Michael McGuire reports in the Libertarian Examiner:
Since the 1950s, the major divisions on America’s right flank have been between traditional conservatives and libertarians.
Generally speaking, the libertarian wing made early strides in academic circles while conservatives tackled the electoral process with more success.
Ron Paul’s Saturday victory at the Conservative Political Action Conference may signal the tide is turning for libertarians and slightly against conservatives.
Paul was the Libertarian party nominee for president in 1988 and waged an unsuccessful, unapologetic run for the Republican presidential nomination of 2008. On Saturday, conservative activists endorsed him for the 2012 GOP nomination.While everyone on the right wants the nation to change leadership, there are increasing rumblings on the right that suggest the same type of change offered in the past won’t do in 2010 and 2012.
What may be coming to the Republican party is a more moderate stance on social issues and a stronger stance on economic issues relating to the dismantling of bureaucracy.
Also brought to the debate is whether the conservative movement of the future will continue to support mammoth foreign intervention. An increasing number of activists on the right are no longer in the mood for war and other policies they associate with empire.
Saturday’s voting may be an anomaly, or it may signal a movement away from the Wall Street Republicanism of Mitt Romney or the social conservatism of Sarah Palin.
In other CPAC news, former Republican Congressman and 2008 Libertarian Presidential nominee Bob Barr got some jeers as well as cheers from the CPAC crowd for pointing out that waterboarding is torture, and Libertarian Party national HQ put out a press release criticizing CPAC conservatives which was picked up by several mainstream media outlets (as well as us here at IPR).
Actually, I was wrong that most of them voted for RP–it was reported that 31 percent did. Still, that’s a larger percentage than makes sense given Paul’s libertarianism and the percentage of CPAC attendees who support aggressive war and civil liberties restrictions.
connect da dots …….
Most of the CPAC activists are strongly pro-war and pro-torture yet most of them endorse Ron Paul? I don’t get it.
The booing and quick reaction to Paul’s victory is only further evidence that the core of conservatism/Republicans is *NOT* a dedication to limited government, but rather nationalist militarism. Outreach efforts such as the RLC are ultimately futile for ‘big picture’ GOP reform beyond the occasional results of localized elections.
Ron Paul also won the combined straw poll at the 2008 Republican Presidential Caucus at the University of Colorado at Boulder (about ten precincts on and surrounding the UCB campus), which I attended as an observer. McCain came in second.
“Mainstream conservatives don’t typically believe in the Constitution or the founding principals of this country.”
—-Mainstream conservatives AND liberals fall into this category, they both are a confused and reactionary pool of voters, marionettes to the emotionally strongest topic du jour. —-
This straw poll was likely lopsided by the amount of Ron Paul supporters at CPAC.”
—–Any time Ron Paul wins any poll, some indignant conservative or liberal shouts this statement from the rafters…”The amount of Ron Paul supporters skewed blah, blah, blah”. Don’t you get it? People are waking up. They are sick of your conservative fundamentalist babble and political sleight of hand, sick of your war mongering, and exploding budgets, sick of your meddling in the private affairs of citizens, and sick of your religious fervor. Likewise, they are sick of big government, sick of the ever growing and unsustainable welfare state. They are starting to realize that LESS government is the answer, and that scares the incumbent two-headed one-party system to the core.
Mainstream conservatives don’t typically believe in the Constitution or the founding principals of this country
My inside top secret sources also tell me they are bored of education 😛
Mainstream conservatives don’t typically believe in the Constitution or the founding principals of this country. This straw poll was likely lopsided by the amount of Ron Paul supporters at CPAC.