Does the Converse Hold

YouTube - The Case Against the Case for War with Iran (1 of 4)

The above link is to an argument against war with Iran. What I was thinking about as I started listening to this video if it was perhaps true that libertarians would have a better bargaining position against Republicans for those who think that the U.S. should have a smaller military. What I have in mind is the type of person who believes that "defense" spending should be decreased and that social spending should be decreased, but that reducing defense spending is more important than increasing social spending.

In my last post I argued that among those who want to limit social spending, the ones who also want to limit "defense" spending have a better bargaining position, since the alternative to an agreement is much closer to what they want. Here I will examine whether it is the case that among those who want to decrease military spending, those who also want to decrease social spending have a better bargaining position.

When I think about this I am not so sure that it is a bargaining position over national defense that is the key here. The libertarians wouldn't want to bargain for more social spending as would the Democrats. If the libertarians were able to put a moderate in office, the libertarian might have roughly the same ideas regarding social spending as the Republicans. The main difference between them and the Democrats would be that they wouldn't be as interested in negotiating with the Republicans to get them to agree to more social spending in return for military spending.