The two Republican parties...

 Go read this excellent blog post over at TheMoneyIllusion on regulation » ‘Regulation’ is not restraint, it’s intervention.

 

I wanted to highlight a key point made at the end which reminds me why I lean Dem...

There are actually two Republican parties in America.  One wants to do real deregulation, to actually reduce the role of the government in the economy.  The other Republican party (which I fear is the more powerful one) wants to do “deregulation,” to remove all constraints on business, banking, the medical industrial complex, energy, for-profit colleges, etc, so that they can systematically loot the taxpayers by taking advantage of the enormous moral hazard that has seeped into almost all aspects of our modern regulated economy. 

The Dems are more likely to want to try to tame the beast, but then keep passing laws that make the economy even more riddled with moral hazard.  Not much of a choice these days.

I've always said the key difference between right and left libertarians is the question of creating/advocating policy for a world where rent seeking and regulatory capture by powerful interests groups, corporations, and other powerful institutions exist and will never go away.

 

The "other Republican party" which I too believe is more powerful, is why I side Democratic electorally as the lesser of two evils because at least at local levels there are many opportunities for reform and great potential for working class citizens to influence policy and participate and have a voice within the political realm.