FORMER CONGRESSMAN: I’M QUITTING GOP

[HoneyBadger]

And if you vote democrat or any third party you'll get full-blown, unedited, liberal democrat. Just sayin'.

So it sounds like real conservatives are screwed no matter what, huh?

And let's face it. There are a HUGE number of dem-lite people right on this forum (and it's doubtful any will admit to it)...that believe in gay marriage, legalization of some drugs, being soft on illegal immigration and so forth (the socially liberal and libertarian types). Many of the self-described conservatives on this forum really don't seem to know what that term means.

Lets be clear: Libertarian is NOT Dem-lite. Not even close. This is a fundamental flaw in the way many conservative people see the (L) party (Consequently, many progressives posit that the (L) party is GOP-lite).

Libertarians are the extreme opposite of liberalism. Libertarianism is about maximizing the liberty of the individual, while liberalism (or progressivism, or whatever they want to brand it as) is about maximizing the liberty of the state. The fact that some of the (D) party platform lines up with the (L) party platform is simply pandering by the (D) party to sway people who are not (L), but instead just somewhere between (D) and (R). The reason the GOP has lost so much support recently and the number of independents and libertarians is higher than ever before is because there is a freight-train full of evidence that the GOP also wants to maximize the liberty of the state (some of which Tancredo points out in his editorial).

This is why many times libertarians don't like "party-line" GOP supporters and make the simplistic argument that (D) and (R) are the same thing (or BUSH/OBAMA are the same). At the end of the day, both (D) and (R) are headed toward the same thing, but taking different routes to get there. (L) is trying to turn the train around. You can argue all you want that the GOP is trying to turn the train, but the evidence shows that your party has betrayed you. Go ahead and flame me if you wish, but continuing to deny the betrayal by the GOP isn't going to make the mountain of evidence disappear.