How exactly can you be a hawk and not be an interventionist?
All talk and no action; for example, Reagan was quite hawkish but not very interventionist by 20th-century presidential standards (admittedly not a high bar).
Christian Liberty
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How does that fit?
How exactly can you be a hawk and not be an interventionist?
Yeah, that.
What's a fiscal conservative? To me, its someone who believes in a low tax rate and a balanced budget. Even if you stretch the definitions of "Low" and "Balanced" a little bit, its still a bit hard to be a hawk while actually maintaining the low tax rate and balanced budget. To me the people that want a flat tax rate, but don't actually want to reduce the percentage of revenue taken by government, are not actually fiscal conservatives, they're just neo-progressives that happen to support a flat tax rate, but still support much of the rest of the progressive agenda.
Besides the fact, I don't think you CAN have a warfare state like ours without the civil liberties abuses. In theory you can support one without the other (Heck, in 2010 I did) but I think that's even more utopian than expecting Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism to just work.
I think you can be a fiscal conservative to some extent without being Ron Paul on foreign issues, but I don't think any genuine conservative would emulate a Bush or a Mccain on foreign issues either. I believe Rand Paul is a genuine fiscal conservative. I can't say the same about Michelle Bachmann. Although both are "Tea Party", Bachmann's policy toward Iran alone would prevent any kind of actual fiscal conservatism from happening.
Christian Liberty
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And BTW: anyone who gets foreign policy seriously wrong is NOT part of the liberty movement. There are plenty of issues I think its acceptable to compromise on but this isn't one of them. Granted, Cruz may be better than the alternatives and I understand passive endorsements from guys like Ron "Because the other guy is worse" but we shouldn't be actively supporting people like this, voting for them, and certainly not raising money for them or associating them with libertarianism.
supermario21
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Is Cruz really a hawk though? The guy hasn't made any bad votes yet on FP. I think he was doing more grandstanding than anything. If McCain is worried he's not a hawk, then he probably isn't one.
Christian Liberty
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Mccain is probably worried that he isn't hawkish enough. There are different degrees of hawk, of course. Rand Paul is more hawkish than Ron Paul, but less so than pretty much anyone else in the senate. Marco Rubio is pretty obviously a hawk, but from what I've seen, Mccain and Graham leave even Rubio in the dust when it comes to being a hawk. There isn't really a hard and fast line between hawks and doves.
Personally, anyone who supports more intervention than Rand Paul I would consider a hawk. I say that because although Rand has endorsed passive intervention through sanctions and other similar techniques, he has yet to actually propose a preemptive war (While I disagree with Afghanistan, I think that one is at least actually debatable by libertarians because Bin Laden was allegedly there at the time, so due to the fact that some would argue that that war was in fact defensive, it doesn't totally count, even though I believe the people who defend Afghanistan are wrong). Proposing sanctions, while annoying, doesn't make you a hawk. Supporting war does.
Christian Liberty
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I never compared Cruz directly with Mccain. I have no doubt Cruz is one of the least bad senators. He's still a traitor though, for the reason I described, and hee's a hawk. I've got no problem with someone preferring Cruz over an alternative, but I don't believe they should vote for him, send him money, or do anything else to encourage him or help him along, because frankly, sucking less than the other guy doesn't mean you don't suck.
TaftFan
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Wait, how is he a traitor?
Christian Liberty
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There was a bill being proposed to give medical data to the Feds. Rand Paul and Mike Lee courageously voted it down. Cruz voted yes. As such he has violated his oath of office and should be counted among those who are traitors to the constitution when the glorious Nuremberg Trials begin
TaftFan
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There was a bill being proposed to give medical data to the Feds. Rand Paul and Mike Lee courageously voted it down. Cruz voted yes. As such he has violated his oath of office and should be counted among those who are traitors to the constitution when the glorious Nuremberg Trials begin
The Harkin amendment? http://www.senate.gov/legislative/L...ote_cfm.cfm?congress=113&session=1&vote=00105
Christian Liberty
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Yes, I think that one was it...
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