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Posted on 10/28/2010 9:53:49 AM PDT by Sakity Yaks
There's been lots of talk lately about a turn to the right in American politics. President Obama's declining poll numbers, the sharp rise in opposition to his health-care plan during 2009, the growth of the grass-roots Tea Party movement, and the polls predicting a Republican takeover of the House of Representatives all point to a resurgence of conservatism in the electorate. But as I noted last year, there are also trends in the direction of social tolerance these days. Some indeed have described current political trends as a libertarian resurgence.
California voters are getting ready to vote on a marijuana legalization initiative, and polls show rising support. The New York Times points to other signs of change on the marijuana front: Pot has already become essentially legal for anyone in California who can tell a medical marijuana clinic that it would make him feel better. Attorney General Eric Holder has said that the federal government would back off its attempt to enforce the federal laws against medical marijuana in the 13 states that have legalized medical use. The threats to prosecute Michael Phelps for a bong hit were widely ridiculed. Those developments have led Andrew Sullivan, Jacob Weisberg, and CBS News to speculate about a "tipping point" for change -- at last -- in marijuana prohibition.
Meanwhile, TPM and AOL's PoliticsDaily also see a tipping point for marriage equality. A majority of New Yorkers now join Gov. David Paterson in supporting same-sex marriage. That same ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that "in 2004, just 32 percent of Americans favored gay marriage, with 62 percent opposed. Now 49 percent support it versus 46 percent opposed -- the first time in ABC/Post polls that supporters have outnumbered opponents." Since the passage of California's Proposition 8 in 2008, several states and the District of Columbia have granted marriage rights to same-sex couples.
This chart, prepared for me by Garrett Reim, shows recent trends in public opinion polls on several issues -- support for smaller government, marriage equality, and marijuana legalization along with opposition to President Obama's health care plan and to the job the president is doing. The latter two have moved more sharply, but all five lines move at least marginally in a libertarian direction:
.Longer-term charts would show more of a trend on marijuana and marriage. See Nate Silver's chart on rising support for marijuana legalization over the past 20 years. And here are three depictions of rising support for marriage equality over the past 15 to 20 years.
As some analysts have noticed, what's going on in American politics is a shift in a libertarian direction. This chart provides some more evidence.
Libertarians are just scared republicans who don’t want to jeopardize their relationships with their liberal friends.
Pot, higher taxes and more illegals. The perfect combination for California.
Drugs and homosexuality, libertarians are the left’s insurgents into conservatism, to destroy it from within.
Response: "...Social Tolerance..." = immorality, aka vice addiction.
You see the Tea Party as some sort of subversive enemy, then?
When I hear Libertarians like John Stossel arguing in favor of Prop 19 — California’s “legalize weed so the government can tax pot users and create a new revenue stream so they can spend more of the peoples’ money” proposition — it’s fairly obvious that Libertarianism is a complete farce. It’s a trojan horse and nothing more.
[ Libertarians are just scared republicans who don’t want to jeopardize their relationships with their liberal friends. ]
Depending on my company I can either be a Reagan Conservative or a Libretarian.
When I say I am a Librtarian it seems like I can convice my liberal frinds the folly of their ways bit by bit. I notice that if I say I am a Conservative or Republican it is like a Cross or Holy Water to a Vampire and their ears go to welded shut.
I am slowly workin on them, I seem to making some progress, one of them actually talked to me recently about “is it wrong to vote for the Republican?” And I told them that if they vote on the issues and ignore the parties it is the best way to live with who you voted for.
That doesn’t make sense, the tea party is conservative, unlike libertarians.
People will probably be shocked when they find out Cato wants the Fed to print more money
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2010/10/cato-bernanke-is-not-printing-enough.html
Conservatives can be just as bipolar as liberals. One can’t claim they believe in smaller govt and support the WOD. The two positions are incompatible. The WOD requires the destruction of the 4th and 5th amendments at the very least. It also means SWAT teams tearing into Granny’s house because her grandson sold a joint to a neighbor. Later the DA takes the house and leaves Granny in the street while the cops take her furniture and car home for personal use. Someone explain to me the “conservatism” in the WOD.
[ When I hear Libertarians like John Stossel arguing in favor of Prop 19 — California’s “legalize weed so the government can tax pot users and create a new revenue stream so they can spend more of the peoples’ money” proposition — it’s fairly obvious that Libertarianism is a complete farce. It’s a trojan horse and nothing more. ]
Or it is a clever way to get the pot smoking idiots to wake up the fact that all the sticky icky they are smoking could cost less if it weren’t for government intrusion...
