Hacker News Reader

Comment by cageface | Hacker News Reader

I actually have a lot of sympathy for the traditional "conservative" values of limited government, personal liberty and accountability, and fiscal conservatism.

If the Republicans ever get tired of using race baiting, warmongering and decoy social wedge issues to elect self-serving plutocrats and starts actually doing something to promote these values it's possible I might even vote for one of them some day.

View on HN

Which of what you mentioned is rhetoric and which of what you mentioned reflects itself in policy? Social issues are almost never decided by Federal Government, while economic policies are. So if you are a libertarian (which it sounds like you are) you will likely be better off voting for a conservative over a liberal for President/Senate/Congress.

You need to be the change you want to see. Become a moderate Republican. That's what I did. Seriously.

Unfortunately, there is no room for moderate Republicans in the party right now, and most such centrist "Republicans" are far too appalled by the intellectual dishonesty and social policies of the Republicans to consider such a move.

Giving in and becoming a "Republican" would just validate the party as it is.

I do have hope that the recent defeat will force an evolution, but I will wait and see.

The word for moderate republican is "democrat". This country doesn't have a truly liberal/left wing party.

I did, and voted for the moderate Republican in the last election -- Barack Obama.

Why should I vote for maniacs in the hopes of moderating them? We already have a moderate party.

What exactly is a moderate republican? Sounds like a closet libertarian..

Someone like Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford, or Susan Collins, perhaps. They aren't particularly libertarian; if anything, the moderation is across the board, being moderate on social issues, and middle-of-the road on fiscal issues.

Libertarians are, to me, more about rigid ideology.

Isn't ideology rigid by definition? What's the alternative? Pseudo principles?

It's a set of guiding principles. But you can either be pragmatic, go for the good rather than the perfect and make continuous small steps in the direction of your goals. Or you can sit back and refuse to vote for anything that isn't a pure manifestation of your utopia. Neither approach, IMO, is inherently better that the other. The latter rarely get anything done, while for the former, I've seen some examples of securing small, rather than big steps in the wrong direction being touted as successes.

Pragmatism. The realization that taxes can be too low or too high, or that we cold be spending too much or not enough, or that the conflict isn't between too much or not enough regulation but between good and bad regulation.

You're confusing intuition with pragmatism.

Maybe. Although I like to think that being reality-based on ones approach is more pragmatic than intuitive :)

An ideology is only as rigid as those who adhere to it. I'm a libertarian, but I make exceptions as I recognize that there is no perfect political philosophy.

What you say is true of a huge number of people I speak to, most I would say, and I yearn for a party that represents this viewpoint. They would sweep.

Unfortunately, I have to support the Democrats, who are too strongly tied in with entitlements and unions, in order to support a remotely reasonable set of policies.

What you say is true of a huge number of people I speak to, most I would say, and I yearn for a party that represents this viewpoint. They would sweep.

Me too, but they wouldn't. There really are more social conservatives than moderate libertarians, but if you're in the tech industry the latter is likely to be overrepresented in your social circles. I hope this will change in the next several years.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com