“Focus on the Tea Partiers and the SoCons...” - Responsibility2nd
“I think the Tea Partiers and Libertarians have the most in common.” - marsh2
It’s ironic how different people see things so differently. But, it’s just another example of living inside your own bubble.
I was a hard-core capital-L libertarian in my youth. As I grew older (and experienced) I became a Reagan style fiscal conservative and a social conservative. And, I was one of the early “members” of the tea party. I feel like I’ve got a foot in all three camps. Which is why I think there is a lot of common ground between all three (including between social conservatives and libertarians).
But, there is a lot of uncommon ground as well.
Responsibility2nd, any proposal that expands the authority of the FEDERAL government is going to be a non-starter with at least 1/2 of all tea partiers. If support of a constitutional amendment to ban abortion is a limit test to work with you, then be prepared to be living with the status-quo for a long, long time (as in forever). There is no conservative majority (or even plurality) that revolves around any idea that expands the reach of the federal government.
marsh2, the other side of this coin is that a significant percentage of tea partiers (perhaps even a majority) are social conservatives. They may not want to expand the federal role on social issues, but they also don’t want to ignore social issues. An alliance that only libertarians and non-social-issue tea pariters would be about as effective as the Libertarian party (and honestly, not a whole lot bigger).
I’m probably one of the few people who believe libertarians and social conservatives actually have a lot in common politically.
The Defense of Marriage Act (no state can be forced to recognize another state’s definition of marriage).
Parental rights (parents have the right to raise their children as they wish, including the right to determine if their child has an abortion).
School choice (the government should not have a monopoly on education; vouchers, home-schooling, etc...)
Activist judges (judges should not be making laws from the bench; much of the “liberalizing” of the law when it comes to social issues has come from the bench, not via elected officials; also it has been activist judges that have blocked state bans on things like partial-birth abortion and gay marriage)
Roe v Wade (should be overturned and the issue returned to the states; a significant percentage of social conservatives see returning this issue to the states as the most practical route to eliminating abortion).
Now libertarians and social conservatives would support these issues for very different reasons. But, the fact is, they would both support them.
There is a lot of commonality between the groups, if they focus on the common areas.
Responsibility2nd, any proposal that expands the authority of the FEDERAL government is going to be a non-starter with at least 1/2 of all tea partiers. If support of a constitutional amendment to ban abortion is a limit test to work with you, then be prepared to be living with the status-quo for a long, long time (as in forever). There is no conservative majority (or even plurality) that revolves around any idea that expands the reach of the federal government.
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Socons aren’t interested in expanding the “authority of the FEDERAL government”, inasmuch as we want to RESTORE it.
You may or not be right with the Tea Partiers bing 50/50 on our proposal to Constutionally ban abortion. But then... the Tea Party is obsolete.
You seem to place a lot of emphasis on the Tea Party’s place in the GOP. Sorry, but that was never true, and this election confimred that.
(I say this even though I enthusiastically voted for Ted Cruz - who is a stand-out favorite among Tea Partiers - and I am on board with many Tea Party platforms, but their overall effectiveness is gone.)