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February 09, 2012 3:40 PM Libertarians for Ricky (To Lose)!

By Ed Kilgore

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As a whole, libertarians are not renowned for tactical thinking. Right is right and wrong is wrong, and pretty much everyone willing to compromise on a routine basis is contributing to the perpetual rule of the Slavedrivers of Collectivism.

So it was interesting to read the Cato Institute’s John Samples making the case that a Rick Santorum nomination would be quite good for the Cause.

It’s not that Samples is fond of Ricky. Au contraire:

By his own account, Santorum is anti-libertarian, describing the philosophy as “radical individualism” and a source of cultural decay. He opposes moral pluralism in favor of a society and government that recognizes and acts on Christian virtues. Santorum speaks of free markets, but his cultural commitments are bound to require limits on economic liberty. He also indulges in an economic populism that implies protectionist policies that favor the manufacturing sector. Like many Republicans these days, Santorum also seeks salvation for the Middle East through American military power.

So why would it be good for Santorum, a sturdy advocate for the mysticism of both mind and muscle, to carry the GOP flag against Obama? Easy: he’d descredit his ideology!

Since the early 1990s, Christian conservatives have formed an ever larger portion of the GOP. In Santorum, they would have what they have long sought: a candidate embodying their commitments to a politics of faith. Neoconservatives would also have a candidate committed to transforming the world through foreign policy and military action. The Obama-Santorum race would be more than just a struggle for power between two men. It would be a referendum on ideas and policies that have dominated the GOP for more than decade….
A ten-point Republican loss in a year when economic weakness suggested a close race would be a political disaster not just for the candidate and his party but also for the ideas they embody. Rick Santorum could be the George McGovern of his party.
Such a disaster might open the door for a different kind of GOP along lines indicated earlier, a party of free markets, moral pluralism, and realism in foreign affairs.

This is what Marxists used to call “dialectical thinking.” Ricky would “heighten the contradictions” in the current system and blow up the GOP, presumably making it supine for Ron Paul or his successor (likely his son).

I doubt too many libertarians will be convinced by Samples to start thumping the tubs for Ricky, but if I were one of his backers, I’d keep an eye out for Fifth Columnists.

Ed Kilgore is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly. He is is managing editor for The Democratic Strategist, a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, and a Special Correspondent for The New Republic.
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Comments

  • T2 on February 09, 2012 3:51 PM:

    "It would be a referendum on ideas and policies that have dominated the GOP for more than decade…."
    HA ! we already had that referendum - it was called the Great Recession and the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars. I think we know the outcome and so does Samples.

  • dr. bloor on February 09, 2012 4:03 PM:

    George McGovern is going to crank up his B-24 and carpet bomb the next sumbitch who puts his name in the same sentence as Ricky Santorum's.

  • Sgt. Gym Bunny on February 09, 2012 4:11 PM:

    Yep, that Rick is one useful tool...

  • internet tough guy on February 09, 2012 4:13 PM:

    We had you destroy the party in order to save it.

    This just shows that libertarians, above everything else, are lazy slobs.

  • SecularAnimist on February 09, 2012 4:17 PM:

    If Santorum promises to cut taxes then he will get the vote of every single libertarian. The only actual content of what is called "libertarianism" in America today is a monomaniacal hatred of paying taxes.

  • Ron Byers on February 09, 2012 4:26 PM:

    The election is a little less than 10 months away and the playas are already looking for ways to make limonaide.

    I really don't give a damn about how the hacks at the Cato Institute might spin the coming election, I just want to win, baby, win.

  • exlibra on February 09, 2012 4:32 PM:

    And after that, they want all the supporters of The Fearless Mongoose (who didn't qualify for the VA primary) to vote for Ron Paul (who did), to make things harder for Willard??? Good luck.

  • Peter C on February 09, 2012 4:37 PM:

    Yep Libertarians, you'd be better off on your own! Break your shackles! Break free from the Republican Party! You may as well break free now, since Mitt isn't any more libertarian than Rick. Be Bold! Be Sure! We need a third party and the Republicans will never respect you. Only by coming out of their shadow will you be seen for the charasmatic leaders you are. No longer will you have to share the room with corrupt big-business tycoons and evangelical nut-cases.

    You have nothing to lose but your chains!

    (crossing my fingers ...)
    ((sorry about all the exclamation points))

  • DAY on February 09, 2012 4:38 PM:

    One pines for the intellects of Gore Vidal and Wm. F. Buckley.

  • Redshift on February 09, 2012 5:10 PM:

    Heh. Good luck with that, Paulbots! It's a brilliant plan that might succeed if you had a party that ever blamed any of its failures on its own actions. As it is, you have a movement with the principle that conservatism can never fail, it can only be failed, so any conservative standard-bearer who fails is, by definition, actually Not Conservative.

  • rea on February 09, 2012 5:18 PM:

    The Libertarians go Naderite?

  • slappy magoo on February 09, 2012 5:28 PM:

    They're going Braveheart on the GOP's ass. Admitting their cause, for now, is lost, so they as may as well make a sacrifice to FREEEEEEDOMMMMMMM as they see it, and maybe 2016 subsequently won't be so bad.

  • Ron Byers on February 09, 2012 5:40 PM:

    Redshift, that kind of thinking reminds me of something I read long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away about an ideology people used to call Communism.

  • jomo on February 09, 2012 6:24 PM:

    If Romney wins the nom but loses to Obama - the Conservatives can hold on to their demented worldview that they lost because they weren't conservative enough. Expect a worse conservative uprising the next go round. Only by having a wingnut lose can they be brought back.

  • Measure for Measure on February 10, 2012 4:43 PM:

    Yes, the best way to support the Libertarian cause in 2012 is to nominate Santorum in the spring and vote for Obama in the fall.