Posted on 03/17/2013 11:13:56 AM PDT by Rufus2007
On this Sunday’s broadcast of ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Washington Post columnist George Will criticized a New York Times article by Jim Rutenberg and Richard Stevenson that suggested the Conservative Political Action Conference revealed deep divisions in the conservative movement.
“First, here’s The New York Times headline on the CPAC conference: ‘GOP divisions fester at conservative retreat,’” Will said. “Festering an infected wound — it’s awful. I guarantee you, if there were a liberal conclave comparable to this, and there were vigorous debates going on there, The New York Times headline would be ‘Healthy diversity flourishes at the liberal conclave.’”
“Republicans have been arguing — social conservatives and libertarian free-market conservatives — since the 1950s, when the National Review was founded on the idea of the fusion of the two,” he continued. “It has worked before with Ronald Reagan. It can work again. What I did see at CPAC was the rise of the libertarian strand of Republicanism, which has an affected foreign policy that is a pullback from nation-building
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No, just look at how people vote.
People who are indifferent to or opposed to social conservatism, are democrat voters.
If a guy is OK with gay marriage, drugs, abortion, etc. then chances are overwhelming that he is a good liberal.
Get a guy that libertarians mock, a social conservative, regardless of his income, and he will almost always be a right winger, a real conservative.
Take any group of children and raise them as poor social conservatives, you get conservative voters, raise them with any income, low or high, accepting of drugs, hookers, gay marriage and abortion etc, and you will have bred a bunch of liberals.
What states was prostitution legal in? Was homosexuality in the military accepted, abortion, gay marriage?
There is as wide a variety of libertarians as there is conservatives. Everyone you ask -- libertarian or conservative -- will give you a different answer.
I’m always intrigued by this notion that Republicans have to moderate whenever we lose. Nobody ever said the same thing about the Democrats after Kerry lost.
I have some questions:
1) What is the difference between outright libertarianism and being a “moderate Republican? They all seem to be saying the same things.
2) Am I blonde? We’ve RUN moderate Republicans, Bob Dole, Mitt Romney, et al..where are the electoral victories?
We had so many handpicked establishment candidates for the Senate such as Denny Rehberg, Scott Brown, Rick Berg, Tommy Thompson et al — if this brand of moderate Republicanism was so great, where the heck are their electoral victories?
The problem from my standpoint is that too many moderate Republicans alienate conservatives once nominated, assuming that they’ll just “vote for them anyway.” While many of us do end up voting for the lesser of 2 evils in many cases, the passion/vigor/GOTV effort(s) are not as strong. Then the moderate is portrayed as a flip flopper because he’s constantly trying to alienate the conservative base while still reluctantly throwing us a bone or two hoping we don’t stay home. The Dems and the media then make a mockery. They lose, then we’re told to moderate, repeat.
Conservative candidates are universally expected to “reach out” to moderates, but moderates never have to do anything to reach out to us. Shouldn’t it be a two way street?
The way some of these people talk, they act like we nominated a right-wing crusader for the last 2 cycles. Like I said, either I’m blonde, or we nominated RINOs for two cycles now.
Much of what you say is true but there is a smaller but growing anti totalitarianism wing which aligns more closely with traditional conservatism.
I think that many libertarians have the correct view about the limited role of the government but they have not spent enough time truly analyzing the positions they take and whether those positions will cause more or less government. This is espescially true if they derive those positions from the Libertarian Party.
I would point out that there is a document known as the US Constitution with its Amendments. You might try reading through the document. It grants freedom to all citizens, not just those you find acceptable.
No, the constitution was not written to create or protect Islamic polygamy and homosexual marriage.
Modern libertarianism seeks a limited government based on constitutional authority.
Moderate Republicans want to spend a little bit less than a left wing democRat, but they have equal disdain for any limits on their power to enact any legislation or executive order they please.
Interesting. What other possible opinions on history should be on a your list of “inflammatory remarks” that should not be posted?
BTW speaking of disingenuous, you totally ignore the insulting remarks from L’s including your own.
LoL!
Pretty much the same, a rino supports the left on the border and social issues, and in hatred of the social conservatives, yet largely supports the conservative position on economics, rino or "moderate" is already melding into libertarian, and you will see more of that in the future.
Libertarians are to the left of the left on social issues and the border, perhaps even on national defense issues.
Libertarians agree with conservatives on economic issues or claim to, although their leftist social agenda would destroy conservative economics.
I see your point...
So if we rule that a “social issue” like abortion which many believe is murder or, in the past, slavery should be left out of govt consideration and remain in the Church realm, are we better off?
Not a challenge to you but a topic of discussion....
Meh, that happens to all of us at one time or another...
Libertarians shouldn’t be given a pass...
Two words...heat...kitchen.
My point is, that once you have set the precedent of your desires for morality justifying imposing it on others who were minding their own business, you lose the right to be upset when others impose THEIR views on morality on YOU.
Such as those who feel it is immoral to be racist, sexist, or "homophobic", or who feel it immoral to not compel people to support the "poor" via tax dollars, or who feel it immoral to eat meat, etc, etc.
Thanks.
It’s funny how social conservatism constantly gets scapegoated -— even when not on the ballot.
And when they DO get on the ballot, the RINOs start attacking them or abandoning them (i.e. Akin). They expect all of us to “toe the line” when a candidate who is not our cup of tea gets nominated, but they never do the same.
No wonder it’s such a mess.
I think we can go back and forth on this for a few more posts but at this point I feel like two kids in a schoolyard shouting “he started it.” I think we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one, at least until the next libertarian-ish thread.
Nicely put and well-formulated...
If I may add: extrapolate helping the down-trodden through Christian faith: those who have fallen are helped by the faithful, given new hope, forgiven their sins ...all through the means of the religious community.
I know, in artfully put but I hope you get my drift...
How about the hands of two football players in OH?
You can couch your anti-Americanism, and anti-Christian agenda anyway that you like, but it doesn’t change the fact that what you support creates the very thing that you claim to abhor.
America was extremely socially conservative for the first 150 years, and more free, your libertarianism and insistence that being against abortion and homosexuality and such is immoral during the last 50 years is wiping out freedom and individuality.
The latest libertarian victories are homosexualizing the military and gay marriage, both will hurt the cause of freedom and small government in the long run.
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