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Conservatives turn Libertarian on Social Issues

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Anonymous

Guest
March 07, 2014, 08:13 pm
At CPAC, social issues are suddenly libertarian issues



By Cameron Joseph

Friday's Conservative Political Action Conference agenda looked like it was going to be dominated by social conservatives after the confab steered clear of the hot-button issues the day before.

But, it turns out even social conservatives are sounding a bit like libertarians these days within the GOP.


Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who ran ads on gay marriage in his failed 2012 presidential bid, didn't mention the issue once. Neither did Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who drilled hard on social issues in his speech but framed them as constitutional issues instead.

Huckabee and other potential presidential contenders who did tackle controversial topics like abortion and same-sex marriage instead framed them as problems of government intrusion rather than moral obligation.

"When the government begins to say 'it's okay if you have faith but you can only have this much of it because, when you have this much of it, it may somehow conflict with something government has passed, here's what I know: It's time for the government to scale back, not for people of faith to scale back. Religious liberty should be unimpeded in this nation,” Huckabee said in his speech, referencing the current court battle over ObamaCare's contraception mandate.

The onetime Baptist minister told The Hill afterward that he wasn’t hiding his opposition to gay marriage, but that his focus, like voters’, was elsewhere.

“People are generally more concerned about the economy and things. But it doesn’t mean that my position has changed. It just means there are some things on fire, you’ve got to use the water you’ve got for the fires you see burning,” he said.

That realization from many of the party's influential leaders could be welcome news to Republican strategists. Many have cringed that tin-eared comments on the divisive issues have turned their focus away from issues like the economy.

Huckabee, like others, has been burned before for tackling social issues.


After stirring controversy with his comments at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting by saying Democrats want government-mandated birth control because they believe "women can't control their libido," he stayed away from a similar attack on Friday.

This year, the safer bet was to focus on privacy issues, foreign policy and the economy — issues where Republicans believe President Obama and Democrats have significantly fallen short.

Sen. Rand Paul (R), true to form, spent his own speech locked on "liberty."

“Will we stand idly by and let our rights be trampled upon?” he asked. “Will we be like lemmings, rushing to the comfort of Big Brother’s crushing embrace? Or will we stand like men and women of character and say ‘we are free and no man, no matter how well-intentioned, will take our freedom from us’?”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who declared in his CPAC speech last year that his belief that "states should have the right to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot," spent most of his speech focused on foreign policy. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) focused mostly on budget and fiscal issues and party unity.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) touted his opposition to abortion but pointed to pro-abortion rights Republicans who’ve been allowed to speak at the Republican National Convention over the years.

“They’re the party of intolerance, not us,” he declared.

Others sought to reframe gay marriage as a states’ rights issue, one much more in tune with libertarian philosophy than socially conservative doctrine.

“We right now have a great belief not only in religious conscience and the rights of religious conscience when it comes to marriage, but a great belief in federalism — the idea that New York and California may have legitimated or recognized or decided that those states should sponsor gay marriage doesn't mean that Texas should be compelled by overreaching courts or anyone else to sponsor gay marriage,” said conservative radio host Michael Medved during a panel on whether social conservatives and libertarians can get along.

GOP strategist Ford O’Connell told The Hill that shifting away from moralizing and towards a defense of personal rights would help the party.

“Huckabee talking about an assault on religious liberty is something that comports with the libertarian mindset – ‘get out of my bedroom, get out of my mind, get out of my life,” he said. “It’s about moving forward versus pushing your views on someone else, which is a very big switch in terms of how you’re messaging. And it’s something people can agree with you on even if they don’t like your position.”

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) was the lone exception to tackle gay marriage without framing it as a Tenth Amendment issue, and his speech fell flat with the libertarian-leaning conservative crowd as young activists crowded into the hall in anticipation of Paul's speech.

American Conservative Union President Al Cardenas told The Hill that shift in message was no surprise.

“If we can't unite social conservatives and libertarians, we can't win. The unity amongst folks with these differences is critical,” he said. “Both libertarians and social conservatives, for example, support Little Sisters of the Poor's Supreme Court Case [requiring them to provide insurance covering contraception] — libertarians, from the standpoint of government intrusion into individual choices, and social conservative because they don't feel that doing this is within the values system of being a good Judeo-Christian. People approach it from different angles but they both come to the same place.”

