All over the Web, I hear and see something that needs to stop: open invitations for libertarians and democrats to join political forces in the future. I explained why I thought this idea was pointless in The Democratic Party: The Party of Personal Liberty?

Economic liberty (ostensibly proposed by the GOP) and social liberty (ostensibly proposed by the Democrats) are merely offshoots of the same concept: individual liberty. Neither party supports individual liberty without contradiction. Conservatives wish to preserve tradition and a kind of social morality, often at the expense of liberty. Liberals wish to improve socio-economic conditions for the lower rungs of society and for the overlooked/disadvantaged/etc., regularly at the expense of personal liberty.

For the Democratic Party to be more palatable to libertarians, it would have to actually embrace capitalism as the correct economic system. This is the crucial "canary in the coal mine" for individual liberty; you can't have one without the other.