Let’s keep the private private
I agree that as long as social issues are at the forefront of the Republican party, they will have a hard time being successful. People, generally, seem more concerned about government largess, spending, economy, taxes, and such than they do about gay cooties and abortion. And they largely like being left alone. YMMV.
November 5th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
There are lots of stuff “people” like, with not being bothered with problems a big one. That’s why we have a big government in the first place.
That’s why no one likes libertarians. The focus doesn’t seem to be on actual liberty so much as “I got mine.”
November 5th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Wolfwood,
People like me, and I’m a libertarian ……. 🙂
But I agree with Uncle. If the money part gets straightened out, the social part takes care of itself.
November 5th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
So once we have a good economy abortion, the push for euthanasia, and the use of embryonic stem cells just cease? There stops being a push for homosexual “marriage”*?
I don’t see it, but perhaps there’s a factor I’m not taking into account.
*It’s interesting how the “tax breaks and hospital visits” rationale has given way to “because anything less than the word ‘marriage’ is a grievous insult.'”
November 5th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I will agree they are not problems they should be focused on if we can outlaw abortion and not permit deviant marriages. Why default to the liberal position if we are putting social issues to the back burner?
November 5th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Legislating morality is a complete waste of time.
November 5th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I think libertarians listen to ourselves and our frends too much.
Government handouts are a political goldmine. That’s why there are so many of them. They do it because it gets them elected.
I’m not too sure about these socially-liberal northern conservatives, either. Did you see any evidence of that in Maine this year? In other ballot initiatives, they voted for more spending that they can’t afford, and a new bond issue they can’t afford to pay the interest on. As they always do.
November 5th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Gregory Markle,
If you think about it, virtually all laws are premised on someone’s, or more precisely, a general concensus of morality, i.e., “the knowledge of good and evil”. Why, even the idea that “legislating morality is a waste of time” is based on your morality that doing so is not “good” and that we should be let alone to do what we choose….something I generally share within the parameters of our Constitutional Law.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Uncle, do you have Michael Steele on speed-dial? He needs to see this discussion.
The GOP conservative base has had it’s priorities screwed up for years.
The priority should be:
1. Balanced budget
2. Lower taxes
3. Strong defense (including strongest offensive capability on the planet).
4. Overall reduction in the size of government, starting with bureaus added in the last 100 years.
5. Re-affirmation that in this society, the individual is more important than the village.
6. Re-affirmation that while judeo-christian values built this nation, the law of the land is STILL that the Good Book is NOT the law book that rules the society.
If that makes me a libertarian, so be it, but if that’s NOT what the GOP wants, then I’m NOT one of them, either.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
I happen to be a fiscal conservative and not a social values conservative. However, I cannot agree with your post. If the social conservative issues are meaningless to voters, then explain the voters defeating same-sex marriage in California and most recently Maine.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Rivrdog,
Would you vote for a candidate that wanted 1-4 but also wanted to outlaw abortion and gay marriage?
November 5th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Rivrdog,
Actually the idea of liberty and freedom is from Scripture, whereas the history of governments based on secularism is that of tyranny.
While we should and do have religious freedom codified in our Constitution (1st Amendment), the principles of government from which that derives are from Scripture and particularly the Christian Faith.
…where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is liberty –II Corinthians 3:17
Stand fast therefore in the liberty withwhich Christ has made us free and do not become entangled again in the yoke of bondage. –Galatians 5:1
William Tynadale of England who was burned to death by the political-religious establishment for translating the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into English said, “Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God”
But I agree with libertarian principles within the context of Constitutional Law and protecting ALL of the Bill of Rights from legislative tyranny, but not to the point of anarchy.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
There seems to be an assumption that social conservatives will see that the libertarian wing of the Republicans gets them half a loaf when they would otherwise have none. I think this assumption might work the other way, but it doesn’t work here. If your decisions are based on right vs. wrong instead of better vs. worse, voting for a pro-abortion Republican who supports RKBA and lower taxes probably isn’t an option.
Draw what conclusions you may from this, but abortion (and euthanasia and embryonic stem cells) is a sine qua non issue with me. I don’t care if neither candidate is Pro-Life; I’ll write in a candidate before a pro-abortion candidate gets my vote. That may be politically ineffective, but I care more about not being complicit in such horror than I do about having the “best” democracy possible. It’s only once that sine qua non issue is met that things such as RKBA, lower taxes, and defense policy come into play.
You can decide for yourself how prevalent views such as mine are, but I think you’re going to find that an awful lot of religious people think the same way.
November 5th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Gay cooties and abortion are two separate issues, no matter that so many on both sides of the spectrum want to link them.
Homosexuality oughta remain a personal issue. Don’t ask for special rights and protections and I don’t care what you do, it’s none of my business. I wish more Christians could find that an acceptable public policy position.
Abortion kills a human being. There is just flat NO right there, and framing it as simply a “religious issue” is disingenuous at best. I find it sad that so many of my conservative and libertarian brothers and sisters don’t understand that.