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Posted on 02/27/2013 9:28:02 AM PST by Kaslin
Last week, Conservative pundit Ann Coulter told me and a thousand young libertarians that we libertarians are puss- -- well, she used slang for a female body part.
We were in Washington, D.C., at the Students for Liberty conference, taping my TV show, and she didn't like my questions about her opposition to gay marriage and drug legalization.
"We're living in a country that is 70 percent socialist," she says. "The government takes 60 percent of your money. They take care of your health care, your pensions ... who you can hire ... and you (libertarians) want to suck up to your little liberal friends and say, oh, we want to legalize pot? ... If you were a little manlier, you'd tell liberals what your position on employment discrimination is."
We do, actually. We say employers ought to get to choose whom they hire. They created the business, so they should be allowed to discriminate against stutterers, TV hosts, old people -- anyone they don't want.
But Coulter has a point.
Government rarely makes a dent in people's drug use or their ability to partner with people of their own gender.
"Seventy percent socialism" does much more harm. It kills opportunity and wrecks lives.
But Coulter doesn't just want to downplay "liberal" parts of the libertarian agenda. She opposes them.
When I asked why gays can't marry, she said,
"They can -- they have to marry a member of the opposite sex."
I see why the students were annoyed by Coulter's shtick.
If Republicans were smart, they'd listen to that rising generation of young people who want government to stay not just out of the economy, but out of our personal lives, too.
Fortunately, some Republicans are onboard with that. Another of my guests was Justin Amash, congressman from Michigan.
The young libertarians admire him, in much the same way they admire Republicans like Sens. Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Jeff Flake; Gov. Gary Johnson; and new Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie.
Amash focuses on government spending. He has pictures of libertarian economists like Murray Rothbard in his office, and he warns that big government -- including military spending -- will bankrupt America. He's not afraid to call for cuts in popular programs like Medicare, Head Start and food stamps.
After Amash's complaints about government spending, establishment Republicans in Congress kicked him off the budget committee. One said it was because of the "a--hole factor ... inability to work with other members."
I asked Amash about that.
"It might be because I wanted to balance the budget," says Amash.
"The level of government spending is so insane."
It is. Even if the sequester cuts happen -- cuts the left calls "brutal" -- in eight years the feds will still spend $5.3 trillion annually ... just a little less than the $5.4 trillion they will spend if no cuts are made.
The "brutal" sequester is anything but. Even the much-feared Paul Ryan budget plan would only reduce the federal debt in 2021 from the $26 trillion President Obama projects to ... $23 trillion.
With our economic house in such disarray, Coulter is right to avoid getting bogged down in fights over drugs and homosexuality. But I prefer the way Amash handled the libertarian-conservative conflict.
Michelle Montalvo of Temple University asked him to "comment on your faith and how you reconcile that with your libertarian beliefs? There are stereotypes about libertarian students, that we're Republicans who love to do drugs, (but) we're not all godless."
Amash answered, "I'm an Orthodox Christian ... and I believe that the government is a hindrance, a lot of times, to our religious liberty." But he doesn't want government to promote Christianity. "Get government out of the way, allow people to make choices. We can't legislate morality and force everyone to agree with us."
The young people at the conference worry about the economy. They worry less about drug use and gay sex -- most have come to see those as socially acceptable.
Instead of insulting libertarians or kicking them off congressional committees, it's time for Coulter -- and other Republicans -- to stop suggesting that those who want the government out of their personal lives are morally suspect.
Then we can concentrate on the important things.
Won't disagree with you there. And yet, for many, if not most, it becomes a moral question of recreational drug use at the exclusion of all other matters of importance. Who makes this issue nearly the centerpiece of contemporary Libertarianism? Insiders or allies? Ideological rivals, perhaps? And why?
This reasonable, sane commentary cannot be posted on Free Republic.
Considering what the establishment offers up every cycle, that's like chosing the venerial disease that's just right for me. No one makes it to the top of those tickets unless they are bought, paid for and fully compromised.
