GOP: Libertarians not wanted

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Dick Cheney, Rick Santorum, and Underseer all agree - there's no room for the libertarian ideas in their pristine conservative Republican party. Rand Paul isn't even all that libertarian, and yet he's too libertarian for the Republicans to tolerate his presence.

Dick Cheney: Rand Paul Is Wrong On Foreign Policy

Former Vice President Dick Cheney fired back Sunday after Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) criticized his position on Iraq. In an appearance on ABC's "This Week," Cheney argued Paul, who is widely seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2016, is an "isolationist" who doesn't understand the "absolutely essential" need for America to be involved in the Middle East.
"Now, Rand Paul and — by my standards, as I look at his — his philosophy, is basically an isolationist. That didn't work in the 1930s, it sure as heck won't work in the aftermath of 9/11, when 19 guys armed with airline tickets and box cutters came all the way from Afghanistan and killed 3,000 of our citizens," Cheney said, according to a rush transcript of the show.

Santorum Dismisses Rand Paul: ‘The Republican Party Is Not a Libertarian Party’

Former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum has a penchant for dismissing the libertarian movement, and he made that once again on Monday evening when he dismissed the electoral prospects of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), telling CNN that the “Republican Party is not a libertarian party.”

Crossfire host Van Jones asked Santorum for his thoughts on the Kentucky senator, who is currently the “frontrunner” for the 2016 GOP: “Do you agree with his ideas, are you going to support Rand Paul?”

“There’s diversity in the Republican Party,” Santorum hesitated, but Jones pressed further: “Is he the new face of the Republican Party? Is this your leader?”

“Well, no, he’s not my leader, I can tell you that for sure,” the former senator scoffed.

 

[laughing dog]

Technically, the Republican Party is not the Libertarian Party. Philosophically, the Republican party is not libertarian.

In my opinion, Dick Cheney has no credibility. His dismissal of anyone's position probably has the opposite effect that he intends. Santorum is even worse. Why anyone with an IQ above 2 would pay attention to either one of those is beyond my comprehension.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Dick Cheney, Rick Santorum, and Underseer all agree - there's no room for the libertarian ideas in their pristine conservative Republican party. Rand Paul isn't even all that libertarian, and yet he's too libertarian for the Republicans to tolerate his presence.

Dick Cheney: Rand Paul Is Wrong On Foreign Policy



Santorum Dismisses Rand Paul: ‘The Republican Party Is Not a Libertarian Party’

Former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum has a penchant for dismissing the libertarian movement, and he made that once again on Monday evening when he dismissed the electoral prospects of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), telling CNN that the “Republican Party is not a libertarian party.”

Crossfire host Van Jones asked Santorum for his thoughts on the Kentucky senator, who is currently the “frontrunner” for the 2016 GOP: “Do you agree with his ideas, are you going to support Rand Paul?”

“There’s diversity in the Republican Party,” Santorum hesitated, but Jones pressed further: “Is he the new face of the Republican Party? Is this your leader?”

“Well, no, he’s not my leader, I can tell you that for sure,” the former senator scoffed.

I am not getting the jump from what is said in quotes to the GOP doesn't want libertarians.

 

[Emily Lake]

Honestly, are you libertarians all that cheesed about this? Do you want to be associated with the republican party?

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Honestly, are you libertarians all that cheesed about this? Do you want to be associated with the republican party?

Actually, I'm not cheesed about this. I find it refreshing to note that the likes of Dick Cheney, Rick Santorum, and Underseer do not want libertarian influence in their neocon theocon conservative Republican party.

I really find refreshing is that they are saying it out loud.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Honestly, are you libertarians all that cheesed about this? Do you want to be associated with the republican party?

Actually, I'm not cheesed about this. I find it refreshing to note that the likes of Dick Cheney, Rick Santorum, and Underseer do not want libertarian influence in their neocon theocon conservative Republican party.

I really find refreshing is that they are saying it out loud.

Did any of these three people (hardly the entirety of the GOP) actually say "we don't want libertarians in the party?"

 

[Emily Lake]

I'd really be happy to see the republicans go the way of the Whig. D'you think there's a possibility for that in my lifetime?

 

[untermensche]

Many of Paul's positions appeal to people on the left as well as Libertarians.

