A "Real" Conservaitve

And "real" is only in quotations because I think people who brand in absolutes are assholes, not because I was being smarmy. As usual, Andrew Sullivan succinctly sums up my political viewpoint in response to an emailer.

Like Sullivan, I am not a "pure" libertarian. I think government does have a place in a lot of spheres libertarians don't. However, I do agree that the basic principle of leaving citizens alone as much as possible is an ideal model to follow. A free society should be unsure of itself on its basic assumptions except the Golden Rule. Don't fuck with me and I won't fuck with you. And to me, "fucking with" has to be direct- if you hurt my feelings or make me uncomfortable with your ideas, cool. If your ideas then lead you to physically or legislatively impede what I want to do and I'm not directly harming you, fuck off.