Re: "Well, since most conservatives are leftists...."
(Wouldn't that mean that 'most conservatives' aren't conservative?) LOL :) Perhaps you need some other label to hang your hat on, then?
I think that you are off on your numbers, though.
I'd be willing to venture that there are perhaps camps of roughly equal size calling themselves 'conservatives'... (A Big Government / Small Goivernment split.)
'Big Government Conservatives' (including fiscal liberals, 'deficits and endless government borrowing are OK by me' types, Authoritarian Big Brother appologists and enablers, most 'neo-cons' and other 'interventionists', etc.)
And, 'Small Government Conservatives' (balanced budget fiscal conservatives, State's rights vs. federal rights proponents, Libertarians, traditional 'anti-foreign entanglement' types, etc.)
One interesting question is where to place the 'Social Conservatives', since --- apart from their social views --- on other issues many of them could well fall into *either* the Big Government or Small Government camps.
I suppose that those of them who would *require* a large, strong, central government bureaucracy to enforce their social objectives on States and individuals must properly be placed in the Big Government camp... but not all of 'social Conservatives' would choose to expand the federal roll.
Interesting comments from CPAC in D.C.....
...Wilson said she spoke with many young people who "call themselves conservative, but are learning that they are really libertarian."
"Many people said 'I'm with the Libertarians on everything but the immigration issue,'" she said -- to which she responded, "Wouldn't it be better to be with a political party whose platform you agree with on 80 percent of the issues, rather than with a party with whom you disagree on so many other issues?"
...During the interview, Getz was able to explain that Libertarians "know that immigration control is just another big-government program that can't work. In the process of rounding up a few thousand immigrants, the government will end up harassing employers, breaking up families and forcing every American to carry a national ID card."
And those are some of the issues Libertarians were able to focus on at CPAC, Getz said. "Libertarians support the right to work, we're pro-family, and we're against a national ID card. On those issues, we can appeal to the true conservatives, who have been abandoned by the big-government neo-conservatives."
In the same vein, Seehusen spent about 20 minutes on the air with Martha Zoller, a talk show host with Gainesville, Ga.-based radio station WDUN, telling an estimated 350,000 listeners "that George Bush is a socialist, and the Democrat and Republican parties are two rival socialist factions, vying for your money and freedom."
At the same time, Seehusen said, he and other Libertarians "were able to strengthen old connections with such groups as the Leadership Institute and the Americans for Tax Reform."
"Over the course of these three days, we were also able to build some new relationships for the party, by spending time with people like Wayne LaPierre of the NRA and with leaders of many other organizations," Seehusen said. "We were able to find common ground, to talk about ways we can work together and help each other. |
