Posted on 11/14/2008 8:13:42 AM PST by Mr. Blonde
Bingo.
Why vote for the PSUEDO-DEMOCRAT when you can vote for the REAL thing.
Having a CONSERVATIVE PARTY would DELINATE us from RINOs!!
One objection is that “economic conservatism” and “fiscal conservatism” are different things. One can be socially liberal and fiscally conservative, in the sense that you’re only willing to constrain your statist do-goodery to the extent you’re able to pay for it. This is certainly an intellectually defensible position.
As far as I can tell, this is the Libertarian position.
For the record, I am not a Libertarian. But this option has been open to the voters for decades. Based on the amount of political power held by Libertarians today, I would say that Jonah is exactly right: not many people want to mix these two types of thinking.
—bflr—
I think the Libertarians have been constrained by a lack of clear vision, lack of funds, lack of ballot access, and running vanity candidates like Bob Barr.
Plus, there is the whole idea of throwing your vote away if you don’t vote for a Democrat or a Republican. People don’t want to do that.
I think the Libertarians could capture the hearts and minds of a lot of young people if they did a better job of getting their message out there.
In GOP circles its called, Rockefeller Republicanism.
Giuliani, Romney and Ridge are three good examples of RR`s. A label all three have rightfully earned.
I have some acquaintances who describe themselves that way. They seem to enjoy emphasizing that they are as conservative as I am on these economic and fiscal issues. However, when it comes time to vote, they ALWAYS go Dem.
It's now become almost a litmus test for me. If they can't bring themselves to utter that they are first and foremost a SOCIAL/CULTURAL conservative, then I know they are no conservative at all.
And our branch should be called the REAGAN Republicans....
Were libertarians better organized I think they would eventually suffer the same sorts of splits that the GOP regularly sees. You would find some libertarians who are economic libertarian and then other libertarians who are social libertarian. For the record I think that a conservative party would suffer the same sort of split... economic conservatives versus social conservatives, etc.
“I don ‘t know about you, but I am impatient with those Republicans who after the last election rushed into print saying, “We must broaden the base of our party”—when what they meant was to fuzz up and blur even more the differences between ourselves and our opponents.
It was a feeling that there was not a sufficient difference now between the parties that kept a majority of the voters away from the polls. When have we ever advocated a closed-door policy? Who has ever been barred from participating?
Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?
Let us show that we stand for fiscal integrity and sound money and above all for an end to deficit spending, with ultimate retirement of the national debt.
Let us also include a permanent limit on the percentage of the people’s earnings government can take without their consent.”
Listen to the man. He was rarely wrong.
We once spent over a week on the North Carolina forum, trying to come up with a definition of "conservative" that included all of us. It didn't work.
I think all political parties that are of any size will occasionally have these problems. One group of people will feel slighted in what the elected officials are doing for them.
Look at the success Obama has had by trying to be all things for all people. Where McCain had trouble because he was on record as having disdain for the religious right among other things.
I like to call them, Liberaltarians. LOL
I should add that this was a group of, at the very most, 20 regular participants. Now try to make a national party out of “conservative”!
What too many are confusing is that either party is built on just one position....ie social conservatism. The left is a hodge podge of special interest groups. Gays, women, union, blacks, etc. The party serves each of their individual demands. All share a common belief that government will right whatever ‘wrongs’ they are suffering from. They look to government for assistance.
When the Republicans win it is a coalition of ideologies. It traditionally is a combination of limited government, low taxes, strong defense, promoting moral/social beliefs. We win when we are viewed stronger on all these issues. We win when a message is communicated that we will make government get out of the way, stick to the original intent of the constitution (limited government and self defense), and promote a moral climate (traditional family, life, etc).
We didn’t lose this year because of social issues, we lost because we are losing the arguments on the fiscal/limited government and foreign policy issues. We let government get significantly more bloated, and lost the edge on foreign policy (too arrogant, war-mongering, etc.) It is part a failure of our elected officials and part a losing effort in the propaganda battle.
If you ask almost anyone, Iraq was a mistake and we have lost our reputation in the world. These are public opinions. As these views became widely held, Bush lost his approval ratings, and the House/Senate switched sides. That is why we lost. We have to rebuild our reputation in those areas to regain power. We have to make a case against the expansion of government and articulate why free markets solutions are superior. We have to demonstrate again that our military solutions and foreign policy positions are better than the other party. We do not abandon the social wing of the party, but rather rebuild the other wings so we have a bigger voting block.
Why not just look at the numbers. McCain got millions less than Bush did in 2004.
So why not get those voters back and grow it from there? But the media never mentions that and never will.
They want to see the conservatives destroyed. If they can convince them to do it themselves at the hands of other Republicans, so much the better.
As a libertarian, I’m pretty shocked at this logic.
McCain surely did seem to be running against his own party. I suspect he convinced many people not to trust Republicans.
When the Republican Party adopts and adheres to conservative, pro-life principles, it will be able to attract a wide, diverse base.
The moderates in the RNC, along with McCain, tried the big tent, Democrat-lite stance and lost. Learn from that and move back to Reagan conservatism. We need to find and support a new group of Republican leaders who will not go squishy on social and economic conservative issues. Money talks so let the RNC know it won’t get your contributions until we see this happening.
All I had to do was watch the Libertarian convention to nominate their presidential candidate - these people will never be contenders on any scale. Too many deal breakers, like soft on the borders, decrimininalization of drug use - just not my cup of tea for priorities. The USA is way beyond small and limited Federal govt. (i.e., the billions wasted in our bloated bureaucracies). I see no way to tame the beast. People aren’t willing to throw their own bandits out of Congress, so where do you go from there? Screwed royally, we are...
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