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Will the Right Find Libertarianism?
The Atlantic ^ | Mar 18 2010 | Wendy Kaminer

Posted on 03/19/2010 12:25:37 PM PDT by 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,

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


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: liebertarians; ronpaultruthfile; youknowhesnuts
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To: TheThirdRuffian

Actually not so conservative, pro-gay marriage and open borders as long as they embrace general western values.


121 posted on 03/19/2010 8:15:54 PM PDT by ansel12 (Social liberal politicians in the GOP are easy for the left to turn, why is that?)
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To: dcwusmc

Well said... (thanks for the post)


122 posted on 03/19/2010 8:25:08 PM PDT by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: supercat
If someone shoots and kills a vandal on his property during the night, is it a righteous shoot or is it murder? Should the federal government be involved in the determination?

No. It is not the federal government's business. In fact... nowadays it isn't the fed's business. State laws cover most murder cases.

Are you arguing for the federal takeover of state laws and courts?

123 posted on 03/19/2010 8:27:53 PM PDT by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: TheThirdRuffian

I kinda prefer that abortion and marriage be handled at the county level, like liquor sales.

That way, big cities and their libtards can live their lives without forcing all the rural, conservative folk in their states to have to live with their dreck.


124 posted on 03/19/2010 8:31:44 PM PDT by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: aruanan
The Conservative Mind was published by Regnery in 1953. I don't recall the Burke quote, but it can probably be found in Chapter II.
125 posted on 03/19/2010 8:48:43 PM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: ari-freedom
I'm all for medical marijuana as long as it is approved and regulated by the FDA...just like any other drug.

Impossible.

It is a plant, a weed. It mutates with every generation and is different in every soil, sunlight, moisture and nourishment environment just like tomatoes, tobacco, asparagus and cantaloupe.

126 posted on 03/19/2010 9:01:22 PM PDT by elkfersupper (Member of the Original Defiant Class)
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To: jnsun
Ronald Reagan starting rotating as soon as your post hit the internets.

Actually, he hasn't stopped rotating, you just added a few RPM's.

127 posted on 03/19/2010 9:05:25 PM PDT by elkfersupper (Member of the Original Defiant Class)
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To: presidio9
This is about where I like to remind all the libertarian lurkers who are about to get pinged into ths theard that President Reagan strongly opposed libertarianism.

You are sadly, selectively, willingly misinformed.

128 posted on 03/19/2010 9:08:06 PM PDT by elkfersupper (Member of the Original Defiant Class)
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To: fish hawk
Liberals are mentally sick and Libertarians are simply nuts.(Ron Paul comes to mind). Bottom line both are crazy in their own ways. Both are bad for our country.

Thanks for that. Always nice to hear from the American Taliban.

129 posted on 03/19/2010 9:12:26 PM PDT by elkfersupper (Member of the Original Defiant Class)
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To: presidio9; bamahead
Otherwise you just sounds desperate:

I sounds and be's desperate also. Mainly just to retain and maybe recover just a little bit of freedom.

130 posted on 03/19/2010 9:17:44 PM PDT by elkfersupper (Member of the Original Defiant Class)
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To: Jewbacca
I am tired of wasting my money to make drug smugglers in Mexico rich.)

Then you had better stop paying your taxes and morally supporting this (some)drug war.

131 posted on 03/19/2010 9:20:14 PM PDT by elkfersupper (Member of the Original Defiant Class)
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To: Jewbacca
I just don’t want to spend my money trying to control morons.

Then knock it off. We "morons" don't want to be controlled anyway (and won't be in the final analysis).

132 posted on 03/19/2010 9:23:35 PM PDT by elkfersupper (Member of the Original Defiant Class)
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To: Lady Heron
First thing I and most Conservative Christians vote is pro-life....so no...no libertarianism for this Christian.

Sorry to hear that. Pro-life would be a libertarian theme.

133 posted on 03/19/2010 9:25:47 PM PDT by elkfersupper (Member of the Original Defiant Class)
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To: elkfersupper

Actually I’m an American Indian, you are the foreigner.


134 posted on 03/19/2010 11:06:03 PM PDT by fish hawk
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To: ansel12

I’m of the opinion that the left worships the state. So, in that way, they are deeply religious, just different religion.

( Since I associate the European left and socialits through out the world closely with the American left/liberals .... are the Taliban and American Conservatives both Conservatives? )

So much for religion as a guide.


135 posted on 03/20/2010 2:41:07 AM PDT by Leisler
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To: Fiji Hill

Russel Kirk was a very odd duck. A romantic and a dreamer, who idolized only the self thought elite and best of a time, and ignored a lot of what he didn’t like or care for.

He was and his writing were kind of stuffy and prissy. A George Will, even more so, of his time.

And, he like many social conservatives was for class bias, a ruling class with people like him ruling.

I would say there is a reason he is obscure outside of conservative readings.


136 posted on 03/20/2010 2:48:50 AM PDT by Leisler
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To: Leisler

Fine, you are a Green Beret. Now talk.


137 posted on 03/20/2010 2:56:07 AM PDT by ansel12 (Social liberal politicians in the GOP are easy for the left to turn, why is that?)
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To: ansel12

You tell me. I can see leftism ideologically transits language, time and culture.

So, in a way, it is true, although not truth.

No what about conservativsm? Is a Spanish Francho Fascist a conservative? Is a literary dreamer like Russel Kirk, who pined for a world that never was is he a conservative too?
How about the rigid Taliban that insist on no deviation from the word of God?

So, if they all consider themselves conservative, well then the word isn’t too helpful. Like Alice in Wonderland, it means what ever the speaker at the time wants it to mean.

In other words, it’s useless.


138 posted on 03/20/2010 3:34:26 AM PDT by Leisler
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To: presidio9

Freedom is as frightening to conservatives as it is to liberals.


139 posted on 03/20/2010 6:07:06 AM PDT by fnord (497 and a half feet of rope? ... I just carry it.)
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To: ansel12
"... he then proceeds to explain why he is not a libertarian and is a social conservative and strong on national defense... "


First of all, he never rejected the label libertarian. The interview was conducted in the first place because he had been using the terms libertarian and libertarian-conservative to describe his political philosophy. He did point out where he disagreed on specific issues with some of the positions taken by some within the official Libertarian movement. When asked about the LP, he said that they should support the remnant within the GOP that shares their philosophy of limited government and individual liberty. He also pointed to some of the Classical Liberal thinkers he read that he considers to be a link between conservatism and libertarianism. Again, his disagreement was not with libertarianism as a political philosophy, which he clearly embraced, it was with positions on specific issues that some libertarians took. http://reason.com/archives/1975/07/01/inside-ronald-reagan
140 posted on 03/20/2010 6:31:13 AM PDT by rob777 (Personal Responsibility is the Price of Freedom)
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