Libertarian Folly: Why Everybody is a Social-issues Voter

American Thinker ^ | 08/07/2014 | Selwyn Duke

[SeekAndFind]

There is this notion, one we hear more and more, that the Republican Party has to shed the social issues to seize the future. “Social issues are not the business of government!” says thoroughly modern millennial. It’s a seductive cry, one repeated this past Tuesday in an article about how some young libertarians dubbed the “Liberty Kids” are taking over the moribund Los Angeles GOP. Oh, wouldn’t the political landscape be simple if we could just boil things down to fiscal responsibility? But life is seldom simple.

If you would claim to be purely fiscal, or assert that “social issues” should never be government’s domain, I’d ask a simple question: would you have no problem with a movement to legalize pedophilia?

Some responses here won’t go beyond eye-rolling and scoffing. Others will verbalize their incredulity and say that such a movement would never be taken seriously. This is not an answer but a dodge. First, the way to determine if one’s principles are sound is by seeing if they can be consistently applied. For instance, if someone claims he never judges others, it’s legitimate to ask whether he remains uncritical even of Nazis and KKK members; that puts the lie to his self-image. And any thinking person lives an examined life and tries to hone his principles.

[PGR88]

Abortion is MURDER, it's not society's role to end murder, it's GOVERNMENT'S.

You just don't get it, do you? You want to give government the power to decide about abortion and gay marriage - and guess what? they have given it to you in spades and crammed it down your throat.

[monocle]

Social issues should be in the realm of state governments and not the federal government.

[trisham]

One can be a libertarian and be a social conservative. For example, Ron Paul, who everyone here loves to hate, is very much anti-abortion.

But he sees it in the proper context...

**********************************

Ah, so that's where I made my mistake. I didn't see abortion in the "proper context".

[Responsibility2nd]

Read the Lib Party Platform. And more than 2 million other links....

At best libs are tolerant of pedophilia. At worse.....

[tacticalogic]

I am of the opinion that federal government should focus on defense, security of citizens, encourage self reliance instead of dependence, stay out of people’s private lives

That would make fedgov philosophically libertarian. Can't have that. The very idea has to be attacked, in any context, and to hell with the unintended consequences.

[wagglebee]

No doubt the Ayatollah's in Iran believe the same thing.

Libertarians NEVER FAIL to eventually compare conservatives to the Taliban or something similar.

Is is society's purpose to promote good morals.

There is a difference between promotion and protection.

The Founding Father's realized this:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,

Then the Founding Fathers secured it with this:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Like many libertarians you seem to be heading in the direction of anarchy with no government at all. Libertarians have this Utopian mindset that if there were no government everything would be perfect, it's actually quite similar to what Marx believed.

[Beagle8U]

A moral-less libtardian view that everyone can just do what they want leads to people that get drunk/stoned a lay around making more leeches for taxpayers to support.

Every single person I’ve ever known that worked their way up from the bottom to become a success was a social conservative. Every single one.

[redgolum]

Sir, you are correct.

The laws reflect the society. We hold that killing a person is illegal. That is a reflection of morals. So, since the state is legislating morality, should we legalize murder?

[bimboeruption]

Yes, I agree and so does Jim DeMint:

“You can’t be a fiscal Conservative and not be a social Conservative. A large part of the expanse of government is to make up for a dysfunctional society, because our culture is falling apart, the family is falling apart.”

[dfwgator]

Exactly, Government has replaced the family.

[Responsibility2nd]

And there it is. Your “blame the conservatives” rhetoric is rising to the top.

For over 200 years our country grew and prospered with conservative laws against queer marriages and abortion. Now that libs have screwed things up, you wanna blame us?

[DJ MacWoW]

“…the principles of all genuine liberty, and of wise laws and administrations are to be drawn from the Bible and sustained by its authority. The man therefore who weakens or destroys the divine authority of that book may be accessory to all the public disorders which society is doomed to suffer…” Noah Webster

[wagglebee]

You just don't get it, do you? You want to give government the power to decide about abortion and gay marriage - and guess what? they have given it to you in spades and crammed it down your throat.

So, 56 MILLION INNOCENT AMERICAN BABIES ARE MURDERED and your solution is to let society deal with it?

This is the EXACT SAME THING the 19th century Whigs wanted to do with slavery. Let me guess, was slavery also a "society" issue in your opinion?

[Responsibility2nd]

Social issues should be in the realm of state governments and not the federal government.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With Federal Courts overturning State Laws; I ask you. How’s that working out for you?

[PGR88]

Ah, so that's where I made my mistake. I didn't see abortion in the "proper context".

Cute reply. but you know my point. If we want to end abortion, it is NOT going to happen by throwing eggs against the massive walls of huge, debt-funded progressive government - with its Obamacare, with its HUD dictates, with the FDA, with the Dept of Education, with its leftist "social justice" apparatus, with its payments to Planned Parenthood, with its "emanations of penumbras," etc...

[DJ MacWoW]

Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. -
George Washington

[trisham]

Despite their dodging of the issue, it seems that libertarians are not pro-life.

[DJ MacWoW]

“If the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow…..These considerations should lead to an attentive solitude…to be religiously careful in our choice of all public officers…. and judge of the tree by its fruits.” Elias Boudinot - Patriot

[trisham]

Yes, I think I see your point. Ending abortion is hard, and not really that important.

[redgolum]

Totally consistent libertarians are not. However many say that sense the child is a separate person, they have the rights that all individuals have including the right to life.

But a strict libertarian is not pro life, for it means limiting the choice of the mother.