing in Cato essays.

Certainly concern for the poorest members of the society, along with concerns for social mobility and a just distribution of goods, are not always morally bogus–even if they are presented like so in GNP. Nor are these concerns morally dispensable.

I hope then that you don't take your club analogy too seriously. Deciding just economic and social policies are a lot less like currying favor and squabbling over alliances in your college fraternity that it is like it. Put differently, it's not clear whether your indignation is directed towards caring for a ginned-up and manipulated 'working-class' for the sake of electoral advantage, or caring for the working class at all.