General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Democrat Cory Booker wants to work with LIBERTARIAN Rand Paul [View all]LeftishBrit
(41,205 posts)E.g. McCain-Feingold on campaign reform.
This doesn't mean that Feingold (presumably) agreed with McCain on anything else.
There is a difference between working together on a specific bill, and forming a broader coalition which requires compromising basic principles - e.g. Clegg bringing the LibDems into coalition with Cameron and the Tories; Blair collaborating with Bush on the Iraq war; or progressives sometimes thinking they can form genuine common ground with right-wing pseudo-populists like the teabaggers.
Opposing the NSA spying doesn't make you a libertarian (as a citizen of one of the allied countries being spied the hell out of - far from it!)
On the other hand, voting for or endorsing Rand Paul, David Davis (a partial equivalent in the UK), or the general principle of 'shrinking the state' (i.e. destroying public services and the social safety net), just because the people and principle might share one's opposition to the surveillance state, is utterly wrong. To seek to destroy the state as a provider of public services, in order to reduce state surveillance, is like seeking to treat someone's headache by chopping off their head!