Libertarian Democrats?

Markos Moulitsas expands on his vision of the libertarian democrat at CATO unbound; he first introduced the idea on the Daily Kos.

Here are some choice pieces:

The modern libertarian (and conservative) view has been that government is an evil, perhaps necessary, but still a grave threat to personal liberties requiring the utmost vigilance against its instincts for perpetual expansion.

The fundamental reason that "libertarian" has become "libertarian democrat" is that corporations are becoming more powerful than governments. This fundamental fact has created a union between those with libertarian tendencies and those with those who believed all along that government can be a force for good ...
Oil and oil services companies can even dictate when and how the most powerful nation on earth decides to go to war. A cabal of major corporate industry is, in fact, more powerful than the government of the most powerful nation on earth–and government is the only thing that can stop them from recklessly exploiting the people and destroying their freedom. (quoted from hekebolos on Daily Kos)

That, in essence, is why I am a Democrat, and why my original blog post on libertarian Democrats struck a chord with so many. We cherish freedom, and will embrace any who would protect it. But that necessarily includes, in this day and age, the government.

I like that people are talking about these issues, but the idea of a libertarian democrat is incompatible with the fundamental principles of the modern liberal perspective.

At the center of this logic rests the assumption that corporations are more powerful than governments (and that these special interests are more powerful today than they were 100 years ago). Furthermore, it presumes that corporations and governments can be compared on the same plane Academics peddle this nonsense all the time, but they ignore the crucial (and very important difference) that governments have a monopoly over the use of force. The subjugation to an economic lifestyle looks nothing like subjugation by military means.

Old democrats believed that the government could protect the poor from the whims of the market, but they did not need to call this libertarianism.

This might be semantics, but I think it weakens the political force of the democratic party to attach itself to libertarianism.