Posted on 07/03/2015 7:33:48 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Republican Party, broadly speaking, is comprised of many factions that are often at odds with one another. Prominent examples are the battles between the grassroots and the national party establishment and between defense hawks and non-interventionists.
Perhaps fiercer than any of these fights is the long-standing conflict between social conservatives and libertarians. But when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage last month, they created an opening for a wedding between these two groups, which could benefit the Republican Party ahead of the 2016 election.
To be clear, libertarians come in many stripes. There are those who reject the political system, those who ally themselves with the Libertarian Party itself, some who are working to change the Republican Party from within, and those who would only consider voting for a Republican candidate under certain circumstances.
Historically, during the Cold War, the common enemy of communism helped foster unity among libertarians and conservatives. Once the Soviet Union collapsed, however, this unifying purpose went away.
During the George W. Bush years, libertarians and conservatives drifted further apart, for two main reasons. One was that the dominant issue became the War on Terror, and libertarians tended to be more critical of the war effort and nervous about the threat it posed to civil liberties. The other split was the emergence of the gay marriage debate. In 2008, a number of libertarians felt they had more in common with Barack Obama than the Republican ticket.
Once President Obama took office, however, this began to change. Obama's pushes for economic stimulus spending, national healthcare, oppressive pro-union labor rules and aggressive environmental regulations allied libertarians and conservatives, helping to fuel the rise of the Tea Party.
Gay marriage, however, continued to be divisive. To libertarians, the idea that the government would try to tell individuals who were in love with one another who they could or couldn't marry was unconscionable. Republican opposition to gay marriage was a deal-breaker for these folks.
But as the dust settles on the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage, it's becoming clearer that the debate over the issue is going to shift to one of religious freedom. And on that issue, there's much more of an opening for libertarians and social conservatives to get along.
At the core of libertarianism is the believe that people should be able to do whatever they want short of using force or coercion on somebody else. It makes sense why libertarians wouldn't oppose gay marriage, for the reason that two men or women getting married doesn't injure anybody else.
But with gay marriage legal, the cultural debate has been moving to issues such as: Should a religiously observant baker or photographer be forced to participate in gay weddings? Or, should a Catholic Church be forced to perform gay marriages?
Whatever their differences on the underlying issue of homosexuality and gay marriage, it will be hard for many libertarians to justify any sort of government coercion forcing individuals to violate their deeply held beliefs. As a result, they'll find themselves increasingly — and begrudgingly — on the same side as social conservatives on many of the looming debates.
What this means for the Republican Party in 2016 depends in large part on how candidates campaign on the issue once the debate moves beyond the stage of the initial reactions. The most unifying message for Republican candidates would be: Whatever your views on same-sex marriage, government shouldn't prevent individuals from living their lives in accordance with their values.
This is a message that should wed social conservatives and libertarians.
Dear article author philip klein,
go back and finish your bottle of hootch, BEFORE you begin writing, a la Hemingway.
It would make more sense.
Too many libertarians are becoming full on liberals.
It’ll take a lot of divine retribution before the libertarians will confess that the “social conservatives” were correct about there being a God.
Too many conservatives are becoming totalitarian control freaks.
L
Well according to John Stossel, the Obama era is the golden age of religious freedom. LOL
Libertarians don’t seem to know the difference anymore between liberty based on natural law and anarchy based on self center want on demand ..and that lead to tyrants
This one does. And conservatives better start learning to recognize them.
To be sure social conservatives and libertarians may now and have always overlapped to some degree, but getting them to vote for a uniparty GOP establishment candidate is another thing altogether.
Yeah. Damn that Ted Cruz anyway.
/s
I love how ONE article states that the conservative/libertarian divide is due to gay marriage and the conservatives here buy that argument lock, stock, and barrel.
I’m a member of MANY Libertarian groups and they hold the freedom of business owners and freedom of religion above everything. Very few of them are celebrating gay marriage. Over and over I hear about how the will of the people is being overruled by judges and how the ‘perpetually offended’ are now the tyrants.
Libertarians hate social justice warriors.
No. Libertarians are not at odds with Conservatives over gay marriage. The few who do support gay marriage aren’t loosing their minds about the ‘victory’.
You know who’s coming together? The female anti-feminists.
Libertarian egalitarians, conservative women, the women on the religious right, the black women against feminists, the Asian tiger moms, the liberal female men’s rights advocates... pro-life, pro-choice, pro-choice with severe limitations, women who never want to marry, women who want nothing more than motherhood and husbands... I’m watching racial and religious differences fall away. I’ve stood ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with extreme Muslim women and men - with them knowing that I’m a Jew - and we’ve got one anothers backs on this one topic. Pro-life or pro-choice - we’ll respectfully voice our opinions, enjoy civil debate, then refocus on how how feminism has co-opted the entire discussion.
And we do keep it on topic.
Over the last year I’ve watching them ALL put their differences aside and focus on a common, hated enemy.
Feminism.
Squabbles crop up here and there, but they’re quickly calmed as everyone is reminded who we really despise.
The WAF movement is getting legs. Women are now the most vocal supporters of men’s rights.
In my lifetime, I’ve never seen so many people say... ‘That... That right there is evil for so many reasons. I may not agree with you, but we can both agree that that *thing* must die. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
It’s been really wonderful to be a part of it. I can’t even keep up with all of the anti-feminist social media stuff that’s out there.
And their anarchy has a totalitarian twist: It tends to oppress all who disagree.
“Libertarians hate social justice warriors.”
I’m one of them.
L
Screw it. I’m not allying with anyone. Most libertarians didn’t seem to give a damn about fag-marriage. And the nutcases at “Reason” are always screeching at social and religious conservatives more than Obama. So, they’ve all got the depraved faggot utopia they wanted. And I wake up and find there is no longer see a country left worth fighting for. They’re on their own. To hell with them, and to hell with this newly transformed sewer of a nation. As long as fag-marriage reigns supreme, I opt for nothing less than ignoble burial.
Paul Bot Author?
I’ve shifted gradually from the Conservative camp into Libertarian territory. Still live Conservative, and I’ll argue the Conservative position all day long (especially when it comes to morality because I believe that it takes a moral people to be free), but I’ve come to see that Conservatives aren’t fighting to win.
Too much disappointment from the GOP. Too much big government. It’s turned into Democrat Lite.
The Conservatives gave us McCain and Romney. The Conservatives aren’t too concerned about the fact that we have 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the prison population. The Conservatives aren’t too concerned about the loss of fortune, life, and loss of liberty from the failed Drug War. When you say, “There is a better, more effective way to fight,” they accuse you of condoning drug use.
I’m done. We’ve got to be radical for liberty to fight the radical leftist/Marxists. The ‘middle way’ isn’t cutting it. The leftists are winning because they’re willing to push hard and not just sing for the choir.
I’m standing with women from every walk of life to fight feminism - a major leg of the leftist stool. We’re setting aside our differences and ripping the brats apart. By focusing on our common enemy we’ve made more headway against an institution that everyone had pretty much given up ground on. We’ve made more progress in the last year than the Conservative movement has made in the last 50.
Together, the two factions have the power to tear the whole thing down.
But we’ve got to stop squabbling over the small stuff and come together in our common interests.
This article was designed to tug on Conservatives toes. To divide us. And they fell for it like fish to live bait. You just watch. There’ll be another article on how Conservatives and Libertarians are divided on abortion and the Conservatives won’t even question the pronouncement.
The definition of true insanity is when you no longer recognize your friends.
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