Power, Baby, Power

— By Kevin Drum

| Sat Jan. 22, 2011 4:34 PM PST

Tim Lee says that American liberalism has incorporated libertarian critiques at a striking rate over the past few decades:

Libertarians have had a pretty impressive winning streak in recent decades, especially on economic policy. Income tax rates are way down. Numerous industries have been deregulated. Most price controls have been abandoned. Competitive labor markets have steadily displaced top-down collective bargaining. Trade has been steadily liberalized....This isn’t to say there are no longer disagreements about economic policy; clearly there are. But what’s striking is that the left’s smartest intellectuals and policy advocates now largely make their arguments from libertarians’ intellectual turf.

He's right! And there are both benefits and drawbacks to this.