Let me make an observation regarding tactics. I think we need to abandon the word “libertarian”. It just carries too much baggage and raises too many red flags with people who should our allies. I personally would adopt the pharse “classical liberal” but I would be open to something new.
This is not a trivial nit-picking question. Words are powerful. Use one wrong one and a lot of people will just write you off.
True, but I am with Ann Coulter on that. Is there some sort of stock-ticker where we can keep track of all the horrible and politically incorrect words from minute to minute?
We have allowed the media to render the language into a twisted and meaningless carriacture of itself, which suits their purposes just fine.
Until we can take back the words they have ruined, we will be rowing with one oar.
*sigh* I see your point, but it offends me. Bokababe and I had a discussion tangential to your statement. I would much prefer that we reclaim what is ours. Libertarianism should not be a bad word (nor should liberalism).
In the same way, "conservatism" itself has been co-opted by the left as have other terms: "Free Trade" comes to mind - What it means today is not what it meant in the time of Reagan. Reagan's "Free Trade" is more along the lines of Duncan Hunter's "Fair Trade"... A concept which even an hardcore Buchananite could be persuaded to support.
If we continually must redefine what we are, we are losing the fight, as those key words control vast tracts of the American electorate. It is by co-opting those positions that the moderates were able to fool conservative factions, by promising to abide by Conservative terms, while working to redefine what those terms actually mean.
No, if we are to succeed, we must take back what is ours, and that must begin right here on FR. This IS the netroots of Conservatism, but it too has been allowed to drift leftward of it's positions and it's duty, as defined. We must start here, challenging those who have changed our heritage, and informing those who do not know the difference.
FR, united in Conservatism, would make all the difference in lifting up a Hunter, Keyes, or Tancredo and should be the main point of opposition to the RINOcity of Giuliani, McCain, Romney, and Huckabee.
JMO