a dissenting wing within the party always existed, often referred to as “libertarians” who actually believe in limited government especially when it comes to the Bill of Rights.

Nonsense. The real Republican Party died in 1964. The libertarian wing of the Neo-Republican Party was given birth by Ronald Reagan’s desire to get government off the backs of business and into people’s bedrooms where it belongs. The Pauls have simply taken some of this constitutional chitchat like “without due process of law” too far.

If the government does it it’s not illegal.

I heard that somewhere, I’m just not sure where.

I can’t pretend to fully understand the logic of right-wing libertarianism – which only exists in the United States, elsewhere in the world “libertarian” is synonymous with libertarian-socialist.

But the Pauls, Lou Rockwell, Von Misses Institue etc. do oppose government power because they generally distrust centralized power. Somehow this critique never touches Corporate Power except to take issue with clear examples of crony capitalism.

It’s odd but consistent.

There are really three wings of the Repulican party, with one of them nearing extinction on the national level.

The blog correctly names the two extant wings: the neo-conservative imperialists and right-wing libertarians (who seem to bear some historical connection to the Republican isolationists of the 1920s and 1930s).

The third, nearly extinct wing, is the moderate and even liberal Republicans, whose pedigree dates back to Teddy Roosevelt and includes Senators Robert La Follette and Jacob Javitz. This wing, although pro-business, has not been anti-labor or anti-environmental. In the 2000 Presidential primaries against George W. Bush, John McCain fleetingly appeared to have ties to this wing. Interestingly, at least in Illinois state politics, this third wing has shown strength in fairly recent years, with Republican Governor George Ryan (he of the death penalty moratorium) probably the most liberal governor in recent decades. The Republican Senators from Maine apparently also still at least partially belong to this historical wing of the party.

At least the GOP has an anti-imperialist wing. The Democrats are all imperialist all the time, no dissension allowed.

If I have one vote to cast and a choice of Schumer, Lieberman,Feinstein, Baucus and Rand Paul. Guess who would be the winner? not the “liberals”

Wake me up when they actually split into two (or more) parties.

When pigs flew this 3rd wing was the old line, the Presbyterians of the GOP, as it were. Now, they’ve become Conserva-Dems, replaced in the GOP by the Nativists and the Know-Nothings, of modern America. Look at their convoluted logic on the immigration issue. The Know Nothings and Nativists love cheap labor and farm subsidies and worker visas. However, they rail against illegals and human rights for the undeserving ” mud people ” of the 21st Century. The devolution of the Respectable Republican into the mere White Power Republican has been fascinating to watch. If you like train wrecks, that is. They are like the stories of locusts and plaques in the Bible. Republicans don’t understand what they’ve done to deserve God’s wrath. Even while the the world finds them sick, twisted and out of control.

Well, that was an interesting video clip.

For the entire first half, I was nodding head in complete agreement with both of them.

But then the second half, and back to wacky stuff…..

Is this it then???

We have to choose a party that destroys our civil liberties or choose a party that protects them but destroys everything else great in this country???

Bullshit. We can do better. I just really hope folks will start really really considering supporting a third party at election time. Yes, it may be hard to impossible to ever win that way, but I think IF one ever became successful, the first step of that success would be when they start seeing their election results go from less than 5% up to 15%. You get to 20%, and you’re right in the game in a 3 way race.

Please consider a third party next time.

These people are only consistent because they have no responsibility for governing: they are talkers, not doers. Southern conservatives have always been “small government” conservatives. This means low taxes, few public services, and little regulation of the affairs of the wealthy and powerful – but no rejection of all state power. Anytime it is needed, Southern conservatives never have a problem bringing out the taxpayer-funded mailed fist to protect the private interests of the wealthy and powerful. They just never have bothered to explain the inconsistency. Paul, Hayek, Rockwell et al either never noticed or want to ignore publicly-funded state power being used in the protection of private interests.

I think you’re mixing two different strands of conservative, though.

I’d suggest there are three main branches: the corporatists, the theocrats, and the libertarians. Both #1 and #2 support big government. There is no inconsistency – they’re both authoritarian. When they work together, they essentially drown out the libertarians.

What I think will be intriguing is if the libertarians grow in relevance over time, or if they’re completely squeezed out of the GOP. That very much relates to the strategic framework for leftists of what we do: do we try to ‘take back’ the Democratic party, or do we abandon it and wait for its implosion to do something else?

Note to Rand Paul:
After you peak, which your are right now 3 years to early, it’s all down-hill after that buddy!

Lefties cannot “take over” the Democratic Party, it has become a right wing corporatist/imperialist party and they’ve baked that into its bones.

The parties are virtually the same. What has Obama done? Strengthened US Imperialism and gutted Civil Liberties. He lied his way into office, and now blogs that used to be non-partisan are covering up for him along with the corporate media owned by the military industrial complex.

I am sick to death of all this BS.

Right, there are similarities between Libertarians and Progressives but also serious differences. That should not be misunderstood by the critics now claiming we agree on everything (not you).

But yes, we agree on this basic point on civil liberties – Due process.

At least the GOP has an anti-imperialist wing. The Democrats are all imperialist all the time, no dissension allowed.

That needed to be said again.

I like this observation as well. Very much. Hear, hear!

Good for him:

Rand Paul: When I talk to the young soldiers in my state who have gone over and volunteered to fight for us, they believe they’re fighting for the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. And so it’s sad for them to sacrifice their lives and limbs and come home and then find out that we gave up on the Bill of Rights while they were gone…and that we’re under some sort of law of war…

Peter Schiff: And the Founding Fathers warned us over and over about not sacrificing your liberty for security, and that if you value your security more than your liberty, the irony is you’ll end up losing both, and this is exactly the point of your filibuster and what you were protesting.

I believe RW libertarianism can be summed up as follows:

“I don’t want to pay taxes for anything.”

That distinguishes RW Libertarians from the rest of the RW, who are happy to pay for things like wars and transvaginal ultrasounds.

Moderate Republicans are now Democrats.

Our Democratic President self-describes as a moderate Democrat from the 1980′s, meaning a Reagan Republican.

The last Democratic President was Carter; and many would not classify him as liberal. Since Carter, we’ve had Republican Presidents, some of whom have pretended to be Democrats.

GOP Splits In Two Over Civil Liberties And Drones

Democrats also split in two over civil liberties and drones.