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Here come the 'liberaltarians'?
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | Sunday, December 24, 2006 | Robyn Blumner

Posted on 12/25/2006 7:07:01 PM PST by Sunsong

”The libertarian vote is up for grabs in a way it may have never been before. A compelling case is being made for the economically conservative yet socially liberal libertarians to switch their political allegiances from Republican to Democrat, a trend that has already begun.

”Brink Lindsey, a scholar with the libertarian nonprofit Cato Institute, lays out the reasoning in "Liberaltarians," a provocative essay in The New Republic. He explains that the defining ideology of the American right for the last 50 years has been conservative fusionism, which recognized the common interest in both social and economic conservatives to protect traditional values from the intrusion of big government.

”But when social conservatives came to power and started to use big government to impose their cultural vision on others, the libertarian disaffection began.

”Libertarian voters were repulsed by the religious right's impulses to deny gays the right to marry and to interfere with Michael Schiavo's decisions about his wife Terri's end of life. Then, when an entirely Republican federal government abandoned any pretense of small government by spending uncontrollably, nation-building in Iraq and replacing science with theology, the trickle became a stream.

(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: government; homosexualagenda; liberaltarians; libertarian; libertarians; perverts
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To: dbehsman

Did you for those folks? I didn't. I voted for Bush - and appearently, larger government.


101 posted on 12/25/2006 9:39:17 PM PST by patton (Sanctimony frequently reaps its own reward.)
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To: dhuffman@awod.com
So much for principles, those that can switch good and evil at the drop of a poll. How does one triangulate between good and evil, Clinton(spit) like?

Government is a necessary evil. Expand it beyond what is necessary and the qualifier no longer applies

Whatsoever, for any cause,
Seeketh to take or give,
Power above or beyond the Laws,
Suffer it not to live!
Holy State or Holy King—
Or Holy People’s Will—
Have no truck with the senseless thing.
Order the guns and kill!

102 posted on 12/25/2006 9:44:40 PM PST by Oztrich Boy (South Park Liberal)
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To: sageb1

Do liberatrians really want Hillary "health care" or higher taxes? Do they want "hate crimes" laws that become speech laws?

I certainly don't.


103 posted on 12/25/2006 9:53:38 PM PST by Nextrush (Chris Matthews Band: "I get high....I get high.....I get high....McCain.")
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To: patton
The need for democrats-of-old is upon us. We need the likes of Edmund G. Brown to spend 'public' monies on infrastructure (nuke plants, etc.). These Old Dems spent public money on projects that benefitted all. Today's dems spend money that benefits their few.

The bigger picture doesn't even get addressed (by either party)--borders anyone? Our infrastructural needs exceed our global interests, as they should. Aids in Africa, Suni vs. Shiite in Iraq--screw 'em. Take that $2Billion a week and invest it in our infrastructure.

We'll build the country that can defend itself, feed itself, fuel itself, and remain the envy of the world. But not with today's dems. And not with today's repubs. It'll be a party that sees the bigger picture and is willing to commit funds toward that goal. If there's an SOB in either of these two screwed-up parties committed to this, they've got my vote.

We should be pulling ahead of the pack as in a marathon. We shouldn't be exptecting to win by a 'hair', but by a mile or so. Our goal ought to be: winning by such a huge margin the rest of the world looks at us and says, "Damn, we'd better get a lot like them". You see, the power to influencce things comes from your success, not failure. We could destroy islamofascism without firing a shot- but by simply applying our 'public' resources toward goals that would leave them in the dust.

Country, after backward Middle Eastern country, would come to realize that they have missed the 'gravy train'. Those that didn't would soon realize our 'defenses' would remove them as a threat and our ability to respond to an attack no less diminished. They're screwed any way you look at it.

We need to get moving 'forward' with an attitude of not looking back. Screw 'back', that's where the problems are. To the future-- where the solutions lie. That's where our destiny resides. I look forward to the payback our progress will have on those whose greatest claim was the taking-down of the twin towers. Burning camel pucky pales to a chord of seasoned almond. I'll burn almond tonight, and with any luck, never pucky.

104 posted on 12/25/2006 9:55:05 PM PST by budwiesest (There is no party of small government.)
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To: budwiesest
Everything government does benefit "the few" - those that paid them.

Look at sugar price floors, and who paid for it - ADM, the largest supplier of corn syrup in the world. They paid congress to price sugar out of the market.

