Nobody writes:
Grover Norquist has coined the term "The Leave-us-alone Coalition" that simply wants the government out of everything they have no constitutional authority to be in. They perceive government as an intrinsic evil and the only thing that should be done is to slay the dragon. I would number Eagle Forum and the Progress and Freedom Foundation in this group.
Sure, *they* want to be left alone, but I wouldn't trust these groups to leave the rest of us alone. [snip] These groups are not friends of liberty. Like the traditional "liberals", they seek not so much to slay the dragon as to replace it with their own.
You either missed or paraphrased my second paragraph. My point is precisely that the rift is between those who want to use government to regulate the things you mention, and those who don't think it is the government's business, whether they consider them good or bad. The organizations I mentioned here specifically don't want the federal government trying to control these things.
OK, let's look at one of these organizations. Here's certain bullets from the mission statement from Eagle Forum's web site, followed by my annotations. I've omitted most of their bullets, some of which I actually agree with. o Supports a strong national defense and the protection of American sovereignty and jobs against encroachments by international agreements. We support using the newest technology to build a strong ballistic missile defense. We oppose weakening the military by putting women and open homosexuals in combat assignments. We oppose "New World Order" interventions -- a government that can't protect our safety in America's cities has no business trying to police the world. Protection of jobs by government as implied here does not reflect a perception of government as "an intrinsic evil". o Supports a health care system that puts control of spending in the hands of individuals -- not the government. We support individual medical savings accounts plus tax fairness, so that all Americans can buy health insurance with pre-tax dollars. Again, a government solution, not a clear "keep the government out of the health care system." o Supports conservative and pro-family policies at every level of government. There's that G-word again. o Opposes government subsidies for offensive "art," elective abortions, or immoral lifestyles. But implicit in this is that they *would* give government subsidies to art they don't find offensive, and would support "moral" lifestyles (for their definition of moral). Otherwise, why don't they come out and say "we oppose ALL government subsidies for art" and "we think the government ought not promote any lifestyle"? o Opposes violence, pornography, and attacks on traditional family values by the entertainment industry. An implicit threat to use government to regulate the industry. I could do the same thing with the Progress and Freedom Foundation or the National Empowerment TV group you mentioned, but what's the point? These people are not libertarians! And grouping them into something called the "leave-us-alone" coalition is a fraud. -- Jeff