True libertarians and American Conservatives have in the grand scheme of things, very very few real difference.
as i said before all you got to do is teach libertarian to respect the constitutional enumerated authority of the States, and conservative to respect the written limitations of the Federal constitution to the letter, and you got yourself an ideological alliance made in heaven.
While some conservatives, particularity southern conservatives have social issues they want government invoked in, the State not Federal government is the proper tool for that sort of domestic involvement.
Basically what we should be aiming to do is to get the Federal Government out of the domestic sphere and force it to focus on foreign issues like defense against foreigners including the forcing invasion coming from Mexico.
Let the State and local Governments handle everything else, the State and local government have the on the ground presence, and if the Feds would let up on taxes and reimburse them for the help they give to the feds such as catching the illegal aliens.
We would have even greater resources to deal with these domestic matters if necessary.
We don’t need a federal police force, we got local and state forces that are quite adaquit, and if they ever aren’t we got the State National guard to draw from. and if even that is not enough our neighbors will help us.
We don’t need or want a Federal government strong enough to enact its won domestic polices, precisely because we know we don’t agree with each other on domestic policy.
Indeed we have a hard enough time agreeing with each other on foreign policy. But in the sphere that most effects our every day lives, the domestic we should not have to tolerate New York or Chicago corruption and values.
So the most agreeable goal is fairly simple: Let us agree to disagree and go our own way as much as possible.
In the end we Conservatives know what Liberals will do to themselves and their communities. The evil they bring upon themselves will collapse of its own dysfunctional bulk. We will uses them to teach our children and grandchildren why Government is not the solution to these problems, but in fact the biggest contributor.
Actually, some of my fiercest arguments are with liberal friends who oppose drug legalization, even though they like to blow a little weed themselves. "So,", I challenge them, "what are you worried about? The coloreds getting all hepped up on marijuania?" I don't smoke dope and never liked it. I just put drug prohibition in the same bin as alcohol prohibition, futile, corrupting and counter-productive.
I have reservations about same-sex marriage, largely because of the way that it was enacted, by judicial fiat. (The same could be said for abolition in New England prior to the Civil War.) The problem with same sex marriage, is that because of other intrusions into our lives by government, recognition of same sex marriage carries with it obligations incumbent on third parties, not the least being employers. I am not a strick libertarian and recognize that the state has an obligation to protect children from irresponsible parents and other adults, which is the one justification for making marriage a government institution. (One might suppose that people could draw up their own marriage contracts, but history does not seem to indicate that that would produce happy results.)
On abortion, I see protection of the helpless and the weak as the most important and legitimate government responsibility. Therefore, any civilized society will outlaw abortion. While abortion laws might be difficult to enforce in a free society, the very knowledge that the act is illegal will reduce its occurence.
[ Conservatives can be just as bipolar as liberals. One can’t claim they believe in smaller govt and support the WOD. The two positions are incompatible. The WOD requires the destruction of the 4th and 5th amendments at the very least. It also means SWAT teams tearing into Granny’s house because her grandson sold a joint to a neighbor. Later the DA takes the house and leaves Granny in the street while the cops take her furniture and car home for personal use. Someone explain to me the “conservatism” in the WOD. ]
Any “War On Anything” that concerns the private citizens, be it Drugs, Poverty, etc... Is a “War On the Citizens” and is pretty much illegal when it comes from the Federal Government. Now states ont he other hand should have more say in the matter.
Wars in General should only be against foriegn enemies, be those clearly defined foreign enemies. Not abstract concepts like Poverty and Drug Usage.....
I always vote conservatively, smaller government, less federal control, etc...
Here is the Libertarian platform, conservatives are against it.
Here is the leftists agenda hidden behind the Libertarian Party curtain.
Libertarian Party Platform:
Throw open the borders completely; only a rare individual (terrorist, disease carrier etc.) can be kept from freedom of movement through “political boundaries”.
Homosexuals; total freedom in the military, gay marriage, adoption, child custody and everything else.
Abortion; zero restrictions or impediments.
Pornography; no restraint, no restrictions.
Drugs; Meth, Heroin, Crack, and anything new that science can come up with, zero restrictions.
Advertising those drugs, prostitution, and pornography; zero restrictions.
Military Strength; minimal capabilities.
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