United Liberty
GOP and libertarians: Part 2 of 2
Mon, 07/20/2009 - 12:19pm | posted by Jason Pye
While driving to Atlanta on Thursday evening, I caught part of an interview with Newt Gingrich on The Sean Hannity Show. Gingrich was speaking against ObamaCare, and rightfully so (to get an idea of what he said, you can read a transcript from Hannity’s television show later that night). The president’s so-called health care “reform” proposal will crowd out private health insurance and eventually lead to a takeover of the insurance industry. As Brett Bittner wrote yesterday, we need to work together to “flatline ObamaCare.” There is no disagreement there.
There does, however, need to be an understanding while conservatives and libertarians work towards this goal, it appears that Newt Gingrich, and some other so-called conservatives have appointed themselves the spokesmen for all things conservative, nothing could be further from the truth. It seems that Mr. Gingrich doesn’t necessarily have a problem with a bigger government that spends more and more of taxpayer money, it seems he is only opposed to big government that comes with Democrats. This goes to the root of the problem those inside the liberty movement have with Republicans.
Newt Gingrich is probably not the spokesperson that Republicans should want leading the opposition to ObamaCare.
In 2003, Gingrich not only supported a $9 trillion expansion of Medicare (Part D, the prescription drug program), he lobbied Republican members of the House of Representatives to get behind it. He went as far as labeling conservatives that opposed it as “obstructionists.”
Not only that, but he supported the bailout of financial institutions, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, costing taxpayers trillions of dollars.
Politics is the art of compromise. You’ll get no argument from me there. However, you should never betray your core principles and beliefs. Gingrich, and many Republicans, have done exactly that and are in the minority for that reason.
Consistancy matters. Credibility comes with consistancy. Right now, Republicans, and to some degree conservatives, have a credibility problem.
A few weeks ago, I noticed Hannity using the word “statist” to describe supporters of Barack Obama’s agenda. Again, no disagreement, but that description is also accurate of Republicans that backed the massive expansion of government during the presidency of George W. Bush.
For too many, the fight is Democrat versus Republican, liberal versus conservative. This inside the box thinking is what causes confusion for Republicans and conservatives when it comes to our movement.
Those of us inside the liberty movement see things through a very different perspective. To paraphrase Jason Talley, the battlelines are not left against right, it’s the state aganst individual liberty. Pick a side.
While I agree with most of is said above I think that drawing the lines and living exclusively on one side or the other removes any effectiveness we may have in swaying the conservative party back closer to the ideals of liberty and smaller government (not government that is slightly smaller because it’s controlled by Republicans but real Reagan style government that pushes the envelope of liberty further). What I mean to say, is that rather than having an us against them mentality we should join them and work from the inside to force the Gingrich types to the sidelines. Yes I know, he is a titan in the party but he can be marginalized if we are willing to push that party as a whole closer to us. That is, you can make the conservative party more libertarian by working within it , not demagoging its members (who are quite sensitive to criticism) and by rephrasing the dialogue. We don’t push our ideals onto them, rather we push their ideals closer to ours. That’s convoluted, I know but I’m willing to hear any ideas or ways that this can be accomplished or where I’ve gone wrong.
The argument, as I said above, is not “we versus them.” I didn’t write this to demonize conservatives, but to show them that the liberty movement is not going to go along to get along. United Liberty exists to promote personal and economic liberty into the mainstream, and sometimes we’re gonna disagree with conservatives but hopefully they’ll see our view.
I took extraordinary lengths to not slam Republicans or conservatives, but to point out that they need to show us something if they want our support.
The problem with the 2 established parties is their $$$ backers. At this point, they are so powerful that the candidates become puppets. Candidates that mean well do not deliver on promises, like vetoing pork bills etc.
The goal becomes getting the party in power and keeping it there. They ($$$) pick candidates to support by the chance to win electoral votes over personal convictions of the candidate.
We need to show these machines that they need us and not the other way around. When we compromise our vote and vote for the lesser of two evils, we just admitted it is governance by the party for the party. They are picking our choices knowing we will bend and vote their man. How many on either side are making this compromise?
I can’t do it any more.
Post new comment