Don't Get Too Comfortable With the GOP's New Love For Libertarians

[twomp]

In what many described as yet another indication of a monumental shift happening in the Grand Old Party, the Republican National Committee last week passed a resolution calling for an end to the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records.

But the party’s apparent shuffling to a more limited government, civil liberties-conscious platform may not be as genuine as some believe.

The RNC’s resolution, which passed by an “overwhelming majority,” declares “the mass collection and retention of personal data is in itself contrary to the right of privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”

These are strong words for the party that stood by President George W. Bush when he secretly (and illegally) ordered the NSA to spy on the domestic communications of Americans without any warrants at all. Time magazine’s Zeke Miller branded the RNC’s resolution “the latest indication of a growing libertarian wing of the GOP.”

It’s not just on NSA surveillance that Republicans are choreographing a shift. Chris Christie, Republican Governor of New Jersey and expected 2016 presidential candidate, made headlines earlier this month when he condemned the “failed war on drugs” in his second inaugural address.

Departing from the traditional Republican orthodoxy that more prison beds equal less crime, Christie railed against the canard that “incarceration is the cure of every ill caused by drug abuse.”

Rand Paul (R-KY), another expected presidential candidate and the perceived leader in the GOP’s libertarian swing, has also worked in Congress to eliminate mandatory minimum sentencing for non-violent drug possession.

“[M]ore and more conservatives are clambering down from the prison ramparts,” wrote political scientists David Dagan and Steve Teles in a 2012 article in The Washington Monthly. “Change is coming to criminal justice because [of] an alliance of evangelicals and libertarians” on the right, they claimed.

Many libertarians have also been pleased with Republicans’ triumphant rekindling of anti-spending, anti-debt rhetoric, which seems to owe its rebirth to the election of Barack Obama as a catalyst.

All of this is done with an eye toward the poll numbers. Americans increasingly oppose draconian drug war policies, debt-ridden government, and excessively interventionist foreign policies.

But libertarians would do well to keep in mind a simple lesson of politics: Never trust a party out of power.

Time and time again, the party not occupying the White House and lacking full control of Congress opposes the status quo and hunkers down on purported party creeds, only to contradict those principles when they return to power.



more here:

http://reason.com/archives/2014/02/02/dont-get-too-comfortable-with-the-gops-n

[cajuncocoa]

The GOP cannot love what it doesn't understand. There's more to libertarianism than lowering taxes. They're not ready to embrace what being libertarian means in full.

[klamath]

more here:

http://reason.com/archives/2014/02/02/dont-get-too-comfortable-with-the-gops-n

Never trust a party out of power.
And that is why you should NEVER trust the libertarians. They are never in power.

[twomp]

And that is why you should NEVER trust the libertarians. They are never in power.

How insightful of you. Tell me, how has trusting the R's and D's worked out for us?

[Petar]

The GOP cannot love what it doesn't understand. There's more to libertarianism than lowering taxes. They're not ready to embrace what being libertarian means in full.

It's called "progress", you likely psi-op professional stick in the mud.

[klamath]

How insightful of you. Tell me, how has trusting the R's and D's worked out for us?I don't trust anyone, Ls, Ds or Rs. One thing I have learned in the heavy involvment in the RP campaigns. I trust libertarians just as little as I trust republicans and Dems.

[Natural Citizen]

It's called "progress", you likely psi-op professional stick in the mud.

Your "progress" is going to get another Democrat elected. I've seen it happen at the local level. Same characters...same game...same outcome. A bunch of bumblefucks. Some of these political groups and non-profits excel at and go out of their way to destroy any kind of hard work and synergy among those who are typically and historically on different sides of the coin but have come together for the better.

Watch and see. Watch...

[GunnyFreedom]

I know the guy who wrote the resolution personally. He is a pauler, was a Ron Paul delegate to the RNC in 2012, and he has worked his rear end off for over a year to get that passed. Whatever we may say about the motives of the committee members who cast their votes, the origin of the resolution is 100% legit.

[LibertyEagle]

This is a time, however, that we could make a lot of inroads with regular 'ol Republicans. Their ears are open. If we opened ours too to and joined up with them initially on things we agree on, it just might be amazing.

[JK/SEA]

just fucking words on a piece of paper.

you're giving it relevance by being a defeatist.

[GunnyFreedom]

just fucking words on a piece of paper.

you're giving it relevance by being a defeatist.

That's a nice attitude to have about a fervent Ron Paul supporter who just worked his ass off ~40 hours a week for a whole year just to make this happen. Thanks for telling him that his actual activism doesn't count. Why not go tell Bryan Daugherty personally that he should stop working on saving the country and just go home and sit on his computer whining about the people actually doing the work?

[Anti Federalist]

I know the guy who wrote the resolution personally. He is a pauler, was a Ron Paul delegate to the RNC in 2012, and he has worked his rear end off for over a year to get that passed. Whatever we may say about the motives of the committee members who cast their votes, the origin of the resolution is 100% legit.

I'm as cynical as they come, but at the same time I have to at least hope that there is some progress happening.

So that is good news.

[cajuncocoa]

I know the guy who wrote the resolution personally. He is a pauler, was a Ron Paul delegate to the RNC in 2012, and he has worked his rear end off for over a year to get that passed. Whatever we may say about the motives of the committee members who cast their votes, the origin of the resolution is 100% legit.
Gunny, I like you a lot and I trust you more than many on this board. The guy you know who wrote this resolution may be 100% legit as you say, but I've read enough on this board to know that being a Ron Paul supporter alone does not mean someone is ready to embrace libertarianism in full. Some Ron Paul supporters are not libertarians at all and do not want that label attached to them.

