Over at Slate, Dave Weigel and Dahlia Lithwick take note of an aftershock of 2010’s Republican routs, one that has been largely overlooked and unduly unlamented.
Lithwick’s and Weigel’s subtitle puts it this way: the unseating of the liberal maverick Democratic Sen. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin leaves “defenders of civil liberties look(ing) for a new champion.”
Libertarians might take solace – or even rejoice – in the fact that the man who defeated Feingold – businessman Ron Johnson, a first time candidate is a Tea Party favorite and self-described Ayn Rand fan, his name invoked in the same breath as that of Sen.-elect Rand Paul.
Yes, Feingold may be notorious among libertarians for the First Amendment-eviscerating campaign finance reform legislation that bears his name, but in the Senate, the senior senator from Wisconsin compiled an overall record – especially for a liberal Democrat – that libertarians take heart in.
Not only was Feingold the only senator to vote against Patriot Act – and offer an eloquent case for jealously guarding American civil liberty especially in a time of war – he has been generally – and unfashionably among Madison liberals – in favor of Second Amendment rights.
And, in music to a consistent libertarian’s ears, Feingold has backed up his claim to fiscal conservatism by not only consistently voting against wasteful military spending, but decrying pork barrel domestic spending, as well, to the consternation of some of his fellow liberals. Also heartening to libertarians: Feingold was an unshakable exponent of peace and opponent of foreign military entanglements.
If a grand “liberaltarian” alliance was never feasible, Russ Feingold offered an opportunity for a workable“liberaltarian” situationalism. Feingold’s record served as a constructive counter to the ravings of Mark Ames, co-author of The Nation’s TSA-Koch hit piece, who penned what he no doubt thought was a withering of Will Wilkinson, despite, or perhaps because of, Wilkinson’s history of tentative overtures towards “liberaltarian” fusionism.
The recent uproar over the TSA’s new fully body scan and pat-down procedures makes the loss of Feingold’s voice speaking up for civil liberties even more acute. With some liberal commentators like Ames now dismissing genuine concern over further erosion of American civil liberty as flim flam from a Koch-topus-paid for diversion from their real work of big business bashing, liberals and libertarians – and Americans in general – can no longer turn to a principled progressive voice to reinforce the civil libertarian tradition among liberal Democrats. Unlike many erstwhile fearless critics among liberal Democrats of George W. Bush’s record on civil liberty, Feingold was not afraid to buck the Clinton or Obama administrations when they sought to pare back Americans’ freedoms.
Lithwick and Weigel portray Feingold’s unwavering support for domestic civil liberties even in the darkest days after 9/11 as part as that of part political entrepreneur, part principled politician. Despite his flaws, Russ Feingold is one liberal Demorat that libertarians, civil and otherwise, will miss on Capitol Hill.