105 posted on 12/25/2006 10:01:33 PM PST by patton (Sanctimony frequently reaps its own reward.)
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To: patton
I wanted to defend the Republican party against the allegation that the GOP has spent more than ever. I haven't seen any one do this. And we wonder why the Democrats won. Overall government spending is at the average for the last 40 years as a percentage of GDP and the deficit has actually been going down now for the past few years. But the liberal media says that Republicans have grown the government and spent more than anyone ever before. Also Republicans had a thin majority in both houses and several RINOS that obstructed efforts like social security privatization

Bush is not a conservative on a lot of issues like the entitlement issue you bring up. Bush gave the liberal media ammunition to take away the issue of "smaller government" and "fiscal responsibility" from the Republican party so that the socialist Democrats actually have the advantage on that now. But Bush is not every Republican and Bush's liberalism on some issues should not be used to generalize Republicans like the liberal media has done. There are some good Republicans out there.

Bush and Republicans did differ from the Democrats on one very crucial issue,private school vouchers.
Privatizing government schools would have shown the American people that government planning (socialism) doesn't work and that free market competition does. The good schools would have succeeded and spread their methods of teaching. the bad schools would have been weeded out. People would have wanted to send their children to the good schools.

The collectivist/Democrat idea of empowering government with increasing economic control will inevitably lead not to a utopia but to the horrors of communist USSR and communist Cuba. This idea has to be killed.Privatizing the schools might have taught people that government is not the solution to our problems but that government is the problem.

A lot of people wanted change. And this is just some of kind of change that is coming with the Democrats: 1. Amnesty for illegals which Republicans stopped. 2. Socialized Hillary style government run health-care. I don't recall Bush or the GOP pushing for this but you can bet the Democrats want this. This will go a long way to turning the U.S.A into a totalitarian socialist state. We are on the road to socialism/slavery : The Road To Serfdom .

106 posted on 12/25/2006 10:57:35 PM PST by rurgan ("Government is not the solution to our problems.Government is the Problem" - President Reagan)
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To: rurgan

Bush/Kennedy "No Child Left Behind Act".


107 posted on 12/25/2006 11:00:22 PM PST by KDD
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To: rurgan

WP

The White House released budget figures yesterday indicating that the new Medicare prescription drug benefit will cost more than $1.2 trillion in the coming decade, a much higher price tag than President Bush suggested when he narrowly won passage of the law in late 2003.


108 posted on 12/25/2006 11:03:29 PM PST by KDD
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To: Sunsong

They are united in their hatred for jews and Israel.


109 posted on 12/25/2006 11:08:12 PM PST by Cogadh na Sith (There's an open road from the cradle to the tomb.)
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To: Sunsong

Libdrtarians are closer to Republicans in their thinking than Democrats, yet they constantly drain off conservative votes so that the rats get in power. For brains, I give them zilch. They get the republic that helped create.

Should they want to help, they should run as Republicans and mount sime significant changes.


110 posted on 12/25/2006 11:28:48 PM PST by TheLion (How about "Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement," for a change)
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To: Sunsong
I consider myself to be a strict constructionist and a fiscal supply sider; many would label me a libertarian because of that.

There are many Republicans I would vote for to enact policies I support, but I don't know of a single Democrat I could even begin to consider voting for. They all think of the meaning of The Constitution as subject to interpretation according to the whim of the day, and every one of them is fiercely pro-Big Government, particularly in areas of my money and how I earn it and spend it, and there is nothing libertarian about that.
111 posted on 12/25/2006 11:30:11 PM PST by spinestein (There is no pile of pennies so large that I won't throw two more on top.)
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To: Hugin
There is no party of small government.

No. Not when the Rupublican President, House and Senate agree to outspend all previous Democrats, control the internet (not just online gambling), trash Federalism and states' rights with strong arm medical marijuana busts, and continue to sleep through the largest, most dangerous invasion of aliens this nation has ever experienced (the ONE thing the Federal Gov't ought to get involved in!)

As far as 'gay rights' are concerned, most libertarian-minded R's know it's just a cover for a marxist agenda. Isolationist types have a legitimate argument to make about military overreaching, but they won't be voting Democrat any time soon.

112 posted on 12/26/2006 3:20:19 AM PST by ARepublicanForAllReasons (I hereby pledge to endeavor to eliminate most sarcasm from my posts... (NOT!))
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To: Col Sanders
The only question to which government should be the answer is "who protects the individual?"

The very idea that human beings have individual rights not subject to the whims of an earthly monarch, but subject to the laws of Yahweh, is directly from Moses.

Returning to Plato's Euthyphro, Socrates advanced the argument that piety to the gods is impossible if the gods all want different things...

Morality is impossible, because all humans have different morals... Claims of morality is sophistry without some higher power defining what it is...

Morality and all of its associated ideals are rooted entirely in the presupposition some higher power defines what is correct for human behavior.

But, since we are all properly obeying the * modern interpretation * of the First Amendment, good & evil isn't the question... Good & bad, right & wrong, etc., etc., ad nausea; are all inherently religious ideals.

