‘It’s Do or Die for Us’: Social Issues, CPACers, and the Future
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – Many young conservatives who were at CPAC want more attention paid to fiscal rather than social issues – a fact not only emphasized by some of the straw poll questions but by the opinions expressed by many of the participants at the three-day conference.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), one of the conference’s most popular speakers and winner of CPAC’s straw poll, urged Republican leaders on the event’s first day to pay attention to the “Facebook generation.”
“They doubt Social Security will be there for them, they worry about jobs and rent and money and student loans. … They aren’t afraid of individual liberty,” said Paul.
“Ask the Facebook generation if we should put a kid in jail for the non-violent crime of drug use and you’ll hear a resounding ‘no.’ Ask the Facebook generation if they want to bail out too big to fail banks with their hard-earned tax dollars and you’ll hear a ‘hell no,’” he continued.
Former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), the senator’s father and a staunch supporter of individual liberty, won the 2010 and 2011 straw polls, but never successfully competed for the Republican nomination.
Many organizations that promote individual liberty took part in the conference. The Competitive Enterprise Institute hosted a gay-rights panel. Students for Liberty, a libertarian nonprofit, had a booth at the event and its founder, Alexander McCobin, participated in a panel alongside Jeff Frazee, the executive director of Young Americans for Liberty – another libertarian-leaning organization.
Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, commended Sen. Paul for his filibuster earlier in the week and said, “I for one applaud this new generation of liberty-minded Republicans.”
Not all participants equated the increasing support for individual liberty at the event with support for certain social issues, such as gay rights.
Evelyn Weinstein, a student from the state of New York, told PJ Washington about her confrontation with another participant over her support for gay rights.
“I’m a fiscal conservative, I believe in individual rights and small government, and I’m standing here being called a liberal because I support gay marriage,” said Weinstein. “If there’s a future for the conservative movement, it will have to be one that supports gay rights, especially with my generation – it is do or die for us.”
Weinstein – along with other young conservatives – filled a room at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, the site of this year’s gathering, to hear a panel voice the need for tolerance within the Republican Party.
The panel happened a day before Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) announced his reversal on gay marriage after his son told him he was gay.
“[I want] him to have the same opportunities that his brother and sister would have—to have a relationship like Jane and I have had for over 26 years,” he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Friday.
“I don’t have a problem with gay marriage,” said Ben Dorchester, an attendee from Pennsylvania. “I see why so many conservatives disagree with it and they’re entitled to their opinion.”
Dorchester said he would support a Republican Party candidate that embraces gay marriage because he does not “believe conservatism is a take-it-all movement. Many people may disagree on several issues and still agree on core conservative values.”
Conservatives are conservative because they see the wisdom in long-established ways of doing things, ways that have been proven over time. Progressives value intentions over results, personal gratification over... (show more)
Conservatives are conservative because they see the wisdom in long-established ways of doing things, ways that have been proven over time. Progressives value intentions over results, personal gratification over long-term thinking, the individual over the society. They also tend to argue by extremes: your way is wrong, you are an extremest, we must go to the opposite extreme instead. Obesity is bad, obese people drink too much sugar, we must bad large soft drinks.
Conservatives, on the other hand, pursue the <i>right</i>
solution. Results are important, regardless of intentions, and we must consider not only the intended results but the second- and third-order side effects. We favor time-tested ways of organizing a society because they <i>are</i>
time-tested. We change them reluctantly and carefully because we value not only the individual but the society in which we must live - and it's stability leads to the wellbeing of the family and ultimately the individual.
Before you cry for some drastic social change, whether public acceptance of homosexual behavior, legalization of previously controlled substances, or acceptance of women into the military, first do the research into why these things were <i>not</i>
done or prohibited previously. Study history, study the failures of those who did accept or practice them, learn from our predecessors' mistakes. (show less)
From their unthinking acceptance of the term "gay"---a 19th century slang term applied to theatre people, drug addicts, prostitutes, practicing homosexuals, and other bohemians---being applied to the current incarnation of the homosexual-rights movement;
To their refusal to look at any aspect whatsoever of the history of that movement;
To their refusal to look at the current social effects of having granted that movement's past demands;
To their unthinking acceptance of that movement's current demands without any examination whatsoever;
To their taking of that movement's word as to the probable effects of... (show more)
From their unthinking acceptance of the term "gay"---a 19th century slang term applied to theatre people, drug addicts, prostitutes, practicing homosexuals, and other bohemians---being applied to the current incarnation of the homosexual-rights movement;
To their refusal to look at any aspect whatsoever of the history of that movement;
To their refusal to look at the current social effects of having granted that movement's past demands;
To their unthinking acceptance of that movement's current demands without any examination whatsoever;
To their taking of that movement's word as to the probable effects of granting its current demands;
We can see a complete and utter abdication of historical analysis, and of critical thinking about cause and effect, about the nature of "rights" as they exist under the Constitution, and about the difference between "rights" and "legalization. There is not even a whisper of intimation that they apprehend that these issues exist, let alone require thought, analysis, and discussion.
