The Future of Republicans (a Libertarian perspective)

[Spiffarino]

Lew Rockwell on Republicans and their love of and lust for power.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/gop-future.html

Excerpt:

Journalist Rick Perlstein recently asked for my forecast on the future of the Republican Party. It's an important question. American political culture takes election victory to be the ratification of truth, which is why this question is usually addressed from the point of view of whether the party will continue to hold power. I would rather address the issue of what power has come to mean to the Republicans: namely, everything.

The Republican love of liberty, which seemed to be a sincere impulse of the party's core during the 1990s, has been reduced to mere sloganeering. After many decades of balancing its ideological contradictions, the culture of the party – its leadership, activists, interest groups, and intellectual backers – has fully embraced power in all forms.

Now, pointing this out is akin to mentioning the elephant in the living room, the one which some of the guests welcome and some have decided to ignore. For the latter group, here is a partial litany of what the Bush administration has done by way of using and expanding government power: the Patriot Act, the Patriot Act II (as part of Intelligence Reform), No Child Left Behind, Medicare drug benefits, the Transportation Safety Administration, and the Department of Homeland Security, not to mention two major wars that have cost hundreds of billions, and left only destruction and chaos in their wake. Government spending in Bush's first term soared more than 29%, twice Clinton's average.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Ok the elepant in the room is now becoming quite obvous

Folks the Republican Party are enemies of freedom... thanks for the meme

For the record Ron Paul is first and foremost a Libertarian.

[Spiffarino]

5. You're right about Ron Paul

I don't know where Rockwell gets the idea that Ron Paul is a Repub in anything but name.

[LearnedHand]

2. I never thought I'd agree with most of what...

...a libertarian said. Then again, I never believed I'd be sitting here thinking, "Orwell soft-pedalled it," either.

It's interesting how the neocons are purifying the Reublican party and its doctrine. Now, only the MOST CORRECT of the planks can stay; they're running out everyone who doesn't adhere to rah-rah-Jesus, bring-'em-on style of chanting. And the christian patsies fling themselves right into the neocons' hands.

Thanks for posting this article.

[Spiffarino]

6. Only the "pure" Repubs

...get anything off the big table. The rest of us get whatever falls off.

I read Lew Rockwell regularly. He and most of the people who write for his site understand the problem with the BFEE. I'm no Libertarian, but we Dems and progressives definitely do share common ground. Economics aside, they're strongly in favor of the First Amendment, are pro-choice, pro gay rights, and advocate privacy.

Their free market agenda is extreme and dog-eat-dog, but their stance on social issues fits very well with ours IMHO.

[DireStrike]

3. Uh... republicans loved liberty in the 90s?!

I think he missed by a few decades.

[Spiffarino]

7. That was my reaction

:wtf:

[Calvinist Basset]

4. I pray for a swift implosion of the Republican party.

May it get so big and muscle-bound and corrupt that it inevitably dies.

[mockingbich]

8. Bush will destroy the GOP - but not for the reasons in this article

IMMIGRATION POLICY

Bush is for open borders (big business cheap labor) and is absolutely NOT enforcing immigration law! The country is filling up with illegal criminal aliens stealing jobs, depressing wages, destroying unions, overcrowding schools, and driving up taxes.

75 Republican congressman stopped shrub's intelligence bill because of immigration. THat is only a small sign of things to come....forget all the other issues... immigration is Bush's achilles heel. When Democrats get tough on immigration law enforcement they will win 2008

[Spiffarino]

9. Whose jobs are they stealing?

I grew up in Southern California. The only job I ever lost to illegals was at a commercial building that I cleaned. At first I was pissed, but then I realized it was time to move on and do something else. I went to school, got a far better job, and stopped having to work 7 days a week.

Meanwhile, they took over a job I didn't really want and went to work bettering their lives so their kids won't have to clean buildings when they grow up.

Circle of life, baby.

[MissMarple]

10. He makes a lot of sense, except for this statement.

"...Even if the left will forever loathe capitalism and the market economy, it can come to recognize that the state which tramples on property at home will trample on everyone's liberties, at home and everywhere."

Everyone left of middle does not believe that capitalism and the market economy are evil. I have always thought that most of us believe they are good things, but like most things involving people and the inevitable vagaries of human nature, they need regulation to insure against exactly what many of the corporations are trying to do today. They want government of, by and for the corporations. And more egregiously it is only certain corporations that need apply for the opportunity to replace the American people in the Constitution and the concept of the individual in American law.

This particular statement of Rockwell's is an evil piece of propaganda that is helping to destroy our country.

[teryang]

11. Excellent point n/t