Why Republicans Just Don't Get Libertarians

“(groan) “Republican” is the name of a political party; “libertarian” is the name of a political ideology. Contrasting libertarians and “Republicans” is a nonsense argument, just like contrasting libertarians and “Democrats”, but what do you want from a college professor.”

^ exactly

It's not that we don't get Libertarians. I don't remember who said it, but I heard someone express the problem perfectly:

Everything terrifying about Ron Paul, he can accomplish on his first day in office. Everything that Republicans love about Ron Paul, he'll never get done.

As a 3rd party, they've never had to govern, and they can have all the stupid ideas they want.

But the basic problem with third parties is this: If a third-party movement cannot capture the largest share of one of the two political parties, it cannot possibly capture the largest share of the electorate as a whole. Therefore, all third-party movements are either cults of personality, or doomed to failure. Worse, they necessarily will attract more voters from the party which has previously attracted their supporters, thus weakening whatever political positions they support.

I have come to the conclusion that Republicans are merely the good cop in the socialists' good cop/bad cop routine with Americans. But the way to do something about this is to first conquer the Republican party, THEN win general elections.

Libertarianism long precedes the Libertarian Party which has done nothing to earn that name other than fill out some paperwork. I can’t tell you how many Libertarian Party members I’ve encountered who simply want marijuana, and wouldn’t mind one bit if it was given to them to by a government program, which saw fit to abduct ordinary Americans to work on communist Marijuana labor farms. At least Ron Paul is broadening that to include the Dennis Kucinich - Cynthia McKinney crowd. (Actually, I do know a few classic economic liberals and civil-rights crowd types who did switch to Paul, too.)

I have been a Republican all my life and I consider myself a conservative. I also believe that life begins at conception. My ancestors fought and died for the north in the civil war. Yes, I do know that the Constitution leaves certain decisions to the states - and that is how it should be.

I do find that many religious/cultural conservatives are big government spenders on social programs and never met a regulation they didn’t like. They certainly like to constrain my rights as an adult to fit their idea of what the Bible says is family-friendly or “moral.” I grew up in the fifties and 60s and I am far to familiar with the layers of rules and the lessons of Pleasantville. I do not wish to return there.

I believe in small government, local control, the integrity of private property rights and the protection of individual rights against the collective/communitarianism. I believe that regulation should be constrained as much as possible to the prevention of real and substantial injury to the general public health and safety and should not be used to protect the environment from human beings or to promote the collective public interest.

So, in many of those beliefs I align more with libertarians than cultural conservatives or country club Republicans. I consider myself a true Republican and these others fringe groups.

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