From the NY Sun: “If David Paterson as governor displays the opposition to eminent domain that he showed as a state senator, several high-profile development projects in New York City could be derailed or delayed….”

http://www.nysun.com/article/72905

This guy is quoting Ayn Rand from memory, passionate about school choice and property rights, opposed to the death penalty and fights to end the war on drugs. And he’s going to be governor of New York beginning Monday?

Amazing. David Paterson may very well be our first blind President. And our first libertarian-leaning one in quite some time.

However, in many respects, social democrats have it right: the government should not, generally speaking, have the power to kill its citizens; the drug war is an abysmal failure that costs lots of money and fills our prisons with nonviolent citizens; the right to vote can be extended to people that have an understanding of civic principles (though it is a pretty meaningless process anyway). Most of the policy positions that the WSJ was criticizing, true liberals like us embrace.

There’s two areas discussed in the piece that we agree with the Journal. I already quoted the school choice part. The other is this: “On taxes, Mr. Paterson is likely to be even more in favor than Mr. Spitzer of redistribution and tax hikes targeted at the ‘wealthy.’”

However, there is a fundamental difference between the liberal society and transfer payments.

By liberal society, I mean preserving equality before the law, securing property rights, civil and economic liberties and the freedom to choose how one lives their lives.

By transfer payments, I mean taking stuff from Peter and giving it to Paul.

After giving it some thought, most libertarians will likely conclude that it is far more important to preserve the liberal society than to diminish transfer payments.

The appeal of David Paterson is not that he’s a libertarian; he’s not. It’s because he’s a caring, understanding, respectful guy that advocates passionately for the liberal society in spite of his advocacy for transfer payments.

That’s a guy worth supporting. And that’s a point that more libertarians need to understand.

That’s awesome, he’s pro-liberty and free-market oriented.