Keeping an eye on discontent on the Libertarian Right

Jacob Levy on the Volokh Conspiracy weighs in on his Presidential fitness calculations. As I argued here, satisfaction on the right for Bush depends on how your prioritize policy. Levy is a Libertarian who has here to fore not voted for a major party candidate. So, he is somewhat outside of the point I was making last month. Nevertheless, he does reflect the dissatisfaction of the Right with Bush for not pursuing a certain parts of the agenda Bush seems to favor. We writes, "And, man oh man would I prefer to be supporting a pro-Social Security privatization, pro-voucher, pro-tax cut incumbent president who was serious about fighting the war on terrorism and democratizing the Middle East and who might appoint Supreme Court justices who would enforce a strict reading of the Commerce Clause." Further, he identifies what attracts him to Bush, as tax cuts, his hawkishness, and a desire not to find himself assisting certain parts of the Left. But, he is steeling himself for a Kerry vote because there is no Social Security privatization movement, no voucher effort, and the tax cuts are meaningless without spending cuts, and he believes the administration to be "terrible incompetent" all the while making decisons on political rather than policy grounds.

Its a serious set of charges. Its also further evidence that there are people on the Right (as Levy described himself) who are dissatisfied with Bush. My earlier consideration focused on social issue conservatives, which Levy certainly is not. He's on the libertarian side of the right wing, as his own policy wish list should make clear.

The question is, are we just watching the normal cross-over up close? I'm really only interested in the divisions on the right. I accept that there are plenty of pro-war democrats who will be crossing over. Ed Koch is only the most obvious example, a fellow who proudly proclaims he opposes Bush on everything except the war, and then affirms that the war is more important than everything else, so supports the President. Its certainly possible that these two groups simply are part of the normal crossover of any election. Its certainly possible that one group or the other will be substantially larger than the other. Some of this can be revealed by closely watching the polls and taking clues from certain responces, not just the summary numbers. Some of this will be revealed as the election nears. Some may require post election analysis.

I'll keep watching the dissatisfaction on the right, hoping to make some sense of it, as well as looking out to see if the left is up to anything interesting.