Well, we certainly need smaller government. I think we can all agree on that. Not just a pause in spending, but take down the Department of Education and a half dozen others to start with. Defund public radio. And so forth.
But libertarians are the ones who are constantly pulling back and refusing to cooperate—not social conservatives.
Two points. First, in order to WIN we need a coalition of conservatives, including small government and social conservatives. No hope of winning without the social conservatives, who are the larger group and who will refuse to vote if the basic principles are not kept up by the party.
Second, while it would be nice to think that freedom means doing whatever you want, without government or other interference, that just ain’t POSSIBLE. You cannot have a free country unless people are willing to discipline themselves and work for the benefit of others—family, neighbors—as well as themselves individually.
You can afford a few loose cannons living sinful and disordered lives around the edges of society, but you cannot afford a society where everyone wants to be a loose cannon. It won’t work. And if people refuse to discipline themselves, then the police and the KGB will step in and do it for them.
America has been a free country because, while people have done what they choose to do, they also have stayed within certain boundaries, taken care of their families, raised their children, and the rest. For that, most people—not all, but most—need a decent religion and a decent moral education in school. Most people are no longer getting that.
That’s a large part of the problem.
As things stand, it’s sometimes very difficult to tell a conservative libertarian from a hippie libertarian, because both of them may be chiefly concerned to do whatever the hell they want. That won’t work, not if everyone wants to do it. Not if a critical mass of people want to do it.
Well said.
“No hope of winning without the social conservatives, who are the larger group and who will refuse to vote if the basic principles are not kept up by the party”
So,,, they can stamp *their* feet and stay home, and thats cool. But, a libertarian should abandon *their* principles, and support the social conservatives candidate and shut up? That about it??
In most countries, libertarians would be one of 6 or 7 minor parties. The bigger party would be forced to accept some of their positions in order to form a workable majority. We have two parties, so those deals must be made within the party. Some republicans want a party solely dedicated to wall street, others want it centered around Christianity, and others want classial libertarian freedom. All three must accomodate each other. If they do, we can end this budding dictatorship. If social conservatives can do it without wall street or libertarians, great,,,,, but we all know thats not the case.
The Reagan revolution also happened during dark economic times. Libertarians did well, as did Christians, as did wall street,,,, everyone got something.
Thats just a hard cold fact.
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Just in case anyone's in the mood for a libertarian idiot-fest. Cicero's comment is excellent and I don't feel well enough to do better. Bottom line is this - the official Libertarian Party platform want "gay" anything they want including marriage and in the military, no holds barred porn, dope, open borders, and abortion. So what is that supposedly makes them conservative in some way? Oh, lower taxes and hopefully they want to get rid of the Dept of Education and other unconstitutional departments and agencies. But since they will never garner enough votes to do anything except get Dems won in close elections, they are the enemeis of real Constitutional conservatism. And they prove it with their infantile sloganeering and zero grasp of human nature or what the writings of the founders are really saying.
VERY well said....