Friday, November 17, 2006

Social Conservatives vs. Libertarians

At the link is a speech by McCain that was interesting.
When you look at the margin that Conrad lost by to Tester, then look at the number of votes given to the Libertarian candidate, I am sure that Conrad is now wishing he would have courted us more. Of course, this is not to say that Libertarians would necessarily have voted for Conrad to begin with. In fact, it could be argued that the jump in the Libertarian vote was really more of a "None of the Above" kind of vote.
While some in the Republican Party are blaming their losses on the Libertarians, it has to be because they have taken us for granted for too long. There is a natural affiliation with the ideals of the Republican Government: i.e. Small government, fiscal conservatism, which is why the two parties have worked together in the past.
However, the present day Republican Party seems to have abandoned those principles and with it us. They had taken to spending like mad in an effort to try and maintain popularity with the voters by essentially paying them off.
Unfortunately for the Republicans, this abandonment of principles has cost them our support. Unfortunately for Libertarians, our voting clout is so much smaller than that of the Social Conservatives.
Social Conservatives have found themselves ostracized from the Democratic Party. One recent comment that I enjoyed is that Democrats who support right to life are considered moderates, while Republicans who support right to life are extremists. But Social Conservatives are in many ways the complete opposite of Libertarians.
If the fundamental essence of Libertarianism is the right to be left alone, the fundamental essence of Social Conservatism is that the world is going to Hell in a Handbasket, and only the Government can stop it.
Part of this is a reposne to the Courts taking on non-legal political issues, and the government is the only check and balance to a court exercising authority over what is a purely political question. Nonetheless, whether justified or not, their goals would conflict with our ideals for the most part. Since they are antithetical, and there are so many more of them than there are of us Libertarians, the Republicans may be drawn to the idea of tossing us overboard in order to keep the larger number of social conservatives.
So, what is a good Libertarian to do? I hate to admit it, but I think that we will need to try and work harder with the Republicans in order to corrall the courts. If we can convince the Republicans, and through them the public as a whole, that the courts need to butt out of social engineering, the social conservatives would have no reason to complain, nor to manipulate the Republican party any longer.
A Win - Win for all.

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