Josh mentions gun rights, but in districts where it helps them, Democrats have been doing the "I own a gun, too" schtick, complete with photo-op, for years already.

Democrats (except for mayor Nichols) were already libertarian on moral issues. If they want to recruit more of "rugged-individualist" libertarian-types that roam the Southwest, Democrats will need to become more libertarian on economic issues. Like maybe firing lots of government workers and slashing entitlement programs. There was some movement in that direction under Clinton, but I certainly haven't seen any recently.

Ceratinly you're right, they've been trying that for a while, but they've been trying it without having the legitimacy of a Libertarian base behind them. This new wave may finally add some legitimacy to the speaking points. In other words, you've gotta represent people before you can speak for them.

Since then, they're just a bunch of beltway insider wannabe writers with no good ideas.

Let's get real, we Dems aren't libertarians. Sure, we think government has no business in your bedroom and that intrusive spying is bad, but that's just respecting the Constitution and being patriots.

Ironically, it's your pereception of TNR that's out of date. Yes, they took a dive somewhere in the late 80s ... (had a vague resurrection during the Baltic wars), but still, weren't onto much of anything throughout the 90s.
However, pick it up again. Iconoclastic. Well-written. Provocative. Smart.