'Socially Liberal, Fiscally Conservative' Makes No Sense

--David lays out the case for why the "socially liberal, fiscally conservative" mantra that many people go by actually makes no sense and isn't well-represented among the general population

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Broadcast on February 21, 2020

#davidpakmanshow #libertarianism #classicalliberalism

[ryankibler]

I'm a progressive who's fiscally conservative. I want to cut the military budget in half!

[stanarnaud]

"I'm Socially liberal/fiscally conservative" means:

The government can't be in control of our society, but corporations can.

I'm all for human rights, unless it conflicts with capitalism.

The only principles I have are the ones that don't cost (me) anything.

[usfdave]

Socially Liberal = personal freedoms and equality for people
Fiscally Responsible = balanced budgets and protections for individuals over corporations.

[joshuasalem]

It does make sense if you fit any of these criteria:

1) Rich

[mjobermeyer]

“I’m socially liberal but fiscally conservative.”
Translation: I’m all for human rights just so long as they don’t inconvenience wealthy people.

[TheMahonj]

This was the most asinine commentary I’ve ever heard from David.

First of all “liberal” and “conservative” are very vague terms so of course you can be socially liberal but fiscally conservative, whatever that might mean. What people usually mean, however, is that they are socially tolerant and fiscally tight-walleted. Even if you don’t like the idea of tolerating somebody while having no interest in making any sacrifices to help them, there isn’t a logical contradiction there.

Also, David not being able to think of a single social issue other than gay rights is pretty pathetic. That’s it? That’s all you can think of?

[neodark]

You can believe in climate change and gay rights without wanting the government sticking their hands into every aspect of it. More government is not the solution to all problems. In fact it's the cause of most problems.

[PointnShootMovies]

Just because you disagree doesn’t make it a fallacy. People who are fiscally conservative and socially liberal, like myself, put individual rights at the forefront of their political value system. There are huge debates within libertarianism classical liberalism, and market liberalism about the role of environmental protection, the impact your individual choices have on other people. But the simple fact of wanting less government in every facet of society is much more consistent than both your worldview, and most conservative world views

[darciekelly]

The libertarians I know are not into social programs at all. They are into individual freedoms which would absolutely exclude using taxes for helping others. Fine, free markets, isolationist, smoke weed have guns and so on, but never have I heard socially liberal in the sense that they believe in helping the poor.

[Seiferboi]

That title sounds like me. Except, I'm fiscal Conservative when it comes to the government spending. I'm against bailing out oligarchs and banks. Government spending needs to be smart. We need fair market, not free market. We need regulations to protect workers, consumers and the environment. Taxes should help everyone in one way or another. Fixing infrastructure, implementing green technology, ect. That's what I thought fiscal conservatism is supposed to be.

[heinzguderian]

The libertarian position: "I'm in favor of legalizing gay marriage. I'm also in favor of legalizing discrimination against those who are gay."

[godzillawiki]

I strongly disagree, it's not a oxymoron being fiscally conservative and socially liberal because embraces perfect individualism and self ownership, wake up people politics are NOT white and black you can be socially liberal and fiscally conservative and even people can be socially conservative BUT leftist in economy.

[matthewkopp]

It is a bit of generalization.

What has happened is libertarians have become the dominant voice for Jeffersonian Republicanism.

However Contemporary Libertarianism is highly influenced by Hayek, Mises, and Ayn Rand who recommend a violation of Jeffersonian Republicanism.

Conservatives should remember that it was Jefferson who wrote the outlines for not only publicly funded primary school education but for publicly funded University education!

The fact that there is a conservative backlash against Sanders plan for free college education violates Jefferson's own ideas and principles and proposals.

What was Jefferson's reasoning? That Universal access to Education is an institution that strengthens democracy so therefore it should be considered an appropriate interpretation of the general welfare clause.

You can make the same Jeffersonian argument for Medicare4All. To be purely Jeffersonian it might be interpreted as Medicaid4all because it strengthens states rights over federal government.

But Jefferson was all for federal spending for the sake of the general welfare. What he did during his presidency was created an interstate highway system with federal funding as well.

The Republicans have been completely Hijacked by shallow neoliberal apologists for decades.

[benjamin_b]

Im socially conservative but fiscally & environmentally very liberal, what does that make me? What’s the opposite of libertarianism?

[CerebralFriction]

To be fiscally conservative and socially liberal is not contradictory. It means to be someone who believes that free market capitalism yeilds the best results for all of society while rejecting a traditional conservative conformist lifestyle. If you believe that government programs are the only way to solve social problems, you are fiscally liberal. All David is doing here is conflating social and fiscal positions into the same thing so that he can call it contradictory to be socially liberal and fiscally conservative.

[markreadin]

I think you said it best with: if your priority is "cut cut cut the deficit, " well then you can't deal with the social issues you claim to be liberal on. It makes no sense in that respect, many of these internal inconsistencies that position can entail. The poll at 4:18 is really interesting too, that there are more people socially conservative and economically liberal than the converse

[jessefobare]

I'm socially liberal, fiscally conservative, and environmentally fucked in the head

[TheFederalistParty]

I'm personally more the opposite. I'm socially conservative & fiscally liberal.

[TimvanHelsdingen]

Your opinion on the matter sounds more conservative then progressive because this is extremely close minded.
There's plenty of free market ideas about a lot of the stuff discussed. If you want to criticize it, that's fine. But this is just shilling your own political beliefs and not adding anything to the discussion.
The entire idea with austrian economics is exactly that it would be more fair for the majority then what we currently have. And there are plenty of free market alternatives for preserving nature and handling the environment.
You can ABSOLUTELY be socially liberal and fiscally convervative.

[StonethrownMusic]

I’m not sure I agree. Why can’t people be socially liberal about certain things and fiscally conservative about certain things. Why does it have to be so black and white? People are complicated.