Reflexive Libertarian Liberal-Bashing

As some of you may know (hell, I've been trumpeting it annoyingly), over the last few months I have taken a much more libertarian view of things. I have many reasons for this, which I'd be more than glad to get into sometime.

So, I identify as a libertarian, and I consequently disagree with much of the conventional liberal agenda. However, it disturbs me a little bit when libertarians reflexively bash liberals/Democrats. It's understandable; after all, that's the party in power, and they are pushing many things disagreeable to libertarians (mandatory subsidized health care, massive economic bailouts, increased regulations, etc).

But I generally think liberals/Democrats/progressives mean well, and even have most of the right values and ideals, even if they misdiagnose the problems, or prescribe the wrong solutions. After all, I spent most of the last ten years being a socialist/progressive.

Perhaps more importantly, libertarianism originated as a movement of the Left, ie, classical liberalism; and I think it would be a mistake to get too cozy with the conservative/Republican crowd (after all, look what THEY do in terms of individual liberty, sane foreign policy, and economic laissez-faire). As Dean Russell noted in 1952:

"The first leftist would not be popular in America today. That is true because the original leftists wanted to abolish government controls over industry, trade, and the professions. They wanted wages, prices, and profits to be determined by competition in a free market, and not by government decree. They were pledged to free their economy from government planning, and to remove the government-guaranteed special privileges of guilds, unions, and associations whose members were banded together to use the law to set the price of their labor or capital or product above what it would be in a free market." http://mises.org/story/3425

Just a thought. Libertarianism should be more a left-wing (ie, forward-looking, open-minded, creative and liberating) rather than right-wing (backward-looking, defensive, hostile) movement.