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Libertarian GOP defection?
Townhall.com ^ | Tuesday, December 12, 2006 | Bruce Bartlett

Posted on 12/12/2006 7:37:39 AM PST by Small-L

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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
"Let me guess - somewhere embedded in the platform, the LP supports child porn, open borders, and unlimited drug usage, right? Ergo, they're liberals?"

You forgot gay marriage, abortion, and ruining the economy by restricting world-market trade.
61 posted on 12/12/2006 8:44:10 AM PST by Beagle8U
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To: Beagle8U

The L party is nothing but a straw man useful when conservatives want to bash libertarian principles.


62 posted on 12/12/2006 8:47:04 AM PST by DManA
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Pretty tough to win any battles when 40% of you squad spends all its time shooting it's own in the back.

They lack both the mental and emotional discipline to be part of team. Their continual whining about the glass only being 30% full merely gives the Democrats political attacks "bi partisan" credibility. We would be FAR better off if the losers simply LEFT. THEY cannot be politically relevant outside the GOP. Their are not enough of them to even win a single elected office ANYWHERE.
63 posted on 12/12/2006 8:47:46 AM PST by MNJohnnie (I do not forgive Senator John McCain for helping destroy everything we built since 1980.)
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To: longtermmemmory

Read a book some time why doncha?


64 posted on 12/12/2006 8:47:54 AM PST by DManA
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To: Beagle8U
You forgot gay marriage

Libertarians support states banning it

abortion

Libertarians support states banning it & no taxpayer funding of it

and ruining the economy by restricting world-market trade

Are you kidding? Libertarians support free trade without the globalist organizations running it

65 posted on 12/12/2006 8:50:56 AM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Why can't Republicans stand up to Democrats like they do to terrorists?)
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To: Small-L
So true. Somewhere along the line (in the post-Reagan era) the GOP establishment became convinced that the only way to win elections is to play both sides from the middle rather than to stick to the party's traditional small gov't principles. Reagan was the last GOP President to campaign on those very principles and he won overwhelming victories in both '80 and '84. The establishment idiots have short memories.

The Gipper didn't campaign as a "compassionate conservative" or to make America a "kinder, gentler nation" or spout nonsense like "a thousand points of light." And when he said "no new taxes," he meant it (as opposed to his "read my lips" successor). .....even while he was fighting with a Democrat majority in both Houses, vetoing every piece of big gov't legislation they threw his way.

The GOP has been yellow-bellied for way too long now.

66 posted on 12/12/2006 8:52:42 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: DManA
How is it a straw man? Its not my party or platform.

Sorry, if you post a platform of your beliefs you can't blame someone for pointing them out.

In for a penny, in for a pound.
67 posted on 12/12/2006 8:53:55 AM PST by Beagle8U
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To: All

As long as the Republicans or Conservatives or whatever they/we are calling ourselves these days keep blaming Libertarians for their losses. . .guess what?


68 posted on 12/12/2006 8:54:52 AM PST by Madeleine Ward
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To: Common Tator
You do not have to be void of reality to be a libertarian, but I have never met one who was not.

Very good point. I suspect this is because libertarianism by definition is completely meaningless unless it is implemented in its entirety. Anything short of a 100% libertarian system is dysfunctional by definition.

I use the example of the "selective libertarian" to make this point. He's the guy who insists -- based on his libertarian principles -- that the government has no business outlawing drugs, but then turns around and calls on the government to expand drug treatment programs for people who "need them."

69 posted on 12/12/2006 8:57:16 AM PST by Alberta's Child (Can money pay for all the days I lived awake but half asleep?)
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To: Beagle8U

It is the party of about 10 people that has fraudulently appropriated the name. Libertarian principles are embraced by millions.


70 posted on 12/12/2006 8:59:10 AM PST by DManA
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To: DManA

consider it a modern interpritation analogous to what the Democrat Party has become. The Democrat Party was not always a refuse and a haven for the communist, hedonist, or socialist. This a a very recent development.

Likewise the classical libertarian is long dead from the modern political scene.


