Friedman,Hayek,Rand...Not Coulter,Hannity,O'Reilly
I was on Right Wing News and in expressing support for Paul, one of them said they hoped the government chased us down because we were drug dealers. Now, to be fair, not all of them think like that; it's usually more along the lines of it's not 1789 anymore, which i find amusing, because one of their pet issues always seems to be appointing "strict constructionist" judges. Still even on forums like Right Wing News, Townhall, or Free Republic, you will still find around a 20% contingent that's sympathetic to Paul's views (then again, that's around the same percentage you will also find on DailyKos).
Now I became a conservative from reading the books and papers by Milton Friedman, Hayek, and Ayn Rand, not by reading the tripe of Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly. The modern conservative movement was born out of the revitalization of classical liberal thought in the wake of the New Deal state. It is essentially libertarian(Friedman and Hayek called themselves libertarians, not conservatives). Barry Goldwater brought political voice to this movement(Friedman, for example, was a campaign consultant), although he did mix it with a strong anti-communism.
Perhaps part of the problem with the conservative movement is that they were in a minority for so long, they developed a mentality of liberal persecution. It then became a cottage industry, even after they became the majority. And somewhere along the line, the libertarian ideal of freedom from coercion became replaced with using the federal government to enforce their version of morality. In other words, lthe libertarian ideal was supplanted with social conservatism and the concept of the "Wedge Issue" was born.
To me, the modern GOP became so dependent on the concept of "Wedge Issue" as a means to get elected, it's almost like a drug. They simply can't imagine political life without their "Wedge Issues." And they continue to move more and more authoritarian in order to preserve "Wedge Issues." The problem with the GOP, however, is that the wedge is no longer being driven into independents, it's now driving a divide within the GOP.
Someone like myself, who used to be staunch republican, has now essentially quit the GOP and have actually become a member of the Libertarian Party. Other than Ron Paul, I doubt I will be voting for any republican any time soon.
