I don’t see libertarians as right of center, they are leftists on too many things, true radical leftists, anti-conservative leftists, not moderates/centrists.
Their effect is to destroy conservatism not bring in new voters to it, the left can afford to take the long view and let libertarianism work for them.
For instance, “open the borders today, eliminate the Border Patrol and INS” and then we will fight to end all the welfare and social programs tomorrow .
Yet, tell me again the number of times the Congress and Bush tried to bring up immigration reform? Dream Act?
I haven’t heard word one from ‘your side’ about upholding the Law, why it didn’t work the LAST few times, but THIS one will....
You bring up a ‘fringe’ topic and use it to paint broad strokes; the main L point being kill the overbearing gov’t, get it out of the Free Market, roll back all Unconstitutional laws, mandates, dept., etc. and you won’t have such a worry about the border (no free ride, why come). Helps too if we didn’t police the planet and give $$ to every tinpot dictator in hopes of Democracy *talk about black eyes recently*
Course, both cartels join hands to ‘reach across the aisle’ ...for the good of the Country, you see. But, no, shut out the ‘kooky’ L; we’ll see how many votes you guys win in ‘14; maybe Boehner can help </s>
Way too often in our society Republicans want to get along with liberals. When Republicans meet in what liberals call the middle they always meet on the far left.
The United States is a constitutional republic not a democracy. We are a country of laws, the basic law being the Constitution. Being a conservative means following the Constitution instead of some Democrat thought up new law or ideal no matter how wonderful it is.
Somehow conservatives have gotten away from what conservatism is it is not doing necessarily what your grandfather did or what your father did it is simply following the law of the land which is based on the Constitution.
Being a liberal means that you interpret the Constitution very liberally instead of confining it in a small space you let it mean almost anything. Being a conservative means you confine the meaning of the Constitution to exactly what it says and nothing more.
Being a libertarian means you don't care what anyone else does, you don't care if they follow the Constitution or not. All you care about is that they leave you alone and that they let you do whatever you want to as long as you don't hurt anybody. That is not what our Constitution does for our society. The Constitution was written for the common good and to protect individual rights,
Libertarians emphasize the individual rights part of the Constitution and liberals emphasize the common good part of the Constitution. A true conservative does not take sides one way or another he simply follows the law as written in the Constitution.
I have been a Republican and a conservative for nearly 50 years. The Constitution of the United States is probably the most wonderful document on the face of the earth, it has promoted the well-being of millions of people in a way that has never before been seen in the history of the world.
I will not be in this world much longer only because I am at the natural age that our lives come to an end. If you are lucky you too will be here someday.
I sorrow not for the end of my time on the planet but only at seeing the demise of the wonderful country which has given so many so much.
I used to consider myself a republican, years ago. Then I decided I was too Conservative for the GOP. Now I consider myself a Libertarian, to a point. I guess, all things being equal, I’m a strict Constitutionalist.
I don’t think most Libertarians are out to destroy the GOP, I think many just want to be free, unlike the dems and GOP.
First let me say that the average college mush head that calls himself a Libertarian is typically just an idealist who wants to legalize weed and pursue a peacenik foreign policy. Those types are the ones that identify as Libertarian, turn out to the Ron Paul rallies for the party, but never actually vote or end up voting for Obama. So for purposes of this discussion, I agree that there are a lot of these idiots that are really just liberals.
Saying that though, you should consider that there really are a growing number of people who just don’t care whether gays get married, but can plainly see that we can’t sustain this growing entitlement state. There are lot of folks here like that actually. They just aren’t interested in fighting about cultural/social stuff. You can win them over on an issue like cutting Planned Parenthood if you just leave it at “we don’t have the money for that stuff”. The minute you start talking morality, you lose these types because they tend have a “I’ll leave you alone, you leave me alone” attitude.
My main problem with a lot of these more prominent/vocal Libertarian types (again, some right here on FR), who are generally some degree of Ron Paul supporter, is that they have a tendency to buy into loopy conspiracy theories which blows their credibility to pieces. I can’t figure out how these people, who can be so right about debt and deficits, invariably start spouting off about Neo-Cons (aka Jews) and Israel being responsible for most of the evil in the world. It’s like one minute you are debating Austrian economics and the next they off on a tangent about how Bush planned 9-11 so the Globalists could take over Iraq. Anyway, they aren’t all like that obviously, but so many of them are it is hard to take any of the various Libertarian movements seriously.
Anyway, like or not, our society is becoming far more libertine. In our winner take all 2 party system with no chance of coalition government, I fully expect the GOP to begin dropping any emphasis on social issues. At minimum, more and more Republicans are likely to be for ending the drug war, and getting out of the business of legislating on social order stuff like gambling, prostitution, etc. They will probably pay lip service to the big issues like abortion and traditional marriage, but I doubt they make any real legislative moves on that front.