Let's just be very careful here. I'd really prefer to avoid an abortion debate.
However, since we're making outrageous statements, I have been saying for some time now that I am no longer pro-choice. I am now pro-
abortion. There are too many damn people already, the last thing we need are more of them!
On Conservatism vs. Libertarianism, I have a few thoughts.
First of all, the idea that Conservatives are against "big government" is simply false. They love big government just as much as the most lefty of left-wing Liberals do. The difference is in what
parts of government they think should be biggest. Conservatives are only too happy to have big government "intrude on our lives" when it comes to enforcing their social agenda, for example. And they
love to give taxpayers' money away to big business in the form of corporate welfare. It's really kind of a beautiful thing -- helping those who already have the means to help themselves.
They are also outrageous hypocrites. They rail against the evils of "big government," but they are the first ones to run to the federal government for help when something goes wrong. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is a particularly egregious recent example. He has spent the last two years laying the groundwork to run for the GOP nomination for president in 2012 by being Mr. Anti-Washington, Mr. Anti-government, and then cries and whines that the federal government isn't doing enough in response to the oil spill and isn't giving them money to do anything themselves. Funny how that Conservative gem about "pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps" goes out the window when they need something, eh? But of course we already knew that. As I pointed out in
this thread, the most pro-Conservative states are also the ones that contribute the least to the federal budget, and yet receive the most.
What Conservatives have been VERY good at is the propaganda war, however. They have convinced working-class Americans that they are looking out for them, when in fact they are doing nothing of the sort. And they have effectively distracted people from what they are
really doing by keeping the debate on the three G's -- Guns, God and Gays -- issues which elicit strong emotions but which really, in the grand scheme of things, are not particularly important to the day-to-day lives of most people.
Libertarians are tougher to pigeonhole. Wikipedia defines Libertarianism as "a political theory that advocates the maximization of individual liberty in thought and action and the minimization or even abolition of the state." That sounds great, but in practice it gets tricky. Libertarians have no real unifying platform or agenda. There are socialist Libertarians, there are corporatist Libertarians, there are Christian theocratic Libertarians, there are anarchist Libertarians. And everything in between.
In my experience many people who call themselves "Libertarians" are really just Conservatives who like to think that their ideas are SO unique and SO special that they simply cannot be classified into either of the major parties. Most of the time they don't even know what the word "Libertarian" means. The fact of the matter, however, is that most people's overall views mesh quite nicely with one or the other major parties. In fact, that's probably why the parties evolved that way to begin with. Even in parliamentary democracies, like Canada or the European countries, there are generally only two
major parties. Yes, there are often a host of other parties represented, but they are generally either one-issue, specialist parties (i.e. Bloc Quebecois) or extreme variants of the major left- or right-leaning parties (the various Green or Nationalist parties, for example).
I have also met people who consider themselves "Libertarians" simply because they "like the idea of a third party," without really giving any thought to what that third party might stand for. One acquaintance, a left-wing neo-hippie liberal, was an avid supporter of Ron Paul in 2008 for that reason, and because Paul was against the war. But of course Ron Paul is foursquare
against most things that liberals support. It just goes to show that ignorance knows no ideology.
