It’s getting hard to tell whether we should be watching soccer mom’s, security mom’s Walmart Republicans, Starbucks Republicans, or the Investor Class. John Tierney has written about yet another group, South Park Refugees. Andrew Sullivan previously labeled them South Park Republicans, however they no longer look like they plan to vote Republican:
I have bad news for the G.O.P. regarding that promising new bloc of voters, the South Park Republicans. It turns out they’re not Republicans, at least not anymore.
According to Wikipedia, which would definitely be these voters’ encyclopedia of choice, South Park Republicans are young Americans who “hold political beliefs that are, in general, aligned with those that seem to underpin gags and storylines in the popular television cartoon.” The encyclopedia summarizes these beliefs with a quotation from one of the show’s creators, Matt Stone, which includes a crucial expletive I must elide: “I hate conservatives, but I really … hate liberals.”
Republicans thought this added to their big tent, not reallizing that they have chased everyone except the far right out. They hoped that the young could vote along with the religious right while feeling more comfortable watching a show like South Park. It turns out that the creators of the show are actually libertarians, and not the type of libertarian who goes along with the GOP:
Stone and Parker were never thrilled to be G.O.P. poster boys and said they weren’t sure what a South Park Republican was. They were generally reluctant to be pigeonholed ideologically, but last week they clarified it by headlining at a Reason magazine conference in Amsterdam, the libertarian version of Davos. Stone and Parker said that if you had to put a label on them, they were libertarian — and that didn’t mean Republican to this crowd.
The G.O.P. used to have a sizable libertarian bloc, but I couldn’t see any sign of it at the conference. Stone and Parker said they were rooting for Hillary Clinton in 2008 simply because it would be weird to have her as president. The prevailing sentiment among the rest of the libertarians was that the best outcome this November would be a Democratic majority in the House, because then at least there’d be gridlock.
“We’re the long-suffering, battered spouse in a dysfunctional political marriage of convenience,” said Nick Gillespie, the editor in chief of Reason. “Most of the libertarians I know have given up on the G.O.P. The odds that we’ll stick around for the midterm election are about as good as the odds that Rick Santorum will join the Village People.”
In the past the Republicans received support from libertarians who were fooled into believing their rhetoric supporting small government, freedom, and the free market. Once they took power, however, Republicans have become the party of big government, a more authoritarian government, and corporate welfare instead of capitalism. Increasingly libertarians are considering voting for Democrats or staying home rather than voting Republican. This includes many of the people the Republicans thought were South Park Republicans.