"Conservatism" Rejects Libertarianism

For reasons surpassing understanding the “Republican” establishment has made eliminating the libertarian wing of its own party priority No. 1 heading into the 2014 elections.

Rather than joining pro-freedom, pro-free market leaders like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Justin Amash in standing up to the increasingly radical administration of U.S. President Barack Obama and his congressional allies, the GOP establishment has continued to demonize the handful of elected officials actually standing for the ideological principles articulated (if not acted upon) by generations of GOP politicians.

Why is the GOP establishment doing this? Well, we all know why … don’t we? Because in Washington, D.C. the two major parties differ on very little of real substance – a view lent eloquent expression in this guest column by former S.C. Treasurer Thomas Ravenel.

The same special interests pull the strings of both establishment parties … which in turn have pulled our purse strings to the tune of trillions of dollars in deficit spending under the previous two administrations.

Nonetheless this week two establishment Republicans who served the administration of “Republican” president George W. Bush posted a lengthy rebuke of rabble rousing libertarians like us – arguing that our “negative approach to the question of the role of government is not only electorally insufficient – it is unbecoming of conservatism and of the deep commitment that conservatives claim to the nation’s founding ideals.”

Really? Are “Republicans” seriously lecturing us about electoral insufficiency?

Because the last time we checked that term defined the GOP.

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