Posted on 04/07/2013 6:29:24 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Libertarianism goes mainstream By: James Hohmann April 7, 2013 06:50 AM EDT
Stereotyped for decades as pro-pot, pro-porn and pro-pacifism, libertarians are becoming mainstream.
Fair or not, Ron Paul epitomized to a swath of voters the caricature of a goofy grandpa who invests in gold, stockpiles guns, sees black helicopters whirling overhead and quotes Friedrich Hayek.
His ride into the sunset — combined with an evolving electorates’s move away from hot-button social issues — gives a new libertarian guard the opportunity to rebrand their governing philosophy as more reasonable, serious and compatible with the Republican Party.
Led by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), libertarians hope to become a dominant wing of the GOP by tapping into a potent mix of war weariness, economic anxiety and frustration with federal overreach in the fifth year of Barack Obama’s presidency.
The country’s continuing fixation on fiscal issues, especially spending and debt, allows them to emphasize areas of agreement with conservative allies who are looking for ways to connect with Republicans who aren’t passionate about abortion or same-sex marriage. A Democratic administration ensures consensus on the right that states should get as much power as possible.
Ron Paul, who has been speaking at college campuses since retiring from the House to Texas at the end of the year, feels that more Republicans are either engaging or co-opting the ideas he spent a career espousing on monetary policy, foreign policy and civil liberties.
“The viewpoint of the libertarian is we’ve been doing the wrong thing for a long time,” he said in an interview. “The group that’s in Washington now is going to have tremendous opportunity because there’s a lot more disenchantment.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Libertarians always get into trouble when they try claiming vast swaths of the public as libertarian.
One doesn’t need to be libertarian to oppose wasting lives and money in pointless wars. One doesn’t need to be libertarian to oppose the drug war that could be more effectively dealt with through strict border control.
Republicans win when they combine conservative and libertarian voters, and lose otherwise.
RR of course was a hero to both.
Bush 41 was elected as Reagan’s successor, but governed as an establishment Republican.
Dole, in ‘96, by naming Jack Kemp as his running mate, kept the libertarians on the reservation and, so, denied Clinton a landslide and helped us retain the House and Senate.
Bush 43, in 2000, sounded libertarian, talking about tax reform, partial privatization of SS, choice in education, and respect for state laws on marijuana, but what we got were two wars, the promotion of home ownership, a Medicare drug entitlement, and leave no child behind. By ‘06, we lost the House and the Senate.
McCain, in ‘08, embraced the libertarian wing by naming Sarah Palin, and for a time was neck and neck with Obama, And then the financial crisis hit.
In ‘10, with the enthusiasm of the Tea Party movement, we took back the House, made progress in the Senate, and made enormous gains in state legislatures.
Romney, in ‘12, did not embrace his success in the private-sector. While he had been neck-and-neck with the President in the polls, in the end, he came up short and we lost seats in the House and Senate (although we kept control of the House).
3 2 1...... LIBERTARIANS ARE A BUNCH OF DOPE SMOKING, HOMOSEXUAL MARRYING PERVERTS.
There. doesn’t that make you libertarian haters feel better? I’ve said it for you. Now, STFU!
Problem with Libertarians is that they support many of the same things the left (in both Dem/GOP)....support.....
Open Borders
Unlimited immigration/Amnesty for illegals
Free Trade/Globalism
Legalized recreational drug use
Limited enforcement of basic moral values
The Liberal Media likes Liberaltarians right now because they are the “useful idiots” to undermine conservatives
Sarah Palin in 2016.
Libertarian = liberal that likes guns but doesn’t want to pay taxes.
Beyond that, no difference.
Response: So has homosexual Sodomy, Third World governors, food stamps and "Free" cell phones.
Comment: If it is bizarre America will adopt it!
Best definition I've seen!!
Quite a lot of us, are pretty comfortable with that particular mix.
Guns yes. Taxes no.
Just saying.
A lot of libertarians are also OK with society being overrun with gay marriage.
People are selectively Libertarian....you know how people hate government programs, except for the programs they benefit from.
People tend to dislike lawyers, except their own lawyer - the same with their electeds: "Dump them all" except mine, of course"
True.
That’s where I break ranks with the libertarians.
However there is enough mutual attraction between the libertarians and the Conservatives, we should be looking for common ground.
Not pushing them away.
IMHO libertarians are NOT the same as the GOP. The GOP is increasingly useless in my opinion.
I will vote for them if they support the right-wing Republicans also. As well as the libertarians, I would add.
That seems a contradiction, but there it is.
Most of all, I want a return of American jobs.
Your move GOP.
Make up your mind.
You are correct... but, one CANNOT claim to be conservative and support all the things you have laid out....
this is why the dramatic fleeing from conservatism over to libertarianism..
libertarainism is now what the conservatives once were..
just a little bit more to the right...
how about calling us “Strict Constituionalists”..?
And right back to my point about libertarians claiming the people who don’t want to be claimed by them. It drives the people away every single time.
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