Anti-Climacus

SO WHY ON EARTH AM I NOT A REPUBLICAN*?

...given that I'm best described as a conservative on social issues, I'm very strongly drawn to third-way economic policy, I take the (more or less) neoconservative line on foreign policy, and I'm voting for GWB?

Two reasons:

1. I don't imagine I'll ever be disabused of my deontology; I accept that our relations to each other require certain special moral and ethical obligations, and that there are just some things where it's okay to use the coercive power of the state to resolve some of the pricklier issues of life (regulation of the meatpacking industry always struck me as a perfect example of a reasonable use of state power). So I'm never going to buy into the assumption of the libertarian wing of the Republican party that everyone should be able to go off and do their own thing, nor can I agree with the general view of the rest of the R's (some exceptions, I know, and I have my little shrine to David Brooks and Christopher Caldwell (and John McCain) for a reason**) that less state power is always better.

2. It's true right now that the Republicans are home to my version of foreign policy, which is far and away the most important issue for me; but it's unclear to me that this is for-certain the future direction of the party--it's not a coincidence that Henry Kissinger was a Republican. You can probably count foreign policy idealists in the Republican party on two hands (and that's only if you count Paul Wolfowitz four times), so I'm in wait-and-see mode on this one. But this issue, more than any other, is likely to impact my future direction with respect to the parties.

*especially given that I'm not a Democrat anymore

*not really