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The fiscal conservatism and limited government portions of libertarianism would be of great import.
The rest, not so much.
A typical (and deliberate) misrepresentation of conservatism by a leftist. Libertarians seek personal and social anarchy; conservatives seek moral governance. Neither is reducible to a simplistic scale of “liberty.”
The usual Libertarian rant against those who realize that the advance of Islamic terrorism requires security measures that make libertarians nervous and motivate some of them to conjure up all kinds of Orwellian scenarios. Conservatives oppose the steady advance of a hedonist culture and most chose Christianity (or other religion) over secular humanism. Libertarians and conservatives may share some political DNA but we go our distinctly separate ways most of the time, and we should. This article demonstrates why.
The 'right' to kill a fetus? Some 'right'.
Wendy Kaminer is with the ACLU - which means she is writing this to divide the right.
The greatest failing of libertarians is in selling what effectively is isolationism.
I support the limits granted to the government spelled out by the Constitution.
There are many things that social cons want that the federal government is not listed as having any authority over.
"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.
“Acid, amnesty and abortion”—the battle cry of the McGovernites—would make for an appropriate Libertarian slogan.
Small (l)ibertarians are a substantial percentage of the GOP base.
Without them, the GOP: cannot win.
“Will the Right Find Libertarianism?”
Good grief. Let’s hope not. You think the liberal Democrats and socialists are oppressive and antagonistic toward Christians, Jews and others of western faiths. I’ve seen the Liberterian bigotry and antagonism against them—us—right here on Free Republic. Christian and Jewish faith compassion completely contradicts the selfish, self-centered ideology of many or most Libertarians. If forced to choose between the Throw-’em-out-if-they-can’t-pay-their-own-way mentality or the mentality of the Good Samaritan, I choose the Good Samaritan.
I consider myslef to be a smal “l” libertarian, but am completely fed up with people defining libertarianism as fiscally conservative but socially liberal. The notion is that liberals are strong on civil liberty and conservatives are strong on fiscal liberty. I find this simplistic definition to be completley off target. The left are every bit as much of a threat to civil liberty as they are to economic liberty. Much of the P.C. Multicultural agenda is related more to civil issues that fiscal issues. The gun rights issue, speech codes, hate crimes, etc., are all related more to civil liberty than economic liberty. Finally, if one takes the evidence seriously that an unborn child is an independent life, then opposition to abortion is more consistent with the libertarian edict against the use of force and agression than support for abortion is. There is a group called “Libertarians for Life” that makes this argument explicity from a non-religious perspective.
Losertarians looking to split the GOP vote. Just like the greens peeled of the left flank of the Democrats. Same thing, different moonbats.
The original article focused on pragmatism.. how people vote and why.
The philosophical issues are really quite irrelevant to the pragmatic.
The simple fact is that in blue and purple districts, which is most districts from park district to statewide, neither conservative nor libertarian can win without the other.
Consider the moderate alternative. With moderates support is a one-way street. Conservatives and/or libertarians are expected to support moderates. But moderates are not expected to support, and do not support, conservatives or libertarians.
But most, but not all, of the time, conservatives and libertarians support each other in a two-way street. That is pragmatism.
Furthermore, the image of the attention starved wacko libertarian is not at all what most libertarians are.
Here in Illinois, those who would self-identify libertarian or score libertarian in the little quiz are 80% or more pro-life, pro-traditional family. We get along fine with the other 20% but they are not us.
A lot of the mis-understanding is in the emphasis of single issue conservatives (life) and single issue libertarians (drugs).
Most libertarians and most conservatives are multi-issue, life, guns, taxes, spending, borrowing, eminent domain, regulations, etc. The multi-issue conservatives and multi-issue libertarians, which is most of us don’t have the problems that the single issue people do.
The right did “find” Libertarianism and we find it to be a childish, reckless, immoral, dangerous political philosophy that steals certain aspects of Conservatism while neglecting other equally important ones.
Libertarianism is Conservatism without a brain.
A Liberal utopia would be a nanny state that treats all citizens like irresponsible 4 year olds. A Libertarian utopia would be a state run by irresponsible 4 year olds.
This is kind of a stupid article.
Libertarians want a small government because small governments do not have the power to dictate how their nation’s citizenry live their own lives.
End of story.
Freedom is as frightening to conservatives as it is to liberals.