United Liberty

Over the last couple of years, libertarians have complained about the emphasis conservatives, particularly the Rick Santorums and Mike Huckabees their movement, have placed on social issues. We’ve noted that conservatives should focus their message on issues where they can attract agreement — such as repealing ObamaCare, lessening regulation on businesses, cutting spending, and reducing taxes.

While I support same-sex marriage and have grown increasingly pro-choice within reason, the Republican National Convention was a largely a breath of fresh air from this perspective . That’s not to say that I agree with everything said on the budget, economy or foreign policy, but the discussion of social issues was relatively mild with Republicans choosing instead to place a heavy focus on the economic record of President Barack Obama.

But watching the Democratic National Convention off-and-on for a couple of days, one can’t help but notice the heavy emphasis on social issues. There is certainly a discussion and defense of President Obama’s economic record, but abortion, same-sex marriage, and labor unions been featured heavily.

Of course, this is really isn’t surprising. Democrats have tried to change the narrative at several points since the beginning of the year; usually by complaining that there is some supposed “war” being waged against a segment of the American public.

Believe me, if you were working for Team Obama or a congressional campaign, you would much rather talk about wedge social issues instead of answering questions about the United States’ falling global competitiveness, confidence in the economy hitting a low for the year, the $16 trillion national debt and the fourth straight $1 trillion budget deficit, or an unemployment rate that is over 8%. Democrats talk about job creation under Obama, but the full view shows that the economy is still running a deficit compared to pre-recession jobs numbers. In reality, the economy should be booming as it has during previous economic recoveries.

No Democrat really wants to answer the question, “Are better off today than you were four years ago?” As noted yesterday, a poll from The Hill shows that Americans believe they are worse off. Not only that, they don’t believe President Obama deserves a second term. Democrats are either purposefully ignoring all this or they are completely in denial — a convention of Baghdad Bobs, if you will.

While issues of personal liberty are important to libertarians, the economy and long-term budget issues are the issues that are on the table during this election. You need only look at the their convention to see that Democrats are wholly out of touch with what is facing America right now.