If he got on the ballot for president he would draw some votes from the left unlike most Republican's.

 

[Emily Lake]

Sure. But I don't think he's likely to draw enough votes to make a difference. That's a draw back to our voting system, unfortunately.

 

[laughing dog]

Actually, I'm not cheesed about this. I find it refreshing to note that the likes of Dick Cheney, Rick Santorum, and Underseer do not want libertarian influence in their neocon theocon conservative Republican party.

I really find refreshing is that they are saying it out loud.

Did any of these three people (hardly the entirety of the GOP) actually say "we don't want libertarians in the party?"

They would never say it out loud. They want the libertarian vote but not the libertarian principles/policies.

 

[untermensche]

Sure. But I don't think he's likely to draw enough votes to make a difference. That's a draw back to our voting system, unfortunately.

It would depend on who he ran against and how he ran.

But he would have the ability to be on the left of people like Hilliary Clinton on things like foreign policy and the drug war.

 

[Ford]

Dick Cheney, Rick Santorum, and Underseer all agree -

Well I guess that's the end of the argument. Move along, folks, nothing to see here...

 

[Tom Sawyer]

If libertarians aren't happy with the GOP, why don't they just get their lazy asses up off the couch and start a popular and respected political party that can win the presidency for them? The Republicans aren't responsible for dealing with these guys' lack of effort.

 

[Ford]

If libertarians aren't happy with the GOP, why don't they just get their lazy asses up off the couch and start a popular and respected political party that can win the presidency for them? The Republicans aren't responsible for dealing with these guys' lack of effort.

Haven't you read Ayn Rand lately? The appeal of libertarianism is that you don't participate at all. You just join all your other genius industrialists in a secret enclave where you keep your society-saving technologies to yourself and wait for the "takers" to tank the rest of the country.

And once the sick, twisted society built by these crypto-socialists has failed miserably, you stay in your secret enclave...where everyone is a "maker" and not a taker.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

If libertarians aren't happy with the GOP, why don't they just get their lazy asses up off the couch and start a popular and respected political party that can win the presidency for them? The Republicans aren't responsible for dealing with these guys' lack of effort.

For years I've been advocating that the last few libertarians still in the GOP move on and out of a party that doesn't want them.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

If libertarians aren't happy with the GOP, why don't they just get their lazy asses up off the couch and start a popular and respected political party that can win the presidency for them? The Republicans aren't responsible for dealing with these guys' lack of effort.

For years I've been advocating that the last few libertarians still in the GOP move on and out of a party that doesn't want them.

I've been saying it for years that I've been saying things for years.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

If libertarians aren't happy with the GOP, why don't they just get their lazy asses up off the couch and start a popular and respected political party that can win the presidency for them? The Republicans aren't responsible for dealing with these guys' lack of effort.

For years I've been advocating that the last few libertarians still in the GOP move on and out of a party that doesn't want them.

The good news is that the Democrats are willing to move sharply to the right in order to woo these new voters.

 

[Sarpedon]

The libertarians stayed with the republican party because they got tired of losing by themselves. Now with the republicans losing everywhere they haven't gerrymandered, that incentive is going away.

And there are other reasons not to want to be associated with Rand Paul. He constantly shifts his positions and then lies about it. That sort of thing is political poison when done too much.

 

[Keith&Co.]

is political poison when done too much.

It's sad that there's an acceptable amount of it, like rat feces in hot dogs.

It could almost put you off politics entirely.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

If libertarians aren't happy with the GOP, why don't they just get their lazy asses up off the couch and start a popular and respected political party that can win the presidency for them? The Republicans aren't responsible for dealing with these guys' lack of effort.

Haven't you read Ayn Rand lately? The appeal of libertarianism is that you don't participate at all. You just join all your other genius industrialists in a secret enclave where you keep your society-saving technologies to yourself and wait for the "takers" to tank the rest of the country.

And once the sick, twisted society built by these crypto-socialists has failed miserably, you stay in your secret enclave...where everyone is a "maker" and not a taker.

IMHO this is what did in the Anarchists in Spain. When the Republic needed leaders, they refused to lead. Many Libertarians I know refuse to vote.

To the OP I agree with what laughing dog said: the Republicans want the votes, not the ideas held by libertarian voters.