2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumThe So-Called 'Libertarian Moment' Is Engineered By The Christian Right
By ED KILGORE Published AUGUST 13, 2014, 6:00 AM EDT
Theres been quite the buzz in the chattering classes this week over Robert Drapers suggestion in the New York Times Magazine that the Republican Party, and perhaps even the nation, may finally prepared for a libertarian moment, likely through the agency of the shrewd and flexible politician Rand Paul. Its obvious, in fact, that some of the aging hipsters Draper talks to who have been laboring in the libertarian fields for decades glimpse over the horizon a reconstructed GOP that can reverse the instinctive loathing of millennials for the Old Folks Party.
Unfortunately, to the extent there is something that can be called a libertarian moment in the Republican Party and the conservative movement, it owes less to the work of the Cato Institute than to a force genuine libertarians clutching their copies of Atlas Shrugged are typically horrified by: the Christian Right. In the emerging ideological enterprise of constitutional conservatism, theocrats are the senior partners, just as they have largely been in the Tea Party Movement, even though libertarians often get more attention.
Theres no universal definition of constitutional conservatism. The apparent coiner of the term, the Hoover Institutions Peter Berkowitz, used it to argue for a temperate approach to political controversy thats largely alien to those who have embraced the brand. Indeed, its most often become a sort of dog whistle scattered through speeches, slogans and bios on various campaign trails to signify that the bearer is hostile to compromise and faithful to fixed conservative principles, unlike the Republicans who have been so prone to trim and prevaricate since Barry Goldwater proudly went down in flames. The most active early Con-Con was Michele Bachmann, who rarely went more than a few minutes during her 2012 presidential campaign without uttering it. Its now very prominently associated with Ted Cruz, who, according to Glenn Becks The Blaze has emerged as the new standard-bearer for constitutional conservatism. And its the preferred self-identification for Rand Paul as well.
What Con-Con most often seems to connote beyond an uncompromising attitude on specific issues is the belief that strict limitations on the size, scope and cost of government are eternally correct for this country, regardless of public opinion or circumstances. Thus violations of this constitutional order are eternally illegitimate, no matter what the Supreme Court says or who has won the last election.
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1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)that should give pause to, and inform, any "progressive/liberal" tempted to be seduced by Paul, or Libertarianism, in general. Such "progressive/liberal", will find themselves, neither the tail, nor the dog.