The Spectacle Blog
Ryan Sager’s analysis of the Libertarian West is similarly unpersuasive. First, this region of the country is hardly immune to the appeals of unlibertarian economic populism and even social conservatism. Second, if the Interior West’s Democratic shift is attributable to disaffected libertarians rather than demographic changes favorable to liberalism, why are the same trends evident in non-libertarian Virginia? Thirdly, why did Bob Barr see his strongest poll numbers before John McCain picked icky religious conservative Sarah Palin rather than after disaffected libertarians had no one to vote for?
Without saying so, Sager breaks a lot of American politics down between sophisticated secular individualists and boorish, Bible-thumping rednecks. Not only is this a cartoonish oversimplification, but it also defines libertarianism down quite a bit. Why is a Democrat who supports gay marriage along with higher marginal tax rates, taxpayer funding of abortion, the Medicare prescription drug benefit, and some form of national health insurance but opposes Social Security privatization more libertarian than a Republican who opposes gay marriage but favors lower taxes, reduced spending, and free-market Social Security reform?
Certainly, there are Michael Gerson-style social conservatives who embrace big government on steroids. There are also big-government liberals who advocate an interventionist foreign policy and are useless on civil liberties. The latter usually end up being Democratic presidential candidates, hardly preferable to the first.
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John Thacker | 10.29.08 @ 11:04PM
Yeah, some of the Reason folks like Sager like to claim that the Republicans have become a rural party, etc., and that it's all about them not being libertarian enough-- despite Sen. McCain running up to 15 points behind in genuinely rural areas, due at least partly to his consistent opposition to farm subsidies and Sen. Obama's fondness for them.
Libertarians rails, rightly so, at Bush and Republicans whenever they vote for farm subsidies. But opposing farm subsidies never wins votes-- no libertarian cares enough to vote on that basis, for example.
Sonny Hooper| 10.29.08 @ 11:14PM
My rural district seems to vote more Democrat as the demographic shift with immigration. It used to be a 60-40 area, now about 50-50. These areas aren't too populated.
Robert Stacy McCain | 10.30.08 @ 12:15AM
Mr. Thacker, your mention of farm subsidies is a reminder of one of the few issues where McCain is an improvement over the GOP's previous grumpy war-hero candidate, Bob Dole, the Senator from Archer Daniels Midland.
pigment Red | 4.5.10 @ 10:36PM
pigment Red
czmaxpct@gmail.com
Although Obama has run his campaign Organic Pigmentsalmost completely as a to the administration of one George Ink Pigments the parallels between their campaigns are apparent.
louis vuitton | 4.26.10 @ 10:09PM
UPDATE: How can you look at the subject line of this blog post without thinking of Meat Loaf's "Paradise By The Dashboard Light"?
Meanwhile, some other canada goose conservatives seem to be contented that her hawkish answers suggest that her heart is in the right place. But that's the same assumption conservatives made about President Bush, and look how that turned out.