libertarian (small-l) = people who generally favor free market economic solutions; individual responsibility, both positive and negative; minimum government intervention in personal, private, and business affairs; government restricted to the roles of protecting life, liberty, and property of individuals.
Libertarian (big-L) = a set of nutcases who have taken the above and interpreted it to include anarchy, unlimited access to drugs, totally open borders, and a non-agression foreign policy, and who have little or no hope of being elected.
Republican (big-R) = a group of politicians committed to maintaining the status quo and their own gravy train by huge deficits; unlimited earmark spending; massive growth in government; payoffs to campaign contributors by manipulating the tax code, trade policies, and government contracts; and an interventionist foreign policy to divert attention from the fact that the nation is going bankrupt because of their fiscal largess.
republicans (Small-r) = the legions of myrmidons who follow the Big-Rs simply because of the R after their name, and who lack the willingness or intelligence to question the policies of the Big-Rs, even though they are being played for suckers.
Good, all Loserdopians get out and stop pretending to be conservatives.
Every self described Libertarian I've ever met only cared about one thing which is their right to be a dopehead.
republicans (Small-r) = the legions of myrmidons who follow the Big-Rs simply because of the R after their name, and who lack the willingness or intelligence to question the policies of the Big-Rs, even though they are being played for suckers.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
yeah lets insult every small r republican out there, yeah way to make a case.
Bullsh**
L
Libertarian = A hippie with money.
I once considered myself to be a libertarian but now see myself as more of a conservative independent.
You forgot the Christian Conservative Republicans (Rc) who are the direct opposite of the libertarians. They want the government to intervene in personal, private and business affairs and they want the government to restrict life, liberty, and property of individuals. They believe that government should spend money on what they perceive as social problems.
Oh really? Libertarians are anti-gun control, pro-tax reduction/elimination, anti-welfare state, pro-limited gov't in general. The are HUGE issues, and ones the Left necessarily cannot embrace. Libertarians (small l) who vote Democrat are more than a bit confused.
That is one crock of crap.
The libertarians have never been there for Republicans when they need them. That was a fact that bright candidates like Ronald Reagan always understood. In 1980 he made a great effort to win the support of moderates. The support of the swing voters always wins elections.
There are about 5 or 6 million libertarians in the USA. To get their votes a candidate must sacrifice the votes of 30 million moderates. No candidate with a goal of winning an election would do anything except distance himself from the Libertarians.
Libertarians are libertarians because they see few differences between the two major parties. They are also not very bright. They seem to think that threatening to and in most cases withholding their votes will cause the Republican party to move more in their direction.
What happens when Republicans lose is they draw the very logical conclusion they must be more like the winners. So the Republican party turns to the left in emulation of the winners.
Any candidate with a brain knows that in a two person race the candidate that gets its base, half the moderates and some to the left of center will win.
Since no candidate can depend on libertarians, every candidate that wins has to find a way to appeal to a significant number of voters to the left of center. Republican candidates have to plan on not getting any libertarian votes. If they get them they win in a landslide if they don't then they will win in a close race. If they fail to get a descent majority of moderates they lose.. with or without libertarian support.
You do not have to be void of reality to be a libertarian, but I have never met one who was not.
These guys pull away votes from anarchists, not Republicans.
'Pubbies = squishies who genuflect to the right but mainly want to be graded 'Plays well with others'.
Superficially, the above sounds correct, since there are distinct issues of individual freedom that are championed respectively by both the Right and the Left. It's a false position, though, since while the Left does champion certain freedoms, the underlying leftist philosophy itself is inherently totalitarian, and thus ultimately deadly to individual freedom of all kinds.
There is no underlying philosophy at all that unifies the "Right" as far as I can see, save for a shared distaste for the Left. Even that is not a sure thing.
This essay has caused me to lose a little respect for Bartlett.
No what is a play for suckers is coming here every day screaming your 100% "My way or the Highway" dogmas. All that does is help elect Democrats.
You posted a whine a day and did EVERYTHING you could to make the results Nov 7th happen. Frankly the Conservative movement would be far stronger if all the shoot our own in the back all the time whiners did leave.
There is the door Democrat in everything but name activists. You want Democrats in power so bad, go talk to THEM about your agenda and see what parts of it they are willing to put into law.
Want to help the Conservatives? GET OFF OUR SIDE.
This article sounds suspiciously like just another effort to downplay the effect of conservative dissaffection on the last election and to make some other group seem more important.
The fact is that it's the traditional conservatives who have been lied to and are disillusioned with the phony conservatives in the Republican party.
Speaking for myself:
I can't vote for people on the left because they do not believe in a negative rights framework for personal freedom. For example, they believe in the government recognizing gay marriage, when I believe that the government has no business "licensing" marriage. I do believe that religious traditions are a necessary support for free markets and personal freedom. I have far more in common with conservatives that liberals, and don't mind when people think of me as "conservative".
I am turned off by some policies advocated by the GOP, but I do not view the Dems as a viable alternative.
BTW, I don't understand why every profession of libertarian belief on FR must be met with references to "Loserdopians" and drug use. I suppose that these name-callers agree with the GOP on every issue?
wow, well said.
From the article:
"Basically, libertarians are allied with the right on economic issues and the left on everything else."
No, that's the continuing misperception of kneejerk conservatives. For example, if I think the war on drugs is a failure, that doesn't mean I'm pro drug usage, like many of the Dems. Why some people can't get that simple concept is beyond me.
I take a couple amino acids from the health food store that do wonders for me and I would consider drugs. Conservatives I assume would want to take away that right from me. But they will support the smoking of cigars and drinking of Bud.
Somewhere there is a mental disconnect going on.