Conservative Senator Jim DeMint (R-S. Carolina) is not hoping that libertarian Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) drops out of the GOP race for the presidential nomination…at least not for the time being. In fact, he’s hoping that the other GOP candidates will learn something from him.

Sen. DeMint told The Daily Caller, “I really don’t want Ron Paul to drop out until whoever our front-runner is is collecting some of the ideas that he’s talking about.”

Though the senator has predicted that Mitt Romney will win the South Carolina primary, he himself has not endorsed any of the “not-Romney” candidates. Yet, Mr. DeMint has a suggestion for his party:

The debate in the Republican Party needs to be between libertarians and conservatives. … There’s no longer room for moderates and liberals because we don’t have any money to spend, so I don’t want to be debating with anyone who wants to grow government.

Sen. DeMint, who has spent much of his political career fighting against big government, went on to say, ““I’d like to see a Republican Party that embraces a lot of the libertarian ideas.”

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Los Angeles became the first city to officially endorse the Occupy movement when its city council unanimously passed a resolution affirming the group’s right to camp out on lawns in front of city hall. The council members had glowing words for the movement.

“These are things worthy of protest. And I thank you for speaking out and helping move the debate forward,” said City Councilman Paul Koretz.

Many of the protesters had similarly positive words for their local politicians, as well as local law enforcement. Reason.tv was on the scene to ask protesters about their general attitudes towards government power.  Is Occupy Los Angeles (and Occupy Wall Street) simply a pro-government movement, or is there room for libertarian sentiment within it?

The answer is… well, it’s complicated. While we spoke to a few small government libertarians at the event, others eschewed anti-government rhetoric and said that criticism of the Federal Reserve is a libertarian “pet issue” distracting from the real matter at hand: economic justice.

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I recently wrote on my blog that Libertarians should not support Democrats. Ever.

The post generated a tremendous response and produced an invitation from BIG Government Editor Michael Flynn to expand on my thoughts here. I’m honored to do so.

In an election for city council, congress, president or local dog catcher, I believe a Libertarian’s realistic choices are to vote Republican, Libertarian, Independent, or write-in.

There is nothing Libertarian about the Democratic Party and Obama is a perfect example of my point.

Barack Obama ran against the wars – then expanded them.
Barack Obama ran against federal wiretapping programs – then expanded them.
Barack Obama ran against Bush’s faith based initiatives – then expanded them.
Barack Obama ran against Bush’s debts – then expanded them.

In the Democratic Party of yesteryear, there was a school of political philosophy called Classical Liberalism which offered Libertarians an option to vote for Democrats.

Those days are over.

The Democratic Party is now the party of ACORN, corrupt unions, communists, socialists, anarchists and complicit media allies who have conveniently ignored every violation of American liberty committed by the Obama Administration since the day he was sworn in as president.

Libertarians believe in the maximum amount of freedom for individuals. Libertarians believe in limited government. Libertarians reject ineffective big government policies. Libertarians are fiscal conservatives.

How have Libertarians benefited under Obama?

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Mike Flynn recently wrote a cri de coeur on Big Government asking why conservatives have failed to move back the needle on government spending despite the profusion of conservative think tanks, foundations, policy shops, grass-roots organizations, and sundry other pointy-headed groups, mostly based in Washington, DC (although every state now has their equivalents, usually in the state capital.)

Why? It’s the culture, smarty-pants.

By “culture,” I don’t mean Washington, DC culture. I mean pop culture.

While the brightest and most talented conservatives pour into DC and pump out one study after another, endlessly debating arcane policy with a handful of other pinheaded intellectuals, the left has been busy consolidating their iron grip on the real reins of power — movies, TV, music, art.

If half the conservatives who pine to work at Heritage or Cato would only turn their ambitions to moviemaking and showrunning, conservatism might have a fighting chance.

As it is, you can move the musical chairs in DC around all you want, but if you don’t recapture the culture — or even a healthy slice of it — you may win a political battle or two now and then, but you’re destined to always play catch-up in the war long-term.

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Welcome to Ask a Libertarian with Reason’s Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch. They are the authors of the new book The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong With America.

Go to http://declaration2011.com to purchase, read reviews, find event dates, and more.

On June 15, 2011 Gillespie and Welch used short, rapid-fire videos to answer dozens of reader questions submitted via email, Twitter, Facebook, and Reason.com. In this episode, they answer the question:

“Why ask a libertarian? Why now?”