Instead we see merely a series of exhortations, in most cases in the crudest terms, that others follow their lead and cave to the movement demands as presented.
I think that is intellectually shameful. (show less)
Look, all of this is very simple. The Reagan coalition is dead. Conservatives filed the divorce, but they still want to screw the ex-wife they dumped. Conservatives won't compromise on their principles, but feel entitled both to libertarian votes, and to tell libertarians to compromise on THEIR principles.
It ain't gonna work. Republicans have nothing to offer except scorn and contempt on the social side, and weak-sauce budget proposals like Paul Ryan's completely unserious train wreck... (show more)
Look, all of this is very simple. The Reagan coalition is dead. Conservatives filed the divorce, but they still want to screw the ex-wife they dumped. Conservatives won't compromise on their principles, but feel entitled both to libertarian votes, and to tell libertarians to compromise on THEIR principles.
It ain't gonna work. Republicans have nothing to offer except scorn and contempt on the social side, and weak-sauce budget proposals like Paul Ryan's completely unserious train wreck on the fiscal side. (show less)
Liberty sells. Tyranny of any flavor does not.
Liberty sells. Tyranny of any flavor does not.
"When my dreams come to pass, it will be a great day!"
Heedlessly reciting slogans he's been taught
With complete disregard of the ruin they've wrought.
---apologies to Isaac Watts and "'Tis the Voice of the Sluggard"
"When my dreams come to pass, it will be a great day!"
Heedlessly reciting slogans he's been taught
With complete disregard of the ruin they've wrought.
---apologies to Isaac Watts and "'Tis the Voice of the Sluggard"
Wow, learn something new EVERY day around here....
Wow, learn something new EVERY day around here....
North Dakota just voted to heavily restict it. We are finally starting to turn the tide on this mass murder, and now we social Conservatives are supposd to go back into the closet?
And BTW, CPAC has long has a rather strong libertarian contingent, which dominates the straw polls.
North Dakota just voted to heavily restict it. We are finally starting to turn the tide on this mass murder, and now we social Conservatives are supposd to go back into the closet?
And BTW, CPAC has long has a rather strong libertarian contingent, which dominates the straw polls.
Conservatives are conservative because they see the wisdom in long-established ways of doing things, ways that have been proven over time. Progressives value intentions over results, personal gratification over... (show more)
Conservatives are conservative because they see the wisdom in long-established ways of doing things, ways that have been proven over time. Progressives value intentions over results, personal gratification over long-term thinking, the individual over the society. They also tend to argue by extremes: your way is wrong, you are an extremest, we must go to the opposite extreme instead. Obesity is bad, obese people drink too much sugar, we must bad large soft drinks.
Conservatives, on the other hand, pursue the <i>right</i>
solution. Results are important, regardless of intentions, and we must consider not only the intended results but the second- and third-order side effects. We favor time-tested ways of organizing a society because they <i>are</i>
time-tested. We change them reluctantly and carefully because we value not only the individual but the society in which we must live - and it's stability leads to the wellbeing of the family and ultimately the individual.
Before you cry for some drastic social change, whether public acceptance of homosexual behavior, legalization of previously controlled substances, or acceptance of women into the military, first do the research into why these things were <i>not</i>
done or prohibited previously. Study history, study the failures of those who did accept or practice them, learn from our predecessors' mistakes. (show less)
That has not been done. There is, meanwhile, abundant evidence that granting the demands of the agitators would be a serious mistake indeed.
That has not been done. There is, meanwhile, abundant evidence that granting the demands of the agitators would be a serious mistake indeed.