an economic sustainability plan Greens and Libertarians agree on?

Seth Godin states, “The only way to make things better is when people see the long term, and offering them a way to shift time to take action that matters now” (from his Akimbo podcast, December 2019).

Libertarians are good at considering the long term. They see that if the U.S. keeps acting like the Roman Empire did—oppressive taxation and overspending—it too will decline. It would be a bore to rehash that. You don’t need to be convinced. Greens are good at seeing the long term too. They see that if the U.S. keeps acting like the Roman Empire did—expansionism, failing infrastructure, reliance on slave labor,  oppressive legal system, depletion of resources—this will lead to economic collapse.

Some Libertarians question the story of peak oil and human-caused global warming. Greens never believed the story about “making the world safe for democracy” by crushing freely elected socialist governments. While we argue about stories the other side is telling, our governments, whether blue or red, continue to create foreign alliances that allow big business to benefit from cheap foreign labor and funnel natural resources to their western markets. This can put small businesses in Western nations out of business, including farmers.

While we’ve been busy defending our political opinions, we’ve become alienated from each other, the anti-establishment right and left. We will create freedom and economic sustainability when we are strong enuf to accept more responsibility, to quit blaming each other, and each face the fact that the fears of the other side do have some basis and could become a horrific reality. We could choose to work together where we have common interests. I saw this happen in Colorado. To protect local water, ranchers and hunters joined with environmentalists to insist on stricter regulations for fracking, when "produced" wastewater was carelessly discarded, ruining both groundwater and rangeland. While there are hard feelings from the constant blame game, we can turn it around with a movement away from selfish aims. We both want self sufficiency and a safe world for our children.

Libertarians, you don’t need to let your children play with the flower children. Greens you don’t need to let your children play with guns. On some issues, let’s agree to disagree. Let's get to the critical part. We are undergoing dissolution of identities that once united us. This will become dangerous if we keep reacting and pushing each other’s buttons. We all, even the powerful, even the rich, fear the loss of our way of life. We all have the pain of being misunderstood. Rather than maintaining defensiveness at this time, let’s recognize that we have all been manipulated by our media filter bubbles. This is a time when seeking to understand is more important than seeking to be understood, when listening is more important than defending a position. We must each be willing to make some concessions in order to not lose sovereignty entirely. Our reaction at this point in history is crucial. Our stance—divided or united—may determine the outcome for the entire nation. The anti-establishment can largely agree on Main Street versus Wall Street, but we’ve already largely lost that battle. We agree it’s crazy that most people are so short-sighted and distracted that they can’t seem to see the trajectory we’re on. Let’s look at the long term together, envision a future we both want, and work toward it, even if our separate communities continue to have different values.

Maybe the most obvious overlap is that Greens want a chance to start (or maintain the few) ecovillages and agrihoods, while many rural Libertarians want their small farms and ranches to survive. Can we start there? Greens have been helping large ranches avoid over-taxation by teaming up to create land trusts that manage conservation easements. We need affordable mechanisms to do this for small farms. We probably don’t have time to change laws around this, because there’s too much gridlock. Let’s use existing measures and work with local governments to make it happen. There are co-op, non-profit, or trusted-small-investor models both sides can use. Keep your farm and community whatever flavor you want it. Lemonade or limeade, we can use the same basic recipes. Let’s share the best of what’s working and create local resiliency everywhere we are.