Are The Democrats Beckoning Libertarian Republicans?: TalkLeft's Big Tent Democrat Dangles Sen-Elect Tester As A Lure

TalkLeft (TL) is a blog that looks at criminal law thru the eyes of partisan politics. It is a group defense lawyers blog and is typically a heavy liberal slant. In this post Big Tent Democrat (hereinafter BTD, a blogger on TL) writes that Senator Murak O'Bama should not be the point man for bringing back a democrat majority. Instead he points to "conservative" Senator Elect John Tester of Montana as the model of the modern 21 century Democrat. In reviewing Tester's stated platform, (There is the first good thing, they guy actually has annunciated his plan) BTD notes Tester has a decidedly libertarian view. For example this is what he quotes a Tester ad with his views on Criminal law and the War Against Terrorism:

Jon Tester believes in freedom first. Under the PATRIOT Act, the FBI could obtain records on every video you ever rented and every book you ever checked out. They can obtain your bank statements and medical records; they can even keep tabs on our guns. What’s worse is they can request this information for any reason at all, without your knowledge.

Tester believes we should be fighting terrorists, not invading the lives of innocent Americans. In Washington, Tester will fight for more human intelligence, a greater investment in our Special Forces, and closing backdoors to terrorism like the one left open by the Burns-Abramoff immigration policy in the Marianas Islands.

He sounds like a member of the Cato Institute on the issue of Abortion:

We all share the same goal: to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in this country. There are concrete steps we can take to achieve that goal. Jon Tester trusts the women of Montana to make their own medical decisions in consultation with her family, doctor and God. The politicians in Washington shouldn't interfere with this very personal and difficult decision. The decision to have an abortion is a difficult one and it should remain safe, legal, and rare.

While not my view, it is the way that he states it that is important to me. "He trusts the women of Montana to make thier own medical decisions..." The view that the state needs to stay out of most of our personal medical decisions. Further he seems by this statement to favor a view that the states should make the decision and that Washington should not be legislating this stuff for the nation.

Recently I read something about the Democrats as a new home for "classically liberal" (ie libertarian) voters. I have said before that as the Republicans continue their shift toward social and far right Christian value politics, conservatives of the libertarian ilk will begin to stray from the party. Sen. Elect Tester may be proof of that. In fact as BTD suggests he may be the model for which to win back the presidency for the Democrats.