The modern interpretation of the First Amendment (according to the liberal-tarians) says government must exorcise all traces of religion and theism from itself. Therefore, government must never consider issues of morality and right and wrong...

So, it becomes a question of benefits versus costs. Fetus killing has its benefits to society, especially if you like to sleep late on Saturdays. But it also has its costs as well. Society (by which I mean, whoever manages to seize power) needs to evaluate these costs and decide accordingly.

The mythical rights of men and women are also meaningless. The very concept of rights is also founded in religion. Since the enlightened person is freed from any superstitions about some "God," they are free from having to worry about "rights." Only raw power counts and humans are just meat puppets for the powerful...

Was Freudian psychoanalytic theory of sexual stages in psychological development more accurate than accredited?

The Michael Jackson Complex is fixation on mutilation of and deviance with human anatomy in the media. It is a social psychosis catering to the lowest common denominator and generated with Pavlovian behavioral conditioning in popular culture.

Should we really be canonizing special societal privileges in the law based on idolatrous fetishes? Disability, welfare, Social Security, etc., etc., ad nausea...

The social psychosis generated by behavioral conditioning (Pavlov's salivating dogs) in the popular culture and the conditioned response to accept the false premises of mental illness or birth defect will be used as a political tool to systematically rob the public purse. Then, we could have other self-inflicted mental illness and disease (aside from those we already do) subsidized by the government consolidating an ever increasing portion of the economy in the hands of the cultural Marxists.

"...to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them... that all men are created... Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world... with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence..."

113 posted on 12/26/2006 3:49:43 AM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
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To: Cogadh na Sith
They are united in their hatred for jews and Israel.

It is no coincidence Islamic pagans hate Israel, Jews, Christians and Western Civilization. The entire basis of Western Civilization is Mosaic Law, something both the Neo-Pagan Left and the pagan Islamic thugs cannot abide and wish to destroy.

114 posted on 12/26/2006 3:52:31 AM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
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To: SteveMcKing; little jeremiah; muawiyah; Lancey Howard; FlingWingFlyer
"Libertarian voters were repulsed by the religious right's impulses to deny gays the right to marry and to interfere with Michael Schiavo's decisions about his wife Terri's end of life."

Neither the author of the article or the poster of this thread can say that it is a libertarian ideal allowing one judge to order the execution of a person without a trial by a jury of their peers...

Considering the source of the article and the poster who brought it here, I am extremely suspicious... There is a homosexual agenda angle...


the libertarian nonprofit Cato Institute,...

The 501(c) tax-exempt corporation... They get cushy corporate welfare salaries subsidized by your taxes... Hypochrites!

115 posted on 12/26/2006 4:04:38 AM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
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To: Nextrush

Now, if the Cato Institute would just get off of the 501(c) tax-exempt corporate welfare and practice what they preached...


116 posted on 12/26/2006 4:08:34 AM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
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To: Sunsong
Look at the post following yours. I do think that a lot of those who now call themselves *independents* think it may be pretty much a crap shoot. Do you want the theocrats of the left or the right? Think how may millions of people want neither!

I'm personally far more afraid of the left theocrats, because there is no indication they have changed their minds since the last time they were in power. Whenever I hear some Democrat inveigh against carbon emissions and "war for oil", I ask if just maybe, they will admit that we now need nuclear power as an alternative to these things. They snap right back into theocrat mode and spit out all the old canned, long-discredited arguments from 1975.

Republican theocrats may be against fetal stem cell research, but a great many Democrats are against any form of bioengineering, whether or not privately funded, even on soybeans. So far as I'm concerned, it's no contest.

117 posted on 12/26/2006 5:06:41 AM PST by BlazingArizona
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To: dbehsman
Original sin. Gets us all eventually.

Can you tell me what crime Terri Schiavo committed

118 posted on 12/26/2006 6:07:11 AM PST by DManA
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To: djf
it was even sadder that flocks of folks wanted to line up and call on the feds to get involved.

Did they? Where is the ground swell of support for new laws to accomplish this? Did the President or any of the grandstanding Senators even disuss such a thing? Have you read even one post in this forum suggesting specific legislation allowing bureaucrats to intervene in the death of a family member uninvited? Of cource not. Nobody wants that.

For some reason the specifics of this case struck a cord and people went nuts. But weird cases make bad laws.

119 posted on 12/26/2006 6:21:14 AM PST by DManA
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To: rurgan
Bush and the Republicans took us one more step in that direction with the new drug entitlement. People take steps in the direction they want to go, right?

Socialized Hillary style government run health-care. I don't recall Bush or the GOP pushing for this but you can bet the Democrats want this.

I am afraid the Republicans want this too and I agree with you if we allow it to happen, that is the end of the American experiment in freedom.

120 posted on 12/26/2006 7:09:05 AM PST by DManA
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