By the way, that's fine; I wish everyone would refrain from pinning that label on those who do not understand it and do not want it.

[Origanalist]

The public's growing libertarian proclivities may torque American politics in a more positive direction over the long term, but nobody should be surprised when, if Republicans control the White House and Congress in 2016, they slickly erase from their platforms, and the history books, this day's more libertarian posture.

It's a fair warning. Most everyone here doesn't need it, but a good article.

[GunnyFreedom]

I'm as cynical as they come, but at the same time I have to at least hope that there is some progress happening.

So that is good news.

I don't necessarily believe that any of this is big enough or fast enough to make a real difference in the long run, but I am deeply heartened by the indomitable spirit of the remnant of Americans who love liberty and will fight to win it. Regardless, even if it is outside of the realm of possibility to stave of a collapse, these are still the kinds of things that need to happen so that history has a record that there were, in fact, people trying to stop it. The few stories of real resistance to Nazi tyranny have taken on almost legendary status down the course of history for a reason. One of the things that outrages me about people dismissing Bryan's hard work here as fake, is they are robbing him of that legacy.

[Matt Collins]

Truer words were never spoken:





But libertarians would do well to keep in mind a simple lesson of politics: Never trust a party out of power.
Time and time again, the party not occupying the White House and lacking full control of Congress opposes the status quo and hunkers down on purported party creeds, only to contradict those principles when they return to power.
The reality is that holding power brings perverse constraints, incentives, and perspectives on policy, while being out of power incentivizes politicians to exploit public discontent and capitalize on the political winds.

These politics are playing out constantly on both sides. It has become almost trite to point out the Democratic Party's betrayal of its Bush-era opposition to war and civil liberties abuses. On everything from NSA surveillance and Guantanamo Bay to pulling out of reckless wars, Democrats no longer seem like the party of peaceniks and civil libertarians.


Lord Acton warned about the tendency of power to corrupt and absolute power to corrupt absolutely. That is surely the case in Washington and especially in the executive branch, where the full burden of bureaucratic inertia and a president’s brigade of unelected advisers, invariably long-standing members of the establishment whose positions don’t whimsically tilt with the opinion polls, resist even genuine attempts to alter the status quo.
The public's growing libertarian proclivities may torque American politics in a more positive direction over the long term, but nobody should be surprised when, if Republicans control the White House and Congress in 2016, they slickly erase from their platforms, and the history books, this day's more libertarian posture.

[GunnyFreedom]

Gunny, I like you a lot and I trust you more than many on this board. The guy you know who wrote this resolution may be 100% legit as you say, but I've read enough on this board to know that being a Ron Paul supporter alone does not mean someone is ready to embrace libertarianism in full. Some Ron Paul supporters are not libertarians at all and do not want that label attached to them.

By the way, that's fine; I wish everyone would refrain from pinning that label on those who do not understand it and do not want it.

I refuse the label myself. I am politically a strict Constitutionalist, and philosophically a voluntaryist. Bryan Daugherty is 100% the real deal, and people need to stop running off at the mouth before knowing the facts of a situation. I thought we were better than that. :( This knee-jerk auto-hatred is the same crap the status quo gatekeepers put on the Republican Electorate vs Ron Paul in 2008 and 2012. This so very much reminds me of the cycle of abuse where a kid gets abused by his father so he turns around and abuses his own son. We are supposed to be better than that! :mad:

[cajuncocoa]

I refuse the label myself. I am politically a strict Constitutionalist, and philosophically a voluntaryist. Bryan Daugherty is 100% the real deal, and people need to stop running off at the mouth before knowing the facts of a situation. I thought we were better than that. :( This knee-jerk auto-hatred is the same crap the status quo gatekeepers put on the Republican Electorate vs Ron Paul in 2008 and 2012. This so very much reminds me of the cycle of abuse where a kid gets abused by his father so he turns around and abuses his own son. We are supposed to be better than that! :mad:


My post was a generalization of many in the GOP who misuse political labels....not directed at Mr. Daugherty in particular.

As I said, I trust you more than many here. If you say Bryan Daugherty is 100% real deal, I'll accept that endorsement of him from you.

[Cleaner44]

I don't need to trust the Republican party.

I don't need all Republicans to agree with me.

I don't need the new attitude to be heartfelt.

The movement of the GOP toward a more libertarian position is a good thing. This is what we want. As the concept of liberty becomes more accepted and desired, our position gets stronger.

[purplechoe]

The only thing we can hope for is an educated public and that seems to be a herculean task...

Even Ron knew that not much change would take place with his presidential bid, for him and for others like him it should be about getting the message out to the public to cut through all the propaganda.

[GunnyFreedom]

My post was a generalization of many in the GOP who misuse political labels....not directed at Mr. Daugherty in particular.

As I said, I trust you more than many here. If you say Bryan Daugherty is 100% real deal, I'll accept that endorsement of him from you.

Thank you, and sorry, my anger there was really not directed at you, I promise.

[JK/SEA]

Resolutions eh?...

just feel good rhetoric.

been there, done that....

dog and pony show.

I'm focusing on getting Liberty candidates elected by sending money.

[belian78]

This is a time, however, that we could make a lot of inroads with regular 'ol Republicans. Their ears are open. If we opened ours too to and joined up with them initially on things we agree on, it just might be amazing.
It's not amazing to work with someone on something that you agree on, that's the way things are supposed to work. Being able to give constructive criticism when it's due without being told you're being a child and get go along to get along, that would be amazing.