Psst, they’ve already completed the job of discrediting the word. Perhaps you should go with “independent” or “no affiliation”.

That doesn’t answer the question of “what is the opposite of “authoritarian?”

so “libertarian” (as distinct from “authoritarian”) will have to do until the grab-bag of anarchists, reactionaries, Randians, and out-and-out whackjobs running the Libertarian Party manage to complete the job of discrediting the word.

Psst, they’ve already completed the job of discrediting the word. Perhaps you should go with “independent” or “no affiliation”.

Personally, I’d be happy to see a fraking *moderate* party start to coalesce.

I’m an American and I think that the Democratic Party is moderate, at least on average. What we’re lacking is a legitimate liberal party, which means that any political “compromise” ends up being fairly conservative rather than centrist.

A couple years back I started my own party, which now boasts about 10 indifferent members, Radical Anarchist Granny Environmentalists.

Maybe it’s time for some science fiction to come true. Back in the 60s, Mack Reynolds wrote a story titled, “The Radical Center.”

“You’re all right-wing to us!”

/joke

Moderate would be great, but it seems to be expedient for the parties to harp on the divisions to polarise. They did it to us during the Quebec referenda, and to a lesser extent, the current government is trying to play the same game.

My point, and I do have one: it’s hard to stay moderate in today’s climate.

Not really. It’s been sullied both by the Libertarian Party (which, yes, has been off the deep end for some time now) and people who shallowly ridicule libertarians because they can’t see the shades of gray and consider the extremists to be the norm.

Personally, I’d be happy to see a fraking *moderate* party start to coalesce. This extremism from both sides has got the country bleeding from the head and ass. I’m sort of surprised it hasn’t what with the Republicans disintegrating because they constantly have to get their Jesus freak on. Where are all those ex-Reps going? Independentland? What, all of them? Ah, who cares..

(Cue someone from the EU saying “But you’re all right wing to us!” as if it matters or means anything in 3… 2… 1… Hey Euro-buddy, we have *states* bigger than some EU countries, OK? You don’t reform health care in a month with that situation. Also, I have family all over the EU so I get the real story. Don’t even bother.)

p.s. I favor librarians instead.

I used to spend a lot of time with social librarians, but they weren’t economical.