Social Conservative Worries That the GOP Is Getting More Libertarian, And Also That It's Getting Less Libertarian

A party pulled in multiple directions

In a post Thursday about CPAC—a yearly lollapalooza for young conservatives and their gurus, currently underway in the D.C. suburbs—my colleague Robby Soave reported that social conservatives have been fretting about the libertarians making inroads in their movement. To see an odd manifestation of that fear, read this passage from Frank Cannon of the American Principles Project:

CPAC recognizes the need to include and give a voice to the full spectrum of conservatives, because without such a continuing effort, there is real torquing of the conservative movement from a fusionist conservatism towards a more libertarian, immigration-restrictionist, and corporatist Republican party.

Not to spell out the obvious or anything, but to the extent that a party is getting more corporatist and immigration-restrictionist, it is not getting more libertarian. At best, this is a poorly worded description of a party being pulled in several directions at once. At worst, Cannon is confused about what the words he's using mean.

In other CPAC news: Former NSA chief Michael Hayden is apparently under the impression that he's a libertarian. Maybe the word can mean anything you want.