Even Lindsey Graham, one of the most hawkish members in Congress, wants to get on the “libertarianish” bandwagon.
Graham told The Gazette that he agrees with a lot of libertarian ideas: “Libertarians want smaller government. Count me in. Libertarians want oversight of government programs and making sure that your freedoms are not easily compromised. Count me in. Ted Cruz wants to fight Obamacare. Count me in.”
“Our view of limited government and free enterprise is pretty commonly shared,” he said. “What we wind up doing is having tactical differences.”
According to Graham, this “tactical” difference is that when Congress encounters a problem, “I want to fix it rather than yell about it.”
Libertarian congressman Justin Amash (R-Mich.)—whom Graham’s friend John McCain has singled out as a “wacko bird”—wasted no time in belittling the interview:
.@reason A big lie establishment Rs love to tell is that our differences are “tactical.” No, our differences are about the role of govt.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) April 4, 2015
Graham announced earlier this year that he is “definitely” considering a 2016 run. In The Gazette interview, he also criticized the right’s shut-down tactics and defended himself against accusations of being a “mushy” conservative.
“There’s nothing mushy about solving hard problems,” he said. “There’s nothing about mushy about wanting to save Social Security and working with Democrats to do so. There’s nothing mushy about trying to get Democratic buy-in to rebuild the military. There’s nothing mushy about trying to fix a broken immigration system and realizing that Democrats have to be part of the mix.
“I think that’s leadership.”
