Libertarians Seeking 'True Conservatives'

GOPUSA ^

[Happy2BMe]

Libertarians Seeking 'True Conservatives'

By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
February 24, 2005

(CNSNews.com) -- The Libertarian Party says its representatives were "very well received" by conservatives at a recent conference in Washington.

"We met a lot of people who are either supportive of our ideas or who simply support having an alternative to the big-government ideal put forward by the Republicans and Democrats," said Sam New, who organized the Libertarian Party's activities at the Conservative Political Action Committee Conference in Washington.

The Libertarian Party was a first-time cosponsor of the Feb. 17-19 CPAC Conference, and its involvement was a "big step forward" for the Party, said Executive Director Joe Seehusen in a report on the group's website.

"Our profile has been low for some time, and we were able to showcase our party in a positive light to many people and groups, including a large number of students and small business owners."

Seehusen, who considers President George W. Bush a socialist, said the Libertarians' support for limited government and appreciation for individual rights strikes a cord with many people who call themselves Republicans or conservatives.

"Many of them stopped by our booth to learn more," which is exactly why the Libertarians decided to take part in CPAC this year, he said.

The Libertarians believe they can appeal to "true conservatives" (as opposed to "big-government neo-conservatives") on a number of issues.

"By taking part in this CPAC conference, we hope to show that Libertarians are the true fiscal conservatives -- much more so than the Republicans are," Seehusen said on the Libertarian website.

He said the party is studying how successful groups market themselves, so the Libertarian Party "can more effectively reach out to conservatives" in the future.

[airborne]

Found the other thread under keyword "CPAC". Here it is...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1348836/posts

[Romish_Papist]

Show me a "true conservative" who can support abortion on demand or dissolving of the nations borders and I'll show you a liar. Two of the main reasons I could not vote for the Libertarian platform.

[elfman2]

I’ll agree to allowing felons to vote when government welfare is abolished. Until then, if the left is going to game the system to drain me, I support draining them of 20 million voters.

[conservativecorner]

Who decides who gets to vote, and remember how every govt. program will ultimately cover everyone for fairness sake even though that's not what we were originally promised. You will have EVERY felon voting before this is finished.

[Dead Corpse]

...but think that most Libertarian party candidates are nuts.

You got that right. Excellent post BTW. We need to support more RLC candidates. See if we can't throw our support behind real conservatives within the GOP. It is rather embarassing that a Democrat, Zell Miller, is further Right poltiically than half of those currently in the GOP.

[Happy2BMe]

"Give me Reaganite conservatism any day of the week."

=====================================

I'll take a truck load. Where can I find it?

[antiRepublicrat]

Right. And it is worth noting that the White House was set to file a brief supporting the right of the city to use eminent domain.

I didn't know that. It's downright scary. Now we know Bush hasn't changed his ways, that the administration supports land grabs and abolishment of property rights, but they're just too chicken to say it outright.

Okay, that's it, give me Reagan back, even with his faults a better president than his three successors.

[robertpaulsen]

"That's where virtue comes from, and virtue is what made this Republic great."

I agree.

But what are we to do when virtue goes away -- when people define for themselves what is right and what is wrong? Do we stand by and watch the Republic die, in order for a minority of selfish, self-centered, immoral, hedonistic adults to have their way?

Or does the majority draw a line in the sand over which we, as a society, will not cross?

John Adams stated, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people, and is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." The re-institution of virtue into our society will make moot the plethora of laws that have arisen to counter the movement towards immorality.

[Dead Corpse]

Abortion on demand? That's a new one on me. Last I heard, the LP's official position was that Roe V Wade needed to be overturned and that medical proceedures where strictly between the woman and her doctor. Each State should, like murder charges, set its own statutes for aborting a baby.

Also, get rid of welfare, handouts, and restore the second amendment to what it is supposed to be, we wouldn't HAVE a border problem. Although, so far President Bush is a dismal failure at securing our border during a "Terror War".

[airborne]

Link does not work. Typing in keyword "WORKINGLINK" does.

