The other day I referenced Tom Watson’s piece in Salon, rejecting any libertarian involvement in the Stop Watching Us demonstration (as you might recall, libertarians were the ones who use a “few positive civil liberties positions as a predator uses candy with a child”).

Watson’s piece generated a useful response in Salon from David Segal: “Liberals Should Unite with Libertarians (sometimes).”

A few quotes:

While the benefits of this sort of cooperation are concrete, Watson never convincingly describes the potential harm. Yes, when those on the left and right meet, perhaps some impressionable young progressives will become more libertarian in their leanings — but it’s important that burgeoning libertarians be made to understand that not all Democrats stand with President Obama, Dianne Feinstein, Steny Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders as shills for the state’s surveillance apparatus, and perhaps that (and a few friends they make while marching with lefties this weekend) will encourage them to learn more about, and eventually embrace, progressive economic principles – post-Keynesians, please. … We cannot cover up harms perpetrated by our government just because pointing them out might make some people more inclined to distrust the state. If we hope to maintain enough credibility with voters to one day win progressive majorities at the ballot box then we must not shy away from naming state overreach and corruption where it is transparently manifest.

Certainly, as Segal points out, left-libertarians alliances have borne fruit in the past and there remain many things that the left and libertarians can agree on–most notably opposition to growth of the security-surveillance state, the targeted execution of U.S. citizens abroad, indefinite detentions, and the absurdities of the War on Drugs–and there remains much work to do. While Segal hopes that a few libertarians might learn more above progressivism, it may also be the case that a few progressives (Watson included) will learn more about classical liberalism in the process.

What’s the harm?