Libertarian Ron Paul (R-Texas) won the Presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) for the second year in a row. This development has social conservatives like nationally syndicated talk show host, Kevin McCullough, in a state of hyper disgust and loathing over what he laments as the rise of libertarianism in the Republican Party.
Mr. McCullough sees Libertarians as “radically disrespectful… libertines,” the antitheses of real conservatives, because they “actually advocated for legalized pot and the redefinition of marriage to include homosexual unions.”
“The truth is Libertarians are the worst form of political affiliation in the nation,” McCullough claims; worse even than “liberals.” “Combining the desire of economic greed, with the amoral desire to promote any behavior regardless of its cost to our culture is a stark departure from the intent of the Founding Fathers… Libertarian elements, because of their strange combination of policies that add up to anarchy without moral limits, don't mix with conservative ideals,” he concludes.
The trouble with social conservatives is that they are not content with being social conservatives; they want everyone to be social conservatives. American culture belongs to them, they think. They are statists who want to dictate American culture by means of religious and political force. That is a major problem with the Republican Party in America and the main reason why they don’t win more elections. People are afraid of right-wing extremes, and they should be.
Libertarians are conservative too, but content to be libertarian, and to let social conservatives be social conservatives. We don’t care about your culture. We believe that free individuals choose their own culture. We don’t want to force personal values on others. We know that the founding fathers of the United States of America were libertarian.
Libertarian is the only political philosophy which seeks no advantage over others by force or deception. Social conservatives on the right, and progressives on the left are all seeking some sort of political advantage. They want to force their collective visions of how society should be on all of us. They don’t hesitate to use politics as a club to have their way.
Libertarians; most of us just want to be left alone. Libertarians aren’t politicians. That’s why we don’t win elections as our own political party. There is no potential political advantage over others by being libertarian. We don’t believe in using politics as a club.
The Republican Party could use more of us; and so could the Democrats.
"They are statists who want to dictate American culture by means of religious and political force."
ReplyDeleteClausewitz had it backwards. Politics is the continuation of warfare by other means.