Republicans Sign Brief in Support of Gay Marriage

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mrstickball said:

badgenome said:

mrstickball said:
If the Republicans would drop the social crap, and try to limit the size/growth of government, they would easily start besting the Democrats in federal elections. Why they pander to the religious right, I have no idea. Its not like that group is suddenly going to go Democrat any time soon.

This assumes that Republicans are genuinely in favor of limiting government, and that there are more votes for them pandering to libertarians than to social conservatives. I'm not at all sure that either of those is the case.

I think that there are a few republicans that genuinely want to reduce/limit the size of government. However, they usually get ostrasized by the mainstream GOP. I have no doubt that guys such as Rand Paul and Justin Amash are genuine. However, they seem to be outside of the mainstream (unfortunately).

Well, as is written in most GOP mission statements, a small, limited federal governemnt is the back-bone of the party platform.  So, I don't see how anyone could possibly consider themselves a Republican if they don't want a small, limited federal government.  That would be like a Democrat wanting to ban federal funding to Planned Parenthood.  Completely antithetical to the basis of the party.

I do agree that a lot of Republicans forget that they're supposed to be in favor of a limited government.  Such as most of what the Republican did in D.C. during Bush's terms.  But that was more a reaction to being in power and wanting to make it seem like they were doing something than intentionally being the opposite of limited-government.