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Conservatives need to learn what libertarianism is...

From what I have seen tooting its horn as "Conservative", Conservatives need to learn what Conservatism is.

Maybe then they will have something to compare with other ideas.

When there are people who describe themselves as "conservatives" but use in the same phrase "pro-choice", "moderate", or any of a host of hyphenations designed to exclude whole segments of conservative thought, the term becomes as meaningless as any other label.

Often, running under the Republican label has been equated with being "conservative", but there are the Log Cabin bunch, the Bloombergs, and others who fly in the face of traditional values. Even then, people from those neo-Communist havens would use the same term.

There is a fundamental set of values, scripturally based, which is defined as "good". Following those values scrupulously is not something which can long or effectively be imposed from outside one's being: you have to believe.

Following the law just to stay out of trouble is "ethical" and "legal" but often not moral, and the legal system has (as a result of incredible government interference) become impossible for any one person to know, much less comply with--and the old Decalogue and Golden Rule no longer suffice to stay out of trouble.

Matters which were once the purview of the Church have become, first recorded by, and then usurped by the State, and therein lies the problem. Once a matter is no longer decreed by God, as in marriage, but defined by the state, the meaning can be twisted any way a conniving pack of lawyers in the Legislature or seated on a bench will. While that standard may be a solid object, it is not a fixed one, which the Church's standard is if scripture and doctrine are not twisted.

Because Government remains such a fickle standard of virtually anything, it is best to keep it out of as much as possible and prudent.

So let me ask, What does the Republican Party stand for any more? Not a hyphenated offshoot, but the whole thing?

Both labels have been co-opted by those bent on the destruction of this country, and few enough principled persons remain.

As a child, we learned the difference between right and wrong. Some of that was hardwired in. Some came from going to Mass, some was instilled by our elders.

All of those traditional mechanisms for instilling moral behaviour are being undercut by none other than our Government, intruding into matters where, by its own Constitution, it has no business intruding.

The fewer matters it intrudes into, the more resources left to provide for the common defense--one of the stated purposes for its very existence.

As for behaviour (morality), communities used to decide what they would and would not tolerate. The libertines could move to a jurisdiction where their behaviour was more likely to be tolerated, and the rest could put the social pressures on them to either toe the line and behave or relocate. Note, I said social pressure, not governmental pressure--there is a difference.

Now the government has jumped in that and said you can't decide who you will serve and who you won't, you can't decide who can or cannot be in your club or organization, and you are forced (first to be tolerant of and then) to "celebrate" behaviours which would have been completely discouraged were it not for government intervention.

So, like many, I hold to the belief that that government governs best which governs least. That people will, unfettered by edicts, sort it out, and that given a chance, good will prevail.

As a child we were told to "grow up, be responsible".

Well, we did, at least those of us who survived the process.

Now we have the government screwing around in our light sockets, decreeing the size of our toilet tanks, deciding what we can and cannot eat, prosecuting people over filling in a low spot in their yard, but NOT providing for the common defense.Sounds bassackwards to me.

Open Borders? Nuts.

That is one thing the Federal Government is supposed to control. So shrink the government, get it back to the jobs it was originally tasked with, get it out of peoples' toilets, bedrooms, and light sockets, and get back to a basic and understandable framework. The rest, leave to the people.

Back in the day when belladonna and Jimson Weed and Cannabis were not prohibited by government, everyone got so whacked out that the country folded, right?

No, they didn't.

A few did, and they provided a good bad example for everyone else --an object lesson of what not to do.

Their stupidity was held up as an unfortunate example, not hidden or mollycoddled. That worked then, and it will in the future, no laws required--provided the laws which prevent people from legitimately defending their persons, property, and families are removed too.

So shrink the Government back into its Constitutional framework, to the duties delegated it in the Constitution, without torturing concepts like "interstate commerce" to expand its purview, and then, just then, can we have Conservatism. Without the Libertarians, though, you'll just be stuck with two different flavors of Statist: Obama Statists and Bloomberg Statists, they're at their core control freaks who stand to gather wealth and power to themselves and tell the people it is for their own good.