71 posted on 12/12/2006 9:01:53 AM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: DManA
Why don't those "millions" rewrite the platform to make themselves not sound like raving lunatics?
72 posted on 12/12/2006 9:05:48 AM PST by Beagle8U
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To: MNJohnnie
They lack both the mental and emotional discipline to be part of team.

Ah, I see. We're a bunch of riff-raffs trying to crash your $5,000-a-plate sponsored by some internationalist.

Their continual whining about the glass only being 30% full merely gives the Democrats political attacks "bi partisan" credibility.

In other words, you're afraid of good-old fashioned debate and the introduction of new ideas. No wonder why the GOP lost in November. Same old country-club status-quo. How many times did Bush mention the WOT & "extending" the tax cuts when campaigning for other Republicans? What happened to that Ownership Society? What happened to "local control" of schools during his 2000 acceptance speech?

We would be FAR better off if the losers simply LEFT. THEY cannot be politically relevant outside the GOP.

Yep, we're not fit to join your club but we damn sure better haul our ass to the voting booth and vote Republican, or else...we'll get called "Loserdopians" again! Now I know how a battered wife feels like.

Their are not enough of them to even win a single elected office ANYWHERE.

There are dozens of Libertarians elected to political offices nationwide. Most of these Libertarians ran on shoestring budgets, using their own money & their own time and basically relying on a website to get their message out. We don't have taxpayer-funded donations from the RNC or the DNC & the MSM to help us.

73 posted on 12/12/2006 9:06:22 AM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Why can't Republicans stand up to Democrats like they do to terrorists?)
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To: Alberta's Child
"He's the guy who insists -- based on his libertarian principles -- that the government has no business outlawing drugs, but then turns around and calls on the government to expand drug treatment programs for people who "need them."

I agree that that description fits a "liberal," but not a libertarian. Or shouldn't.

I will say that there is some common ground between "liberals" and libertarians - both allege respect and support for individual freedom and personal liberty. "Liberals" undercut themselves on those principles by also supporting leftwing ideals and big government powers, which are inherently totalitarian. Libertarians undercut themselves by overemphasizing all sorts of superficial screwball causes, like drug legalization, while underemphasizing the important core aspects of their ideals, individual freedom and limited government.

Nevertheless, the libertarian ideal, that goverment's primary purpose is to protect liberty, comes closest to the ideals of our founding fathers of all modern political philosphies, and is thus in reality, the most "conservative" of them.

74 posted on 12/12/2006 9:07:35 AM PST by Sam Cree (don't mix alcopops and ufo's - absolute reality)
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To: HEY4QDEMS
Every self described Libertarian I've ever met only cared about one thing which is their right to be a dopehead.

Not true! Some of them care an awful lot about their right to own, produce, and "use" pornography.
75 posted on 12/12/2006 9:09:26 AM PST by Antoninus ("Dealing with the pampered and effeminate Americans will be easy." --Osama bin Laden)
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To: Beagle8U
Sorry, if you post a platform of your beliefs you can't blame someone for pointing them out.

Would you advise someone to read the Republican Party platform to learn what a republic is?

76 posted on 12/12/2006 9:10:11 AM PST by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: cripplecreek
I once considered myself to be a libertarian but now see myself as more of a conservative independent.

Libertarianism is popular among 18-year-olds--and those who remain intellectual 18-year-olds as they age.
77 posted on 12/12/2006 9:10:38 AM PST by Antoninus ("Dealing with the pampered and effeminate Americans will be easy." --Osama bin Laden)
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To: MNJohnnie

We would be FAR better off if the losers simply LEFT.


yeah.............

I think you got your wish last month.


78 posted on 12/12/2006 9:13:40 AM PST by WhiteGuy (GOP Congress - 16,000 earmarks costing US $50 billion in 2006)
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To: tacticalogic

"Would you advise someone to read the Republican Party platform to learn what a republic is?"

Yes I would! Everyone should read the platform of any party they are going to hitch their wagon to, or vote for.

If you agree with most but not all, its up to you to work within that party to change/correct it.


79 posted on 12/12/2006 9:18:47 AM PST by Beagle8U
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To: Beagle8U

I didn't ask about whether you would do it to see if you wanted to join the party. Buy you knew that.


80 posted on 12/12/2006 9:21:21 AM PST by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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