The Rise of a Libertarian Left?

By Benjamin Rothove

Monday, July 07, 2025

 

As the Democratic Party still struggles to rebuild after its landslide electoral loss last year, some strategists think they have a new way forward: embracing libertarianism.

 

At the 2025 Progressive Policy Institute conference, organizers gathered in Colorado with the hope of sending the state’s political model nationwide. According to Politico, “The Colorado Way” is a “marriage of political strategy and policy framing that Democrats have used to take over state government from the bottom up” by promoting progressive ideas as cost-saving instead of focusing on their social impact. Advocates believe that the Colorado Democratic Party’s centrist approach — or the perception of its supposed centrism — shifted the formerly red state blue.

 

Democratic wins, such as the legalization of marijuana and income tax reduction, could be easily spun as libertarian successes. Democrats claimed that these measures made economic sense. However, different tax hikes and increased environmental regulation are more difficult to spin.

 

Governor Jared Polis is seen as a leader of this strategy, but he is not a libertarian, even though he has long presented himself as a lover of freedom. The “Colorado Way” is better described as embracing limited libertarian messaging rather than actual libertarian policy.

 

If this is the case, then it has already been tried. Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign attempted to reach anti-Trump Republicans by advertising her supposed neoliberal credentials, but talk about saving money didn’t spur voters to flock to the Democratic Party. In Harris’s case, her left-wing record directly contradicted her centrist claims. The same would be true of Polis, or almost any other elected Democrat, were he to mount a presidential bid.

 

Furthermore, Democrats seem unwilling to compromise on socialism or socialism-lite. Zohran Mamdani’s nomination for New York City mayor, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s popularity among young Democrats, and the left’s histrionic reaction to minor spending cuts in the “Big Beautiful Bill” suggest that the time for libertarian progressivism will not be anytime soon.

 

One of the few ways for the libertarian left to become politically ascendant is for the anti-libertarian right to gain influence. This is possible – people such as American Compass founder Oren Cass have begun to question whether conservatives have placed too much emphasis on free markets, while Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) recently introduced legislation that would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. The power of market skeptics in the GOP is debatable, though, at least for the time being.

 

Even if Republicans embrace progressive economic positions, it’s more likely that Democrats move further to the left than toward the center. A libertarian-progressive coalition makes theoretical sense, especially when it comes to social issues, but real-world political forces mean it will probably never come to fruition.