| | Dick Morris, the political adviser to Clinton invented the use of the term "Triangulation" (in politics) to mean that your candidate continues to hold the same principles his political base expects, but he also starts advocating what his opponents are for... not everything, but some of the things that win them strong support. Stealing the reason for electing them. Triangulation only requires an adroit use of the language and an absence of morals.
They talk about Clinton moving to the middle to get reelected, but it was more that his language moved to the middle, and when the new Congress came in with a Republican majority, he had to make some compromises he wouldn't otherwise have made. He didn't 'move', he was just pushed a little, after he had talked like he had moved.
I'm betting that these people call themselves libertarians to steal some of the attraction that term is acquiring in the political arena. It is like Obama calling him self a major supporter of the free market, and saying that JOBS is the number 1 priority, and claiming that Obamacare will save money, etc., etc.
It's also an epistemological attack on the philosophical base of your opponents. Using the word 'libertarian' to mean something that is specifically not libertarian, and that counterfeit usage will tend to dilute, and even drive the real meaning out of being.
And, Fred, I think that there is a degree of fear on their part, because that tiny political force that is libertarian, is the only one that articulates good arguments against the incessant, busybody nudging - the only one that gets what they are trying to put over on everyone.
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