Lindsey Graham’s libertarian nightmare

Jack Hunter, Rare Contributor

Posted on February 13, 2014 10:12 am

At the South Carolina Republican Convention in 2009 Senator Lindsey Graham told the audience, “We are not going to build this party around libertarian ideas.”

Graham says lots of things.

Recently, Zack Beauchamp wrote at The Week “The GOP establishment is dying — but libertarian ideas could save the party.” Yahoo News’ Chris Moody wrote an article called, “Rand Paul is pitching libertarian ideas to social conservatives. And it’s working.” A story by Reason’s Steven Greenhut noted, “States Consider a More Libertarian Approach to Crime,” with a focus on Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry’s newfound tolerance of marijuana.

These are just the stories with “libertarian” in the title. And these are just the stories from the last week.

If we expand to libertarian-friendly titles over the last seven days, we learn that Glenn Beck is reading Matt Kibbe’s “libertarian manifesto” we see that Ron Paul supporters now lead the Nevada Republican Party and neoconservative Jonathan Tobin is asking at Commentary, “Is the GOP now Rand Paul’s party?”

Last month, The Atlantic’s Peter Beinart declared Rand Paul the Republican frontrunner.

It has been a pretty good week for libertarian ideas. In fact, it has been a great year for libertarianism in many ways.

It has been a horrible few years for Senator Graham and his ideas.

Graham called Tea Party Republicans who fought to keep the United States out of Libya in 2011 “isolationists,” and even told them to “shut up!”

Staying out of Libya was the conservative Republican position. It was also the position of most Americans.

Graham called Tea Party Republicans who fought to keep the United States out of Syria last year “isolationists” (opposing any war, anywhere, for any reason is the new definition, apparently) and said a failure to intervene might mean the United States could get nuked.

Staying out of Syria was the conservative Republican position. It was also the position of most Americans.

When we learned that the National Security Agency had been spying on virtually every American’s phone, conservative leaders and groups rose up in outrage.

Graham said he was “glad” the government was spying on everyone.

Still, opposing NSA mass surveillance remained the conservative Republican position. It was also the position of most Americans.

Read the Entire Article Here

 

 

Technorati Tags: Lindsey Graham,Rand Paul,Tea Party,John McCain,Ron Paul,Republicans,Democrats,Obama,South Carolina,Senator,Republican Convention,libertarian,ideas,Zack Beauchamp,The Week,GOP,Yahoo News,Chris Moody social conservatives,Reason,Steven Greenhut,States,Libertarian Approach,Crime,Texas,Governor,Rick Perry,tolerance,marijuana,libertarian-friendly,Glenn Beck,Matt Kibbe,libertarian manifesto,Nevada Republican Party,neoconservative,Jonathan Tobin,the Atlantic,Peter Beinart,Republican Frontrunner,libertarianism,Libya,isolationists,Americans,United States,Nuked,Syria,National Security Agency,NSA,spying,phone,conservative leaders,government,mass surveillance,conservative,republican