Jim DeMint: “You Can’t Be a Fiscal Conservative and Not Be a Social Conservative” [UPDATED]

Damn straight!

Not surprisingly, the God-hating, same-sex "marriage" advocating, pro-abort libertarian over at HotAir doesn't like it one bit.


UPDATE
At The American Catholic, my friend Paul Zummo echoes Sen. DeMint's and my acknowledgement that "conservatism" can't be compartmentalized and still be "conservative":

Naturally this bothers AllahPundit and some of the other shrieking libertarians at Hot Air, but DeMint is of course right.

First of all, anyone who has paid any amount of attention to politics over the past couple of decades should recognize that the people who label themselves fiscally conservative and socially moderate or liberal – let’s call them cafeteria conservatives – are the first people to betray the cause of limited government on economic issues. A prime example of this is Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger...

[...]

John Hawkins did a bit of analysis that shows a fairly strong correlation between fiscal and social conservatism. Though the measuring device is a bit crude, it shows that when it comes to economic issues, social conservatives are the most reliable votes in favor of fiscal conservatism.

Second, it is simply illogical to divorce economic and social issues. As I’ve said in the past a conservatism that disregards social conservatism simply isn’t conservatism. If one approaches conservatism more as a general political philosophy rather than a political ideology, one realizes that social and cultural issues are the central core of conservatism. Conservatism is at root a belief in tradition, among other general beliefs... for the most part conservatism is about preserving the social order. If you eliminate social issues from the conservative creed, you’re left with nothing of substance.

Finally, I think that there is great misunderstanding as to what social conservatism entails, especially as it relates to the concept of limited government. The notion that social conservatives want the heavy had of government involved in all personal matters is a bit of a strawman caricature.

[More]

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
For All You Atheist Libertarian Types ...

HotAir's Strange Assessment of the Virginia GOP Electoral Juggernaut [UPDATED]

Pot ... Kettle