That's an interesting observation.Quote from AAAintheBeltway:
Good point. I'm not a big Santorum fan either. Conservatism is not a black and white point of view. People would call George Bush and Pat Buchanan both conservatives, but their views are far apart on a lot of big issues. Same with John McCain and Ron Paul, for example.
Actually, you could say that about Ron Paul and just about any republican officeholder or party official, which may explain the problems the republicans are having.
I like to think of the political spectrum as a nearly straight line starting at the extreme liberal left and socialist believers on the left side moving through the democrats, to the moderates to the republicans to the hard right conservative strict religious believers at the far right.
But I see libertarianism and Ron Paul as not fitting so much on my straight line but like a branch that swings down (or up) at an angle from the straight line. They just don't fit at a particular place on my straight line from liberal to conservative.
There are probably others that don't fit well trying to put them on that line either. They're like little offshoots that make categorizing and understanding them that much more complicated.