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Here’s yet another union supporter foaming at the mouth, literally.

This time the scene is Chicago. Bob Oehmen, who calls himself PackerBackerBob, is carrying a sign that reads “the GOP hearts the KKK” and offers 1 million dollars to anyone who can prove him wrong. If that’s not enough, he then challenges those who disagree to a fight and promises to make the “wussy motherf**ckers” and “teabaggers” suffer.

As Rebel Pundit notes, on Daily Kos he actually declares war on all righties, neo-cons, “teabaggers”, and libertarians.

Warning: He’s also “the meanest damn liberal in the land”. You’ll practically tremble in fear.

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Today on Coffee and Markets we’re joined by Matt Lewis of Politics Daily to discuss the recent controversy over the CPAC gathering among conservatives and whether the 2012 field will mark an end to Fusionism on the right.

We’re brought to you as always by Stephen Clouse and Associates. You can find our iTunes feed at CoffeeandMarkets.com. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Lewis: FRC Explains Boycott
Lewis: Keene Response to Social Conservatives
Weigel: Heritage Isn’t Skipping CPAC Because of GOProud
WashTimes: CPAC Exposes Rift on Right
National Journal: CPAC Boycott Won’t Stop 2012ers
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The always great John Kass in today’s Chicago Tribune:

Now the NAACP, an organization with a historic role in civil rights, seems to be taking Jackson’s path to irrelevancy.

At its national convention in Kansas City, Mo., this week, the NAACP offered a resolution condemning what they call “racist elements” in the anti-big government tea party movement.

“You must expel the bigots and racists in your ranks or take full responsibility for all of their actions,” NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said.

Let me hazard a guess here. Some critics of President Barack Obama don’t like him because he has black skin. They might invoke other issues, but the black skin thing bothers them.

Conversely, some Obama supporters like him because he’s black. They might talk about other issues, but it’s the black skin that compels them.

But for the NAACP to condemn the tea party as racist — and the point of the resolution was to put the libertarian movement on the political defensive — isn’t only wrong, it’s wrongheaded.

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The enthusiasm at this year’s CPAC was palpable.  Conservatives turned out in record droves, optimistic and on the offensive against a government they rightly feel has run amok.  Dick Cheney and John Bolton amongst others predicted that Barack Obama would be a one term President.  I would take a more cautious view.  Beatable as I think President Obama is based upon his bombastic arrogance, blind elitism, blatant dishonesty, and boundless seemingly intentionally destructive policies, if the 2010 CPAC straw poll tells us anything it is that the conservative movement is still searching for its opponent.

Before delving into the numbers, it is important to note that while roughly 1/4 of the 10,000 in attendance at CPAC participated in the poll, around 50% of these voters were students.  And indeed the youthful Campaign for Liberty crowd was highly visible and energized throughout the convention, which explains the extent of Congressman Ron Paul’s success.  Paul, the staunch libertarian came in first with 31% of the vote, Mitt Romney the establishment candidate second with 22% and Sarah Palin the (absent from CPAC) Tea Partier third but lagging significantly behind at 7%.

What is fascinating about the results is that the top three spots were split between three different types of conservatives, and further that the top two spots were divided between two candidates so bipolar.  In my view, Ron Paul comes off as unrefined, radical and principled, while Mitt Romney comes off as polished, moderate and slickly political. Sarah Palin alternatively is the homey if not hokie populist.

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The Scott Brown revolution is alive and well in Massachusetts.

Tuesday night, January 26th at 7:00 when most people would like to be home relaxing after work, almost 500 average citizens from Massachusetts packed a convention hall in the Boston suburb of Braintree. They shared some common interests. They’re either running for office or helping someone else run for office. Some of them are running for federal or state offices, some for seats in local towns and cities and some for school boards. The one sentiment they share is clear: They’ve had enough.

A capacity crowd!

The event they showed up for was a “candidate school” offered by Boston talk radio host Michael Graham of 96.9 WTKK, a man the Boston Phoenix dubbed “Boston’s maestro of conservative controversies.” In between his tenure at WTKK and a career in stand-up comedy, Graham ran political campaigns. Today, he is sharing his knowledge with the citizens of the Bay State and encouraging them to participate in the system.

Attendees included people like Francis McLaughlin, a retired Boston fire fighter and registered Republican since 1975. McLaughlin is running for the Massachusetts House of Representatives for specific reasons:

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