You guys should probably get used to being a permanent political minority because you all can't get along with the one group you have the most in common with (libertarians). When you can't get along with people who just want you to leave them alone and in turn will leave you alone, well, you better suck up to the feckless soccer moms again. But be ready for them to turn on you again, if they'll even listen to you.
Apply the same political standards you would in the fiscal realm to the social realm as well.
Entertaining thought.
“I am against big guberment so legalize gay marriage and pot and illegals,
but you can keep all those gubment programs going, they dont bother me, in fact I kind of like the student loans.”
Which is what, exactly?
Did you read the rest of my post?
Yes, and I didn't see my question addressed. If you did address it, please specify which part of your post did so.
Okay, but turnabout is fair play, no?
A Republican is just a Democrat who's been bent over the sink by Barry O a few too many times and discovered hey, it's not that bad . . . I can get into playing this game too . . .
Good question. But legalized drugs is not the only focus of libertarians. They are pro-amnestry, pro-gay marriage, for open borders, and a whole host of other liberal ideals.
And the liberal FReepers we still have around here are very clever in distancing themselves from the pro-gay marriage concerns, as that would get them zotted, so what do they yammer on and on and on about?
Legalized drugs.
You can see the liberalism oozing out of every pore as they spew forth Barney Frank/Ron Paul talking points on marijuana. They think themselves very clever has they hide behind the Constitution as they bad mouth SoCons. One of them (on this thread now) evidently is a paid agitator from NORML, as he cuts and pastes bullet points from their website on a daily basis.
You ask what makes legalized drugs the centerpiece of libertarians? FReepers do. And JimRob tolerates this.
(See tagline)
Spot on.
Many of the red-meat psychos who patrol FR are so itchin' for a fight they can't distinguish between friend or foe anymore.
I won't hold my breath waiting for you to quote (with URLs) the NORML text that has allegedly been copied to FR by a poster on this thread.
Drugs is a centerpiece because of the billions wasted trying to stop and incarcerate people. Why wouldn’t freepers support legalization.
Why is hiding behind the constitution a bad thing. Perhaps u should rely on that yourself.
I would agree - abortion kills an individual.
If your neighbors decided to prance around naked in their yards and engage in sex on their front lawn in full view of you and everyone else in the neighborhood, what right do you have to forbid them from doing something they want to do? How does two people having sex on private property harm you?
It's not the sex that violates my rights but the photons that leave their property - if they keep those photons on their property we're fine.
You believe in open borders, and if it were up to libertarians the Berlin Wall would still be there.
Your open borders agenda is beyond leftist, it is actual suicide and guarantees that America is doomed and that the left will control everything.
Why is hiding behind the constitution a bad thing. Perhaps u should rely on that yourself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Typical liberal talking point: Where in the Constitution do you see the rights to criminalize marijuana?
Also: Where in the Constitution do you see the rights to restrict marriage to straights only?
And.... Where in the Constitution do you see the rights to deny an abortion?
The trouble with you liberals is that you treat the Constitution as toilet paper as you promote anti-Conservatives agendas.
Some would. Not “many”. Those that do will die quickly. The alternative is to continue on with trillions wasted on keeping the FSA alive.
Uber libertarians are every bit as Utopian as the communists.
How exactly they think legalizing prostitution, drugs, incest, pedophilia, open borders etc is going to create a functional, stable society is beyond the realm of imagination.
Good fences, good neighbors. If I didn't want to see that, I'd build a privacy fence. Problem solved.
These people aren’t incarcerated because of the ‘war on drugs’. It is because they made an individual choice to knowingly break the law. They are responsible for the consequences of their actions. It isn’t society’s fault or the man keeping them down, it is their own choices.
Or do Libertarians no longer believe in personal responsibility?
Typical bad reasoning and name calling.
i left lp because of abortion amongst others.
People have the right to life so why would the constitution address abortion
The first question you answer. Don’t know what gives the Feds any say over marriage
You have no strong reasons to support the war on drugs except typical nanny state.
See both of us can name call
If you come back with that weaka$$ bs I
Ll not respond, so bring your a game.
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