Monday, March 19, 2012
This eternal social conservative/libertarian war within the GOP (& my solution)
I knew there was a problem many many years ago when I was driving a van for a wholesale flower company. That was back in the day and you really met a garden-variety of people on your routes and one young guy in particular ran a flower shop in the countryside and he made no secret of his strong dislike for the then Democratic president at the time Mr. Bill Clinton and liberals in general. I never really brought up the subject matter at the time, why would I I'm only delivering product but apropos of nothing he complained to me out of the blue one day that abortion within the Republican Party needs to be taken off the table. FF to the present day and you have Patrick M, soapie, Pamela Hart and Malcontent to name but a few righties here who are pro-choice for lack of a better word and would pretty much say the same thing. OK so it's obvious to me this social conservative/libertarian tension-hatred/rift within the GOP goes way back even as far back when Sean Hannity was discussing Hummergate on practically a daily basis and even beyond that to the Barry Goldwater days when in his senior years he started making testy and snarky comments about Jerry Falwell and evangelicals in general. Libertarian-minded conservatives act like they can somehow drive a stake through the heart of social conservatism once and for all, the good guys if you will in an updated political version of Vampire Diaries but you know how that goes, there will always be one of us Originals around and it got me to thinking. The only real solution would be for social conservatives to leave the Republican Party AND for libertarians to leave the GOP as well. Why should one be asked to leave and not the other? Whose mansion is it anyway, can I see the deed? Why do we even need opponents of gay marriage and those who want to legalize angel dust in the same party? Instead of trying to purify your own party from within in whichever direction you happen to be, a never-ending task where there's more agita than rewards have your own party going and go all out with it. The 2-Party System is bankrupt anyway, not much of a choice for the average voter (yes yes I know there's tons of other parties out there to choose from but they're not mainstream in any sense of the word more like political trivia questions). Pat Robertson living in a house with fetal parts backing up the plumbing system, makes no sense to me:)
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I agree; its sort of an amalgam of
ReplyDeletematter + antimatter (held together with some of those gluons & quarks
the theo phys folks like). You mention two important segments, but
we should consider as well the neo-cons and the fiscal cons. The downside is a scattering of effort and effect..the GOP commonality would seem dislike and distrust of
Democrats. So, what would you call these new parties? (and where would you place the current GOP
candidate crop?)
Reading Patrick M's latest blog got me to thinking, bugged me in fact because the problem is so insoluble. You mentioned something about the fiscal cons and the neos and I was leaning towards the GOP can be all about money, how to make the most of it and everyone makes out, lifts all boats. A kind of economic libertarianism if you will. The new names? gimme a minute...
ReplyDeleteWhy don't we just say it like it is without trying so hard to be Mr./Ms. nice guy.
ReplyDeleteThe people on the left never try at all. So why should we always be the one to "raise the bar"?
It is becoming increasingly obvious that Obama and his liberal/democrat army started a strategy to destroy anyone that we nominate.
Perusing the karmic woman's latest blogging it's clear Rick Santorum falls under Borkism where he finds no right in the Constitution to homosexual sodomy. He needs to let this stuff go otherwise he'll always be made fun of by people like the karmic woman. Romney, the emphasis is obviously on money and business but Gingrich is a kind of, dunno man I was gonna go with Constitutionalist but folks like George Will say he shreds it instead.
ReplyDeleteSantorum - Borkism
Romney - The Capitalist Party
Gingrich - The Angry Party
Obama - Liberalism with a Socialist Swirl
Peggie I'm not even sure what the Obama Platform is exactly, ignore my first three weak years? Santorum vs. Obama, I don't want the presidential debates to devolve into talking about blowjobs not that Santorum would go there but someone will bring this up (that and birth control and God and...). Bring the men and women home from Afghanistan, I'd go with that. I mean why should Obama override Karzai here?
ReplyDeleteHere is my quick lunch break comment to show why I believe social conservatism is properly a conservative position. Conservatives obviously like the Constitution. When it says life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we think life begins at conception, because there is nothing magical about the birth canal that turns the fetus into a person. The unborn deserve life.
ReplyDeleteBeing a social conservatives does not mean we want a theocracy, although people like Soapie think that is true, it simply is not.
Howdy Beth. I'm finally on vacation for a week and the online traffic has been slow. What I'm getting at is this, many socially liberal or libertarian conservatives I'll call them want social conservatives to just head up and leave the GOP but I say why don't the libertarians leave too? Why one and not the other? Who left them in charge of the house?
ReplyDeleteI just want all of us to be one big happy family.
ReplyDeleteApparently there's a Halelujah Party ...
ReplyDeleteWe are WAY overdue a legitimate third party in America. Why is it that 60% of us have no "comfortable" party to fit into? When you stop and analyze it, about 20% of the population are extremely liberal and they fit fine in the Dummycrat party and 20% are far right conservatives and they fit well into the Republican Party. That leaves 60% of us "Average Americans" with no true representation.
ReplyDelete"It's the economy stupid!" Bush #1 didn't see that and was a 1-term President. The current candidates don't seem to see it and that is why we may very well see NObama get to be a 2-term President. Someone had better get their head out of their ass soon and start coming up with some SERIOUS economic solutions--and FAST!
Why is a political party necessary at all?
ReplyDelete"Being a social conservatives does not mean we want a theocracy, although people like Soapie think that is true, it simply is not."
ReplyDeleteBullshit. If it wasn't about a theocracy and was instead about the preservation of life Beth then all the evangelicals wouldn't be in full on support of a candidate who has no compunction with bombing, killing, and maiming brown skinned people in the Middle East.
I've long held that social conservatives should leave the Republican Party because the Republican Establishment doesn't want them. Beth we'll never be one big happy family if we have this rift, it's a bug up the ass of libertarian conservatives and the issue always crops up at the worst times like we should be criticizing Obama not Rick Santorum or Ron Paul or Newt Gingrich. IF the so-cons left the Party and the libertarians also left the Party there'd be no pro-life OR pro-choice in the Republican Party, it'd simply be we have no position. We don't talk about those things, we keep it lite like how's the economic weather doing?
ReplyDeleteThe libertarians will leave the party soon enough. Then the pro-life warmongers can have it all for themselves.
ReplyDeleteWell not exactly, that'd be the Neo-Cons. Abortion isn't much on the table with them, it's remaking the Whole Middle East.
ReplyDeleteA rose by any other name...
ReplyDeleteI've often said since Bush was able to start a war or two the same right should be afforded Obama. Of course nobody pays any attention anymore to Congressional declarations of war I'm just talkin' consistency here.
ReplyDeleteDon't let the door hit you on the way out.
ReplyDeleteLet me be clear I'm not a Republican, I'm a registered Conservative. Before that I was simply an Independent and back in the day I was RTL. I'm already out the door and simply vote for the person closest to my values. Most of the time I chose Republicans but I'm not a waterboy.
ReplyDeleteA door would assume that the GOP wants to invite people in. They want nothing of the sort.
ReplyDeleteObama doesn't seem to be going after the white male vote. According to the NY Times a major package of the campaign will be aimed at women. It takes many groups to make a pluralistic society but if overdone going after women can kind of be an effeminate political strategy. Will Obama visit a bridge hall?
ReplyDeleteHammer meets nail squarely.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/robin-koerner/the-three-political-parti_b_1355340.html