'Socially Liberal, Economically Conservative' Is So Over

American Thinker ^ | 4/8/2014 | Christopher Chantrill

[markomalley]

The genius of teaching the educated professional class to be “socially liberal, economically conservative” for the last 20 years was that the economically conservative part came for free during the Great Boom from 1983-2007.  When the economy looked good forever and everyone's 401(k) was increasing, the professional class could easily be persuaded to look down on -- and actually fear! -- the bigoted Religious Right and vote for Democrats. Candidate Obama's remark about bitter clingers captured the meme perfectly.

But now that gay marriage is a fact and the junior inquisitors from the gay Holy Office have shifted from the hard work of prosletyzing to the exquisite pleasure of showing heretics at Mozilla the instruments of torture, what now? 

If you are some tech professional, you know that you can never be safe from some liberal hater on Twitter. The liberals can change the rules on you any time they want.  We were all taught to fear the right-wing bogeyman; now it turns out that it's the Liberal Fascists we should fear.  Hey, didn't some guy write a book on that?

So much for “socially liberal;” it's history. You may also have noticed that the “economically conservative” side of the deal is no longer a slam dunk in these Obama years. 

Suppose you are a college graduate in your twenties.  It's really cool that you can get laid with anything you want, but what about the future?  What about marriage, eventually?  What about kids?  What about a college fund and, perish the thought, retirement?  What about that student loan?  For all of that you'll need something better than the Obama economy.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Most people I know are 180 degrees the opposite.

Socially conservative, but have absolute excrement for brains when it comes to economic issues.

[tanknetter]

My attitude was that, for those so inclined, in the socially liberal (or Libertarian, if you’d prefer) fiscally/economically conservative it was fiscal and economic policy that should really matter. Which would bring those folks into political alignment (if not agreement) with social conservatives.

The truth is that the high emphasis on social issues was just bait for professionals to vote for elected officials that would f*ck them over in a heartbeat, once they had the power and opportunity.

I’m finding myself throwing out a lot of “I told you so’s” currently.

[MrB]

You really can’t be socially liberal without being fiscally liberal.

When “anything goes” socially, there will be consequences. Those consequences will have to be paid for.

And those who are likely to indulge in “anything goes” are those who are not responsible enough to have the resources to pay for the consequences of their behavior.

As an added twist, most [social] liberals have the mindset that if the person engaging in the behavior has to pay for the consequences of that behavior, then he was not really “free” to indulge in it in the first place.

[ansel12]

Social liberals vote for liberals, social conservatives vote for conservatives.

Economic conservatism doesn’t exist with social liberalism, it is an impossible contradiction.

[x]

He doesn't prove his point though. Reading the article I get the feeling that he proves the opposite of what he sets out to.

People who claim to be "socially liberal and economically conservative" aren't going to stop being socially liberal, whether or not they actually get around to being economically conservative in a meaningful way.