Will the Right Find Libertarianism?

The Atlantic ^ | Mar 18 2010 | Wendy Kaminer

[presidio9]

"Freedom" has long been a right-wing rallying cry for self-identified patriots ranging from John Birchers to tea party protesters to increasingly extreme members of the Republican establishment. They're particularly passionate about the freedom to own and openly carry guns and freedom from federal taxation (but not necessarily federal benefits). Otherwise, their most consistent attachments to freedom tend to be rhetorical, unless freedom means restricting reproductive choice, same-sex relationships, medical marijuana, or sexually explicit speech and permitting discrimination against people who do not acknowledge Jesus as their savior. For some prominent conservatives -- like John McCain, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Dick Cheney -- freedom also entails the establishment of a national security state empowered to arrest and imprison summarily people suspected of terrorism and to spy on people suspected of nothing in particular, thanks to a ubiquitous but largely invisible surveillance system.

There are, of course, exceptions to this statism. The CATO Institute, generally associated with the right because of its commitment to free markets, is equally, if less notoriously, committed to civil liberty. CATO is unusual in its consistent libertarianism, which means, however, that (like Reason magazine), it is a creature of neither the right nor the left. A recent CATO report estimates that some 14 percent of Americans also qualify as libertarian, meaning that they're fiscally conservative and socially liberal (although it's unclear if fiscal conservatives who believe "the less government the better" are willing to surrender their own government benefits, from Pell grants to Medicare).

Libertarians are labile voters,

[La Enchiladita]

Wendy Kaminer is a godless, card-carrying ACLU member. All it took me was 3 minutes perusing her articles and history. Everything about her screams LEFTIST.

[La Enchiladita]

There will be NO conservative victory in November without the small 'l' vote.

What a joke. When I pray for America, I pray that phonies like the lie-bertarians are exposed for the traitors they are.

[La Enchiladita]

BINGO!

[La Enchiladita]

Getting the right back to its conservative roots necessarily includes dumping the libertarian dead weight.

Yes!! And if you care to read, my expanded thoughts are here.

[bamahead]

where do you think that nationally, libertarians fall in church attendance?

Rasmussen actually did a poll on that, back in 2000:

http://www.theadvocates.org/library/poll-results.html

Non-church goers are just as likely to be libertarians (18%) as left liberals (19%). Those who attend church 4 or more times per month are slightly more likely to be libertarians (15%) than right conservatives (11%).

[bamahead]

Another libertarian thread troll. My, you guys are coming out of the woodwork. Is it the ides of March?

[ansel12]

This was the actual formal question.

"Do you think that on average the self described libertarians are regular church goers?"

[ansel12]

I should have noted that your source said that only 2% of the polled said they were libertarians, with 48% describing themselves as conservative or right.

So,"Do you think that on average the self described libertarians are regular church goers?"

11. Which word would you use in describing your political position to a friend: left, right, liberal, conservative, centrist, libertarian, or authoritarian?

05% Left
09% Right
26% Liberal
39% Conservative
09% Centrist
02% Libertarian
00% Authoritarian
05% None of these terms
04% Not sure

[aruanan]

Indeed. Russell Kirk made the same argument in A Program For Conservatives (Chicago: Regnery, 1954).

Didn't he write the book, The Conservative Mind: from Burke to Eliot? Okay, I just checked. Yes, he did. And a good book it was. I believe it was in there he quoted Burke as saying something to the effect that there are a few truly evil people and a few truly good ones and the majority of people swing back and forth between them depending on whose in power. I've got to see if I can find the exact quote.

[randomhero97]

"Do you think that on average the self described libertarians are regular church goers?"

Why does it matter?

[randomhero97]

A lot of social conservative support big government, high taxes because they can do social engineering better. /sarc.

There shouldn't of been any posts beyond this one.

[ansel12]

It is something that am curious about, church attendance is a good measure of, if someone votes conservative.

A general measure is:

Deeply religious=conservative.

Deeply unreligious=liberal.

[randomhero97]

Let's put it like this, it's getting to the point where I trust liberals, even though I despise them, more than I do the "deeply religious." At least I know where I stand with the liberals. I can't tell if I'm going to get stabbed in the back by the religious.

This is coming from a Christian.

[TheThirdRuffian]

Use Test Cyp. Far less sides and far more effective.

(Can you tell I was NFL?)

[TheThirdRuffian]

“especially the positions that the libertarians support, like abortion, homosexuality and feminism, and immigration by peasents”

Wow, I am best described as a small-l libertarian and I am

pro-life (at the state level)
pro-marriage (at the state level -— if perverts want to do whatever, that’s their state)
anti any kind of special rights for sodomites, men, women, blacks, whites or whatever
for the 2nd amendment personal right to bear weapons
anti-immigration by anyone who does not support basic Judeo-Christian values

I just oppose a gargantuain, wasteful, meaningless, federal nanny-state.

[Dead Corpse]

I’d just started trying 1-Test when the Nanny Staters hit us again in 2005. A-holes.

[ansel12]

Let's put it like this, it's getting to the point where I trust liberals, even though I despise them, more than I do the "deeply religious."

Thanks, that was a nice post, I assume that it has to do with this new anti-social conservative push by "libertarians", "fiscal conservatives" and liberals to convince non Christians that the the most right wing people in America, really aren't but have been secretly left wing since they created this nation.

Maybe these two charts will reaffirm your confidence in your fellow Christians, (and Synagogue attending Jews). The conservatives are just who you always thought that they were, going back to when they formed this nation.

[gogogodzilla]

This is kind of a stupid article.

Libertarians want a small government because small governments do not have the power to dictate how their nation’s citizenry live their own lives.

End of story.

[ansel12]

Fine, then you are a conservative.