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To: jackbob
Clever, but I don't think it works. Love him or hate him, Bush starts where we are now. He's not talking about repealing every law passed since 1965 or 1933 or 1913. Maybe he ought to, but he doesn't, and he more or less counts as a conservative. By contrast, some libertarians pretty much do want to scrape away everything that's been done in recent decades to get back to a purer ideological model.

On social issues, many conservatives may want to get back to an earlier social condition, but they mostly just try to hold the line on pernicious social changes. Bush even promotes more government support for policies that he believes will strengthen families. By contrast, whether they want a sterner or a looser morality, libertarians tend to take a "root and branch" approach to pruning away government agencies and rules.

I'm not saying that the libertarian approach is wrong, just that it does seem to involve abstract blueprints and starting over again from scratch than the conservative way.

223 posted on 03/06/2005 8:57:20 AM PST by x
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To: x
No doubt about it, the President starts where we are now, but he hardly qualifies as a conservative by any model in current use. Of course you are quite correct, if you use the more accurate dictionary approach, something rejected by most self proclaiming conservatives. In that case, the President is without a doubt a conservative as he seeks to preserve and strengthen the status quo.

On the other hand, a closer examination of libertarians will show that they are not seeking any purer ideological model of the past. What they propose over all is quite new, and cannot be reached by any means of scrapping away everything done in recent decades. Even if we limit Libertarianism to that which is proposed in the more conservative LP platform, the ideas proposed there in, involve a complete new look at the nature of government. Something not achievable by simple roll back.

224 posted on 03/06/2005 11:14:51 AM PST by jackbob
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