That’s what Juan Cole says, and what he seems to suggest other libertarians should do.
The right wing of the Republican party has sold the libertarian/centrist wing of the party a bill of goods, and the modern ?conservatives? are clearly nothing more than statists who, rather than redistributing wealth like their brethern on the left, instead have decided that the state must have excessive rights in order to ?protect? us all from whatever the imagined fear du jour might be. Meanwhile, no one is left protecting us from the religionists and the the state itself.
Cole is right on one point, there is no real belief in limited government and individual rights among the upper levels of the Republican Party today, and certainly none to be spoken of in the White House. After five years of Republican control of the Executive and Legislative branches, one cannot name even one major government program that has been cut. Instead, the non-defense budget has increased every year by percentages that would make Lyndon Baines Johnson blush. George Bush is not a small-government conservative and his Presidency has, I think, done significant damage to that wing of the Republican Party that believes in limited government.
Cole goes on to say:
My 20 year affair with the Republican party is coming to an end. I am not voting for any Republican in 2006 at any level, and I will be hard pressed to vote for this party in 2008- unless, of course, Cindy Sheehan is the Democratic candidate. These ?conservatives? need abut 10-15 years in the wilderness.
I’m not sure that I would go as far as that, but I certainly understand how he feels. What’s the point of voting Republican if nothing ever changes ?
John Henke points out, though, that libertarian-leaning Republicans don’t really have many other choices:
Unfortunately, today’s political paradigm doesn’t leave fiscal conservatives and libertarians with a lot of good options. And while libertarians have traditionally sided with Republicans because Republicans are at least theoretically (if not in actual practice) sympathetic to the libertarian interest in limited government, states rights and economic liberty ? and the Democrats seem to be running the field in the opposite direction
And, to be honest, I can’t think of a single Democratic politician on the national stage that I could vote for in good conscience. So, what’s a libertarian to do ?
Previous Posts:
Have Republicans Been Snookered ?
The Benefits Of A Republican Majority
Technorati Tags: GOP, Republicans, Congress, Bush
