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George Will: ‘What I did see at CPAC was the rise of the libertarian strand of Republicanism’ [VIDEO
Daily Caller ^ | March 17, 2013 | Jeff Poor

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

...more (w/video)...

(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: 2013cpac; cpac; georgefwill; georgewill; homosexualagenda; libertarians; randpaul
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To: RIghtwardHo

I believe Ronald Reagan spoke highly and considered himself a libertarian (small l). On the role of government, the libertarian and small government conservative have a great deal in common. The Libertarian Party has little in common because it is widely focused on drugs, leftist social issues and isolationist policies. I believe a great deal of the conservative base, many independents and a lot of disaffected voters would be attracted to more ‘small l’ libertarian ideas in the Republican Party.


21 posted on 03/17/2013 11:59:10 AM PDT by ilgipper (Obama supporters are comprised of the uninformed & the ill-informed)
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To: ansel12

No, Democrats lynch. Conservatives, in cases where hanging is called for, hang legally after due process.

People back then calling for everything on that list would have most likely been banished west, or simply have shut up and vanished into New York’s libertine street society.


22 posted on 03/17/2013 12:01:41 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Berlin_Freeper

If you want a Federal government big enough to control every citizen’s penis then you bet, I am prepared to get nasty.


23 posted on 03/17/2013 12:01:50 PM PDT by DManA
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To: RegulatorCountry

What a crock, 1790 America would have had libertarians hanging from trees.

Sodom and Gomorah was full of libertarians, America wasn’t, that is a recent occurrence of the last 50 years as libertarianism swept America and has given us this destroyed culture and created an atmosphere where the Christians and God are to be weeded out of our ever more “libertarian” culture, the culture that first came to dominate in the Ghettos.


24 posted on 03/17/2013 12:04:32 PM PDT by ansel12 ( “I would not be in the United States Senate if it wasn’t for Sarah Palin,” Cruz said.)
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To: DManA

I don’t want it waved in my face and forced to subsidize it.


25 posted on 03/17/2013 12:06:24 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (http://userstyles.org/users/180132)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

That is a perfectly libertarian attitude.


26 posted on 03/17/2013 12:07:15 PM PDT by DManA
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To: RightOnTheBorder

“I tend to wind up on many of the libertarian-centric threads and have found it to be the anti-libertarian crowd that gets nasty. This thread is new but I bet within 25 posts there will be someone referring to libertarians as “brain dead” or using some other pejorative with drug connotations.”

Exactly...REALLY nasty....then they brag what superior Christians they are and tell us that Rand Paul is the anti christ. Paul likely lives a more Christian life than most of them. The founding fathers didn’t form a Theocracy. And for good reason.


27 posted on 03/17/2013 12:08:32 PM PDT by AuntB (Illegal immigration is simply more "share the wealth" socialism and a CRIME not a race!)
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To: RIghtwardHo

“the enemy of my enemy is NOT your friend.”

You are wrong. Social conservatives alone don’t have the numbers to win national elections anymore. That’s just reality.

The democrats are adding hispanics at a rapid pace to their ranks and republicans will have to add young libertarians. There is no alternative. The demographics are changing and the formula that worked for republicans in the past will not work again in the future.


28 posted on 03/17/2013 12:08:38 PM PDT by BarnacleCenturion
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To: ansel12
The people who created this nation would have lynched a libertarian calling for homosexualizing the military, abortion, gay marriage, and legal prostitution etc., etc.

Yes, because the culture at the time was wise enough to realize certain actions have consequences. They were a moral people, and there was a good reason for it. They had thousands of years of wisdom behind them.
IF all social programs and controlling laws were eliminated today, people would be falling like flies - but the country would re-learn from it. They'd quickly learn certain actions and behaviors lead to bad ends, and they'd learn not to tolerate it as a nation.
Those who, after the enlightenment, still chose to do these things, would be outcasts. That alone would force them to re-learn the errors of their ways. If they even tried to FORCE their behaviors on anyone else, it would be THEM who denied other people their right to be a moral, wiser, and freer people.

