A Party of Hypocrites

As a libertarian, my philosophy closely follows that of "stay out of my wallet and stay out of my bedroom." Democrats will typically stay out of may bedroom, but just love to reach deep into my wallet. Republicans are the opposite, letting me keep my money, but interfering in the private matters of my bedroom based on their version of morality. Both parties are war hawks (although the Democratic party less so) which is against the libertarian ideals of staying out of other nations' business unless they attack first. Both parties are also big deficit spenders, though the Republican party would have you believe that they value a balanced budget much more than their Democratic rivals.

What is a libertarian to do then? Traditionally, libertarians ally themselves with the Republican party, but I find it very hard to do so. The religious right ruins it for me. Their supposed moral superiority which they try to force on every American is as anti-libertarian as creating a socialized system of health care. And the Bill O'Reillies and Rush Limbaughs of the world do nothing but try to fearmonger their listeners into making them think the way that they think. They push an agenda using hate as the tool to get what they want. In addition, Republican hypocrisy of the past eight years allowed Bush to spend whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, and to cut taxes on top of that, leading to huge budgetary problems which are currently being exacerbated by the current administration. But now, suddenly Republicans are fiscal conservatives again, like the past eight years have never happened.

2009 brought Barack Obama to Washington where already there happened to be a Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress. It seemed that Republicans had been beaten, that the Democrats were going to have a blank slate to do whatever it was they wished when they pursued their liberal agenda. But Obama acted too soon. He decided to push for health care reform without getting his own fiscally conservative blue dogs on the same page. Then he offers to drop the public option which has many liberals like Howard Dean up in arms. So it seems, we are seeing the fracturing of the Democratic party so soon after they received almost absolute power in Washington.

I should rejoice right? The Democrats may have very well sown the seeds of their own destruction. Midterm elections will be coming up soon, and the Republicans may very well steal back some seats. Hallelujah!

No. That's not how I feel. I wish the Republican party had been crushed to oblivion. I wish the Rush Limbaughs and the Bill O'Reillies and the Sara Palins had been chased into the wilderness, never to show their faces again. I wish the Democratic party was able to enforce a huge wave of socialistic change that would sweep over America, nationalizing and subsidizing everything in its wake. I wish the religious right would sprint back to their churches and hide in their basements waiting for a Rapture that would never come, while they prayed for God to strike down the Democrats with their abortion and their homosexuality and indecent ways.

Maybe then, after all that was said and done, with the Republican party in great disarray, would the few truly conservative politicians left come to Washington and pick up the pieces of a shattered party and bring it back to its roots. Starting small, they would be able to start amassing a true following of individuals, create a new platform based on fiscal conservatism, smaller government, individual rights, and less intervention over seas. Out of the ashes, something new and fresh can be born.

But as it stands now, we still have the status quo. We have the Republican party just as it was before the Democrats came into power, a party of hypocrites. And while I disagree mightily with everything that Obama has pursued, there is a small piece of me deep inside that wishes him great success in his agenda. As odd as it sounds, only Obama can recreate the Republican party into something new and meaningful, and he can only do that by being successful. If Obama is not sucessful, he will only revitalize a Grand Old Party of Hypocrites.