The liberaltarian Jackalope: the liberal-libertarian rapprochement is probably dead on arrival.

• Author: Welch, Matt
• Position: From the top

IN LATE, JANUARY, for the third time since Barack Obama's historic election, a group of Washington, D.C., writers and think tankers, roughly half liberal and half libertarian, gathered for an evening of robust discussion and debate exploring a potential "liberaltarian" overlap in our new Democratic age. Fittingly, the event was held at the idiosyncratic-for-D.C. Tabard Inn, a charming hotel/restaurant that decades earlier was saved from the redevelopment wrecking ball by a coalition of mostly liberal stalwarts, including the old New Lefty Robert Scheer.

The exchange was cordial and vigorous, the lamb was divine, and after three stimulating hours I left more convinced than ever that any new "fusion" project between libertarians and liberals--at least where the rubber meets the road in government policy--is doomed.

In theory, I should be the ideal audience for this exercise. As I mentioned at the dinner, I have described myself as "liberal" (albeit using a definition that few Americans share) for far longer than I have let others describe me as "libertarian." I've spent much of this century bashing not just George W. Bush and John McCain but the mind-set among self-described libertarians who supported them. I'm even a longtime friend of and collaborator with Scheer. And in 2005, when Democrats were about as depressed as Republicans are this year, I wrote a series of articles urging the donkey party to shed its politically correct Northeastern liberalism for a Western, live-and-let-live libertarianism, embodied by Mountain West Democrats like Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. The idea attracted New York agents and publishers, and for a while there I was tempted to write a book-length description of this marvelous new liberaltarian jackalope.

In the end I opted out, partly due to the same sentiments magician Penn Jillette expressed to mason just before the November 2008 elections: "I believe in individual rights so much that I don't like any sort of 'what's good for the cause'-type question.... I'm even uncomfortable telling people who to vote for." But mostly, I never believed Democrats would embrace limited government principles for any purpose other than regaining power. Events have borne me out.

In the exile years of 2005-06, the lefty commentariat overflowed with examinations of three modern conservative milestones: the failed yet influential Barry Goldwater presidential campaign of 1964, Ronald Reagan's electorate-reshaping revolution of...