CaseyJones
09-23-2013, 02:03 PM
http://www.rollcall.com/news/cracks_in_gop_wall_stem_from_civil_liberties_spend ing_issues_commentary-227807-1.html?pos=oplyh
The Republican Party’s internal divisions over Syria have broken along familiar lines. Establishment conservatives such as Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio plan to defend the president’s red line abroad. The next generation of Republicans, including Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah, and Ted Cruz of Texas, and Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan and Thomas Massie of Kentucky are worrying more about red ink here at home.
The same red line is drawn in one congressional policy battle after another — from Syria to the use of drones and National Security Agency surveillance to efforts to defund Obamacare, cut spending and stop debt ceiling increases. It’s an uphill battle for the liberty-minded. As Paul reflected in the press, “We’re losing, on a good day, 70/30 among the Republicans. But we win every day among the grass roots, probably 80/20, 90/10.”
A new analysis of Republican voters shows that Paul’s grass-roots estimate may not be off by very much. His foreign policy skepticism has actually become a majority opinion among Republicans. Recent polling conducted for FreedomWorks by the Polling Company Inc. found that 51 percent think the United States should not “take the leading role among all other countries in the world in trying to solve international conflicts,” compared with 39 percent who say the United States should.
More broadly, the views that Paul and many of his colleagues espouse on the proper size and role of government reflect the growing segment of the Republican Party, where small-L libertarian sentiments are at the highest level since 2000.
In fact, 41 percent of Republican voters hold limited-government views. (American National Election Studies found 26 percent in 2000; Gallup found just 15 percent in 2002.) Furthermore, 68 percent now agree with the libertarian view that “individuals should be free to do as they like as long as they don’t hurt others, and that the government should keep out of people’s day-to-day lives.” The old stigma of the libertarian label is eroding; 42 percent of Republicans had a favorable view of the term in the new poll.
These voters can be identified as libertarian based on their fiscally conservative but socially moderate views, even if the word libertarian may be unfamiliar to them.
The Republican Party’s internal divisions over Syria have broken along familiar lines. Establishment conservatives such as Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio plan to defend the president’s red line abroad. The next generation of Republicans, including Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah, and Ted Cruz of Texas, and Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan and Thomas Massie of Kentucky are worrying more about red ink here at home.
The same red line is drawn in one congressional policy battle after another — from Syria to the use of drones and National Security Agency surveillance to efforts to defund Obamacare, cut spending and stop debt ceiling increases. It’s an uphill battle for the liberty-minded. As Paul reflected in the press, “We’re losing, on a good day, 70/30 among the Republicans. But we win every day among the grass roots, probably 80/20, 90/10.”
A new analysis of Republican voters shows that Paul’s grass-roots estimate may not be off by very much. His foreign policy skepticism has actually become a majority opinion among Republicans. Recent polling conducted for FreedomWorks by the Polling Company Inc. found that 51 percent think the United States should not “take the leading role among all other countries in the world in trying to solve international conflicts,” compared with 39 percent who say the United States should.
More broadly, the views that Paul and many of his colleagues espouse on the proper size and role of government reflect the growing segment of the Republican Party, where small-L libertarian sentiments are at the highest level since 2000.
In fact, 41 percent of Republican voters hold limited-government views. (American National Election Studies found 26 percent in 2000; Gallup found just 15 percent in 2002.) Furthermore, 68 percent now agree with the libertarian view that “individuals should be free to do as they like as long as they don’t hurt others, and that the government should keep out of people’s day-to-day lives.” The old stigma of the libertarian label is eroding; 42 percent of Republicans had a favorable view of the term in the new poll.
These voters can be identified as libertarian based on their fiscally conservative but socially moderate views, even if the word libertarian may be unfamiliar to them.