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The hackneyed tritisms like “[progressives] hope to ban your SUV” and “outlaw your incandescent light bulb” belie both the complexity and reality of our relation to the environment and to each other. The truth of that reality is that regulation actually protects freedom — both for us, and for future generations. Who reading this really considers herself less free because Upton Sinclair wrote “The Jungle” and sparked the federal regulation of the food industry? Anyone who would rather go back to the robber barons, monopolies, filth in your food, racial oppression, the Pinkertons and starvation of the elderly, please raise your hand.

The progressive movement stands in stark contrast [to libertarianism]. It’s an ideology centered on human dignity, that acknowledges the subtle necessity of balancing societal needs with individual freedoms, and rests on a solid record of having built the most prosperous and functional states in the world. Instead of Social Darwinism in sheep’s clothing, progressivism offers a vision for achieving together what is impossible to achieve alone.

Libertarian’s Folly: Why Progressivism Provides an Answer (via ryking)