And they keep moving in the wrong direction....
Although I'm not a libertarian, nor do I care for Harry Browne, he had a fairly decent article recently, that somebody sent me :
Can This Marriage Be Saved.
From time to time articles appear on the Internet urging Republicans and Libertarians to come together, put aside their differences, recognize their common interests, and form a coalition to fight those awful big-government liberals who are destroying America.
Have you noticed that such suggestions always seem to come from Republicans, and not from Libertarians? And that the solution is always that Libertarians should join the Republican Party, not that Republicans should join the Libertarian Party?
If you substitute the word "Conservative" for the word "Libertarian", that would just about sum up my views these days.
I've seen numerous people here and elsewhere basically say to people who try and maintain Conservative beliefs that are at odds with one of President Bush's or the GOP's policies "just keep supporting President Bush and the GOP". I don't hear these same people saying "the GOP needs to support your conservative beliefs".
The front page of Free Republic states this:
Free Republic is the premiere online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. It doesn't say
Free Republic is the premiere online gathering place for Republicans on the web. I can't say for sure, as to whether or not that was deliberately worded by JR, but from posts of his on here, and on usenet in the past, I believe that he worded it that way for a reason.
It's been a struggle, because my family runs Republican, I grew up calling myself a Republican, and have done so for over 30 years, ever since I could vote. My wife and I have volunteered our time and even money, when possible, in local GOP efforts.
The past few years though, it's been hard, very hard. I can compromise my beliefs and stick with the GOP, or I can turn to a third party that has no political clout. Sometimes I even buy into the "well, it's better to pick the lesser of two evils, than to pick a third party, and have the worst evil win" arguments.
I'm sure I've probably upset more than a few people with this little rant o' mine, but oh well.
George Bush gave the NEA(public enemy of conservatism)an extra 8 billion dollars to play with.
George Bush is NOT protecting us from enemies, foreign
and domestic.
No conservative alive would do these things.
Ergo, Bush is NOT a conservative.