Nick Gillespie over at Reason has an interesting article – from the distinctly Libertarian point of view – regarding all the fracas over CPAC…who is attending, who is not attending, what is conservatism, etc. It is a genuine must read. Not that I agree with Gillespie – especially this bit:
…And third, social cons have lost, period. Gays are not going back in the closet and demands for equal standing under the law are logically coherent from a conservative POV. Gays didn’t destroy marriage or the family (neither of which is in ruins, by the way, but that’s another issue). The same goes for drug legalization, which has been touted by such raging liberals as William F. Buckley. In terms of abortion, like it or not, the country has settled into a semi-easy truce that abortion earlier in a pregnancy is OK and the closer the mother comes to term, the less comfortable people feel with it. In any case, advances in contraception and reproductive technologies will almost certainly render such decisions moot as people have gain ever-vaster control of their bodies…
Oh, so that’s it, then? We’re just supposed to retreat to the sidelines, provide millions of votes and tens of millions of dollars in campaign funds and get nothing but lower taxes out of the deal? I hate to break it to the Libertarians of the world, but they can’t win election to dog catcher without us. True blue social conservatives probably outnumber true blue Libertarians by 10 to 1. We dog, you tail; you don’t get to wag us.
Marriage and the family are in ruins – and with it, our civilization. Perhaps a Libertarian doesn’t see rampant drug abuse, kids having sex, nauseating pornography throughout popular culture and the increasing recourse to extreme violence on the part of some as a death of civilization, but we do. And we’re bound and determined to stop the rot and reverse the course. Don’t try to tell us we can’t turn back the clock – we darned well can, and will. There will come a day when abortion no longer takes place, where divorce becomes the bizarre exception to the rule and people are, once again, shocked by sex and violence in public.
This is not to say it will be easily done. In fact, we may “lose” in the sense that this civilization may, indeed, die. But we social conservatives – Christians, you know? – will just rebuild from the ashes, as we have done time and time again. We’d rather not have to rebuild from scratch, but we’re not about to sell our souls and help with the destruction of our civilization. One way or the other, we will win. And if Libertarians want to come along for the ride, they’re welcome to it – because we recognize that small government is best and taxes should be lower and, in general, people should not be bothered about what they do behind closed doors…we’re certainly better for Libertarians than the Totalitarians on the left.
Now, if Libertarians decide that they don’t want to work with us because of our adherence to morality, then that is their choice. It may cause the whole conservative cause to come out loser in the contest. How that will help Libertarians is a bit of a mystery. It won’t particularly hurt us – we’ll hunker down, say our prayers and wait until in God’s good time, things come our way, again. The silliest thing a Libertarian can do is cut loose from us – but if a rigid, ideological demand that two men be allowed to “marry” is more important to Libertarians than people, on the whole, being free, that is their business.
As for me and my fellow social conservatives, we’re just fine. We’re having a good time, feel good about the way things are going and are absolutely confident that the gates of Hell will not prevail. So, make up your mind, Libertarians – join us or die.
UPDATE: Allahpundit reports a bit more on the battle over CPAC. Interesting bit – both in the gratuitous insult by a GOProud representative, and his very manly apology for getting off base. The bottom line is that we should all work together – the battle is against the left, after all. But this has all been a good lesson to all concerned that the right lives or dies with the social conservatives…we in conservative Christianity drive the movement. We’re willing to be pretty darn flexible, but we won’t roll over for anyone.
UPDATE II: And Ann Coulter weighs in:
(6) Are gay rights part and parcel with basic conservatism? If so, why are so many elected Republicans so skittish/unsupportive about the subject? If not, tell me why.
No, we don’t generally care for identity politics of any sort, much less hearing about people’s sex lives, even Nino Scalia’s. (And judging by the number of children he has, it’s pretty active.) Conservatives believe in individual rights, low tax rates, fighting terrorism and punishing criminals — so do gays! They also happen to believe Judy Garland was the most underappreciated and misunderstood person in the history of show business. I don’t think most gays care about gay marriage; they like going to the gay marriage meeting because it’s a good way to meet other gays.
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