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 ...
and that is the inherent paradox of libertarianism.....
“Keep government out of my kids’ schools and my household cuz my kids are my responsibility but please keep your hands off my body in case I decide I don’t want them.”
Personal anarchy is self punishing.
Alleyways with drunks and derelicts are self observant eduction.
Real, religious conservatives believe in free will, for good and bad.
A lot of social conservative support big government, high taxes because they can do social engineering better. /sarc.
But, look at what nation building has gotten us as well.
You're wrong. America is still a center-right country (40% conservatives and 30% liberals) even without the 5% who call themselves libertarians. Getting the right back to its conservative roots necessarily includes dumping the libertarian dead weight. Go screw up the debate on the left for a while. We'll be just fine.
Is that why you couldn't rebut it?
After reading just a few comments, above?
I highly doubt it.
IF the "Right" finds/learns anything?
It'll be instead of eating their own raw, cook 'em first.
Makes the foul practice of cannibalism a LOT tastier and much easier to swallow. LOL
Of course. You're a libertarian. As long as you accept that you're not a Conservative, we have no problems. Feel free to follow your irrelvant political philosophy. Just stop trying to infect mine.
It's not usually a good idea to invent terms, and then assume they will make sense to everyone who reads them.
I don't disagree with what you're saying, but you're still overreaching.
Everything about my profile page rebuts it.
How have conservatives done in the WWII abandonment of Eastern Europe, leaving the Korean War unfinished, abandoning the Mnung and South Vietnamese, the Cubans, El Salvadorians ( at the height of Reagan power ), the first Gulf War leaving Saddam telling the Kurds to rise up and leaving them to Saddam, even the post Soviet Management of Afghanistan.
Where have the Conservative prevailed in their interventions? It seems that conservatives have a pretty bad batting average. Not so bad getting to bat, just the batting.
Pre WWII conservatives were very isolationist all the way back to Washington.
So, I guess it is conservatives who have abandoned a some what non entangling heritage and since WW II have gone on a half hearted, not well executed schemes of Wilsonian wars. You know, for democracy, and like Wilson, left most of those wars un won and messy.
I’ll give President Bush so far credit in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we may well see them devolve.
Seems like I've run into you here before. If you have a point to make, make it. Otherwise you just sounds desperate: "You're wrong because... my homepage says so!!!"
The US falls back from the global stage, that vacuum I can assure you, will be filled by tyranny.
My point is that you are ignorant, repeatedly misrepresent things you don’t understand or are simply incapable of grasping, and also a flat out liar.
And I’ve proven that pretty concisely in post 30. Care to rebut?
“The rest of these people are just looking to get stoned. Even that wouldn’t be such a big deal, except that when you are dealing with raw plants, there’s no way to regulate the dosages. All people who seek to escape reality through mind altering drugs are obviously dealing with a reality that they would be better off addressing.”
Yes, who cares?
They are losers and always will be, whatever laws we pass.
Just tax the hell out of them and treat it like booze.
(And no, I don’t smoke anything. And I think pot smokers are shmucks. I am tired of wasting my money to make drug smugglers in Mexico rich.)
The stalwart value of conservatism is leaving idiots alone to make their own mistakes.
Government is not a nanny, left or right.
What you said. Once Republicans realize they need people like me ... well, they probably won’t admit it, but a girl can dream.
"Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do."
Conservatives want everybody to be free to think, say, and do what conservatives want them to think, say, and do. Liberals agree with that sentiment, they just want people to think, say, and do something different.
Libertarians think people should be free to think, say, and do whatever they want -- as long as it does not involve the initiation of violence, coercion, or fraud -- and to bear the consequences of their actions.
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