RIP — Mark Sanford’s political career.

Personal life issues aside, the guy bailed on his job & state w/o notice or a contingency. Try that at your job & let me know how it works out. Sorry… but the guy has to go.

(The trick is to re-convince cultural conservatives that small government is ultimately in their interests, too.)

How are we to convince a group of people who wish to dictate who you sleep with, what you put into your body, what programming on the television (cable included) you are permitted to watch are going to be convinced that small government is the way to accomplish their goals?

Most social conmservatives have no problem with big government as long as their agenda is the one being enforced. Between the social engineering desires displayed by both major parties, we libertarian leaning folks are adrift in the political wilderness.

Oh yea, I forgot about the crack vending machines lol Well it seems we have a perception problem.

And to make matters worse there is no other party that has the money and influence to get a real foot-hold in national government.

I’d love to be able to vote a real conservative ticket. However, we haven’t had that opportunity in decades.

The exact same attempt to change the connotation of words that made ‘liberal’ an epithet is being used to make ‘libertarian’ into one. A point which I’ve made on various Liberal blogsites, to little avail.

To call the very philosophical basis of our freedoms into question is nothing short of insane…but it’s happening. Double-plus ungood…

Because libertarians are “evil legalizers” who want crack vending machines in pre-schools and whores on every corner of every neighborhood.

Yeah, that’s about how the holy roller Rs (the base) see us.

I’ve said it before, but the GOP has a choice to make in the coming years. They can become the party of Mark Sanford, or the party of Sarah Palin. Which path they chose will likely determine how long they stay in the minority.

Setting aside the gibe at Palin, who (while seemingly not very bright) is not the right-wing culture warrior she was caricatured as by Andrew Sullivan, it seems pretty clear to me that the future success of the GOP depends on them being the party of Palin and Sanford. Expansive definitions of the term “libertarian” notwithstanding, we represent only a fraction of the electorate; without cultural conservatives, the GOP wouldn’t be a third party, let alone a viable second party. (The trick is to re-convince cultural conservatives that small government is ultimately in their interests, too.)

Maybe I’m overreacting to the really batshit crazy stuff that went around on the left side of the blogosphere right after McCain named her. But I would give consideration to a ticket of which she was a part (although it wasn’t going to be enough to get me to go for McCain anyway).

Say what you want, but she has *some* libertarian creds, and more balls than most other major party politicians.

Why does this have to be so goddamn complicated?

Because ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US (The State).

Goddamn, why can’t government just tax my shit, build me some fucking roads, punish people should they steal shit from me, and otherwise leave me the fuck alone? Why does this have to be so goddamn complicated?

I’ve said it before, but the GOP has a choice to make in the coming years. They can become the party of Mark Sanford, or the party of Sarah Palin. Which path they chose will likely determine how long they stay in the minority.

It’s a catch-22 that has been a long time coming. The republican party has long pretended that fiscal conservatism (small government) can co-exist with social conservatism (regulate marriage, drugs, etc) when the two are really like oil and water. You need to stir them constantly to maintain the illusion that they’re a solution.

Sarah Palin is attractive in more than a few ways, and probably helped turn out the social conservatives that were turned off by McCain.

But they didn’t win with that strategy, and in 2012 it’s likely that the bad taste left in voters mouths from the prior evangelical christian president that sincerely believed our foreign policy was blessed with divine approval will persist.

The republican party can’t embrace libertarianism without alienating its already pissed off base. Strategically, it’s the best thing to do. Tactically, it’s like suicide.

But that’s what the republican party signed up for when they ran George W. “God talks directly to me” Bush to reap short term gain. Now, they will suffer long term pain.