Cardenas said the lack of focus on gay marriage also made sense, framing it, like Medved, in Constitutional rather than moral terms.

“After the Supreme Court ruled on the issue and turned it truly into a 10th amendment issue, it's become less of a federal conversation and more of a state conversation,” he said.

O’Connell said it was a political necessity for the party to embrace a more libertarian tone going forward.

“When you bash same-sex marriage… it kills you with young people,” he said. Because as soon as they hear that they don’t care if you have the cure for cancer, they’ve turned off.”
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Looks like I could have written the platform for the CPAC convention... :wink: :p :lol: They are doing almost exactly what I said that conservative Republicans need to do to ever allow a Republican to win another national election-- downplaying the social issues and developing a more Libertarian take on those social issues... Before you never even heard the far right agreeing to leaving same-sex marriage to the states... Or Republican politicians talking against government involvement in the abortion issue...

Now they are saying what I have said for a long time- the federal government should never have stuck their nose in issues such as abortion or same-sex marriage- and that by doing so and then having the courts rule the government interference unconstitutional they have created their own monster size issues...

Altho- they are now arguing that same sex marriage is a 10th Amendment issue (and insinuating the court said the same) when actually the SCOTUS ruling overturning DOMA was because of the 5th Amendment Due Process Clause, based on the concept of "fundamental fairness" and that a deprivation of their equal rights... I think all the court rulings saying those folks Constitutional rights have been violated because of the 5th Amendment has taken it past a 10th Amendment issue to be decided by the individual states..
Maybe the semantics (calling it same-sex marriage or civil unions) and how its handled (legislated or court mandated) will be allowed by the states- but the economic/property issue will have to meet those Federal rulings... Roe vs Wade left abortion a state issue to an extent- but I don't think that will fly anymore with same-sex marriage...




United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. ___ (2013) (Docket No. 12-307), is a landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court held that restricting U.S. federal interpretation of "marriage" and "spouse" to apply only to heterosexual unions, by Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), is unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, because doing so "disparage and ... injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity."
 

Mike

Well-known member
Hey Einstein.....The "Tea Party" has always been a mixture of conservative and libertarian ideology. From day one.

:roll:

Cato Institute -Libertarian Roots of the Tea Party



By David Kirby and Emily McClintock Ekins

August 6, 2012



Many people on the left still dismiss the tea party as the same old religious right, but the evidence says they are wrong. The tea party has strong libertarian roots and is a functionally libertarian influence on the Republican Party.

Compiling data from local and national polls, as well as dozens of original interviews with tea party members and leaders, we find that the tea party is united on economic issues, but split on the social issues it tends to avoid. Roughly half the tea party is socially conservative, half libertarian — or, fiscally conservative, but socially moderate to liberal.

Libertarians led the way for the tea party. Starting in early 2008 through early 2009, we find that libertarians were more than twice as “angry” with the Republican Party, more pessimistic about the economy and deficit since 2001, and more frustrated that people like them cannot affect government than were conservatives. Libertarians, including young people who supported Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign, provided much of the early energy for the tea party and spread the word through social media.

Understanding the tea party’s strong libertarian roots helps explain how the tea party movement has become a functionally libertarian influence on the Republican Party. Most tea partiers have focused on fiscal, not social, issues — cutting spending, ending bailouts, reducing debt, and reforming taxes and entitlements — rather than discussing abortion or gay marriage. Even social conservatives and evangelicals within the tea party act like libertarians. The tea party is upending the conventional wisdom that Republican candidates must placate socially conservative voters to win primaries.

To the extent the Republican Party becomes functionally libertarian, focusing on fiscal over social issues, the tea party deserves much credit — credit that political strategists, scholars, and journalists have yet to fully give.
 

backhoeboogie

Well-known member
Mike said:
Hey Einstein.....The "Tea Party" has always been a mixture of conservative and libertarian ideology. From day one.

Exactly.

The Libertarians have been around 30 or so years now and they are extremely conservative.

Libertarians lean way to the right on the less government. They always have been. The far far right is to their left.
 

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