Posted on 03/19/2010 12:25:37 PM PDT by presidio9
"Freedom" has long been a right-wing rallying cry for self-identified patriots ranging from John Birchers to tea party protesters to increasingly extreme members of the Republican establishment. They're particularly passionate about the freedom to own and openly carry guns and freedom from federal taxation (but not necessarily federal benefits). Otherwise, their most consistent attachments to freedom tend to be rhetorical, unless freedom means restricting reproductive choice, same-sex relationships, medical marijuana, or sexually explicit speech and permitting discrimination against people who do not acknowledge Jesus as their savior. For some prominent conservatives -- like John McCain, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Dick Cheney -- freedom also entails the establishment of a national security state empowered to arrest and imprison summarily people suspected of terrorism and to spy on people suspected of nothing in particular, thanks to a ubiquitous but largely invisible surveillance system.
There are, of course, exceptions to this statism. The CATO Institute, generally associated with the right because of its commitment to free markets, is equally, if less notoriously, committed to civil liberty. CATO is unusual in its consistent libertarianism, which means, however, that (like Reason magazine), it is a creature of neither the right nor the left. A recent CATO report estimates that some 14 percent of Americans also qualify as libertarian, meaning that they're fiscally conservative and socially liberal (although it's unclear if fiscal conservatives who believe "the less government the better" are willing to surrender their own government benefits, from Pell grants to Medicare).
Libertarians are labile voters,
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Actually not so conservative, pro-gay marriage and open borders as long as they embrace general western values.
Well said... (thanks for the post)
No. It is not the federal government's business. In fact... nowadays it isn't the fed's business. State laws cover most murder cases.
Are you arguing for the federal takeover of state laws and courts?
I kinda prefer that abortion and marriage be handled at the county level, like liquor sales.
That way, big cities and their libtards can live their lives without forcing all the rural, conservative folk in their states to have to live with their dreck.
Impossible.
It is a plant, a weed. It mutates with every generation and is different in every soil, sunlight, moisture and nourishment environment just like tomatoes, tobacco, asparagus and cantaloupe.
Actually, he hasn't stopped rotating, you just added a few RPM's.
You are sadly, selectively, willingly misinformed.
Thanks for that. Always nice to hear from the American Taliban.
I sounds and be's desperate also. Mainly just to retain and maybe recover just a little bit of freedom.
Then you had better stop paying your taxes and morally supporting this (some)drug war.
Then knock it off. We "morons" don't want to be controlled anyway (and won't be in the final analysis).
Sorry to hear that. Pro-life would be a libertarian theme.
Actually I’m an American Indian, you are the foreigner.
I’m of the opinion that the left worships the state. So, in that way, they are deeply religious, just different religion.
( Since I associate the European left and socialits through out the world closely with the American left/liberals .... are the Taliban and American Conservatives both Conservatives? )
So much for religion as a guide.
Russel Kirk was a very odd duck. A romantic and a dreamer, who idolized only the self thought elite and best of a time, and ignored a lot of what he didn’t like or care for.
He was and his writing were kind of stuffy and prissy. A George Will, even more so, of his time.
And, he like many social conservatives was for class bias, a ruling class with people like him ruling.
I would say there is a reason he is obscure outside of conservative readings.
Fine, you are a Green Beret. Now talk.
You tell me. I can see leftism ideologically transits language, time and culture.
So, in a way, it is true, although not truth.
No what about conservativsm? Is a Spanish Francho Fascist a conservative? Is a literary dreamer like Russel Kirk, who pined for a world that never was is he a conservative too?
How about the rigid Taliban that insist on no deviation from the word of God?
So, if they all consider themselves conservative, well then the word isn’t too helpful. Like Alice in Wonderland, it means what ever the speaker at the time wants it to mean.
In other words, it’s useless.
Freedom is as frightening to conservatives as it is to liberals.
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