[54-46 Was My Number]

I consider myself a "libertarian," but I consistently vote for the GOP candidate over the Libertarian candidate, because those candidates, at least where I live, tend to be outlandish kooks and/or self-aggrandizing charlatans. I also agree with you that the concept of conservatism is in a crisis right now, especially here on Free Republic, where it seems conservatism is a synonym for prudery---and nothing more.

[antiRepublicrat]

children always have the right to establish their maturity by assuming administration and protection of their own rights, ending dependency upon their parents or other guardians, and assuming all responsibilities of adulthood

They have that now. It's called an emancipated minor.

[Happy2BMe]

"They The liberal RINOs need to have already infiltrate(d) the Republican party and move it farther right have moved it further to the left, and they need to learn how to play (dirty) politics."

[steve-b]

But what are we to do when virtue goes away

When virtue goes away, evil people use government to enforce their own wishes. Good people must then take the government back and shrink it down to its proper role (keeping the peace, enforcing contracts, resolving disputes between competing property-rights claims).

[Cultural Jihad]

Democracy only works when its members are moral, responsible, self-governing people. The huge social problems we are facing today is a result of moral-liberalism. For centuries we had no problems with the political will of the people of a state saying that evil behaviors have evil repercussions and are intolerable. If you want to call the Founding Fathers 'communists' then go for it.

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"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." -John Adams, Oct. 11, 1798 Address to the military

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"A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy.... While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.... If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security." -Samuel Adams

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"[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend of the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen onto any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man." -Samuel Adams

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"Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants." -William Penn

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"Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles." -Patrick Henry

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The moral-liberal libertarians toy with the idea of making personal corruption some sort of human right only at the expense of liberty, since a corrupt people will never install virtuous leaders.

[54-46 Was My Number]

With them, no real social cohesion is possible.

Social cohesion is invalid if forced with the barrel of a gun---always has been, always will be.

[Always Right]

True conservatism is about getting the government off our backs and keeping it off. I trust the marketplace. And that includes morality. People need to learn to be moral by acting moral - and not depending on the government to enforce morality. And if you can't convince people to adopt your morality without using the government to shove it down my throat, then suck it up. In that case you lost in the marketplace of ideas, and it is not the job of the government to prop up marketplace losers. That, my friend, is called communism.

I really don't think any pure ideology works. America's system is all about the market place of ideas. The moralless anarchy that Libertarians propose has never worked and I have no doubt it never will. You can work within the best system ever created to advance individual rights and reduction of government, or you can keep taughting ideas that will keep Libertarians on the 1% fringe.

[robertpaulsen]

"They have that now. It's called an emancipated minor."

Yes, but there is usually a minimum age, the parents must agree, the income must be legal, and the court makes the determination, not the child.

Other than that, you're right, it's identical.

[antiRepublicrat]

They are available already. I don't want the use of illicit drugs to become an acceptable part of our society.

There's a difference between "acceptable" and "illegal." I'm all for making drug users societal pariahs, but their illegality and the subsequent drug war is a disaster.

The current cure is worse than the cold. The laws of economics say that we cannot win the drug war in a free and capitalist society. There is a demand, therefore they will be a supply.

[steve-b]

But what are we to do when virtue goes away -- when people define for themselves what is right and what is wrong?

Hey, you've got support for your view:

Democracy is based on the principle of freedom of religion and belief. Under democracy, a man can believe anything he wants and choose any religion he wants and convert to any religion whenever he wants, even if this apostasy means abandoning the religion of Allah... This is a matter which is patently perverse and false and contradicts many specific [Muslim] legal texts, since according to Islam, if a Muslim apostatizes from Islam to heresy, he should be killed, as stated in the Hadith reported by Al-Bukhari and others: 'Whoever changes his religion, kill him.' It does not say 'leave him alone.'...
Democracy is based on the principle of 'freedom of expression,' no matter what the expression might be, even if it means hurting and reviling the Divine Being [i.e. Allah] and the laws of Islam, because in democracy nothing is so sacred that one cannot be insolent or use vile language about it....
--Abu Musab al-Zarqawi