29 posted on 03/17/2013 12:10:49 PM PDT by concerned about politics ("Get thee behind me, Liberal")
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To: RightOnTheBorder

Well said. Like you, I want the government out of my private life as much as possible. Marriage is first, and foremost a private issue, best handled privately.


30 posted on 03/17/2013 12:13:00 PM PDT by txnativegop (Fed up with zealots)
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To: DManA

You got that perfectly wrong. Libertarians will give the married homosexuals tax and economic benefits they don’t deserve. Costing the rest of society. While misidentifying who we are as a people to future generations.


31 posted on 03/17/2013 12:14:34 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (http://userstyles.org/users/180132)
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To: Norm Lenhart

“Just look at RonPaul’s army. It was ALL ABOUT the drug issue. And they are the core of modern libertarianism.”

Norm, I think you’re wrong about that. I was never a big Paul for President fan, but of all the people I know (hundreds) that did, NOT one did so because of ‘drugs’. He didn’t just get support of young people. One thing, anyone should be able to admit is that the so called ‘war on drugs’ is just another huge expensive failure.


32 posted on 03/17/2013 12:14:37 PM PDT by AuntB (Illegal immigration is simply more "share the wealth" socialism and a CRIME not a race!)
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To: BarnacleCenturion

Actually the democrats are adding Hispanic libertarians to their ranks, which is natural since they are the party of effective libertarianism.

Hispanics who are not libertarians vote as the social conservatives that they are.


33 posted on 03/17/2013 12:14:45 PM PDT by ansel12 ( “I would not be in the United States Senate if it wasn’t for Sarah Palin,” Cruz said.)
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To: ansel12

You don’t ever read past the first line, do you?


34 posted on 03/17/2013 12:16:19 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: txnativegop

What does that mean? Your post didn’t say anything.


35 posted on 03/17/2013 12:16:56 PM PDT by ansel12 ( “I would not be in the United States Senate if it wasn’t for Sarah Palin,” Cruz said.)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

See posts #20 and #24. While not yet reduced to name calling, the poster is asserting that our founding fathers would have ignored due process and murdered libertarians. And within my 25 post estimate I might add.


36 posted on 03/17/2013 12:16:58 PM PDT by RightOnTheBorder
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To: ansel12

“The people who created this nation would have lynched a libertarian calling for homosexualizing the military, abortion, gay marriage, and legal prostitution etc., etc.”

Don’t miss a chance to bitch about the ‘libertarian demons’, Ansell2! Now, go find me ONE, just ONE reference to any of the things you mentioned above...those issues didn’t EXIST then, not in the discussion to form this nation.

Some of you are dense. If Libertarian leaning citizens are all Liberals, they’d be democrats instead of republicans!


37 posted on 03/17/2013 12:18:00 PM PDT by AuntB (Illegal immigration is simply more "share the wealth" socialism and a CRIME not a race!)
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To: RegulatorCountry

Yes I do, and I read your entire post and responded to it.

It was a crock of nonsense promoting the left’s agenda that conservatives have been fighting for 50 years.


38 posted on 03/17/2013 12:19:26 PM PDT by ansel12 ( “I would not be in the United States Senate if it wasn’t for Sarah Palin,” Cruz said.)
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To: AuntB

I agree. It is a total failure.

RE: Paul...

I also agree that there were many supporters who were not drug centered. I did indeed overstate this. Many were in his camp over the war and financial issues. But his hardcore wing, the ones that got all the press, marched with potleaf signs etc, were indeed all about the drugs. And I believe that wing made up the majority of his support.


39 posted on 03/17/2013 12:19:53 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: ansel12

“Sodom and Gomorah was full of libertarians, America wasn’t, that is a recent occurrence of the last 50 years as libertarianism swept America and has given us this destroyed culture and created an atmosphere where the Christians and God are to be weeded out of our ever more “libertarian” culture, the culture that first came to dominate in the Ghettos.”

You give a lot of credit to a group who never held office! Your good republicans are more to blame than libertarians.


40 posted on 03/17/2013 12:20:01 PM PDT by AuntB (Illegal immigration is simply more "share the wealth" socialism and a CRIME not a race!)
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