a lot of the extremist billionaires and people they put in office consider themselves libertarian. That's not just a label but probably a mostly altruism-void personality type.
As a political philosophy, the main by far, and for some the ONLY, moral is personal freedom. The more extreme the ideology, the more complete the personal freedom. But all of them, like Senator Flake, think people should take care of themselves and that no one else should be required to help.
This overlaps nicely with a conservatism that believes in a natural order that rewards industrious, virtuous behavior and punishes lack of it. Government interference, according to this, merely encourages people to be slothful and to raise their children that way.
These people have joined together with the religious right to tear down our government, all with the highest principles of course. Even the libertarians, who know society will be much healthier once most of the weak people who've accumulated self-cull, so to speak.
By the way, conservatives tend to have a significantly darker view of humanity than liberals. They really do believe people will not behave well unless forced to. I used to wonder where that inner voice I've always had to live with is, but apparently it's at least somewhat muted. I've had several people tell me that without religion no one would have any morals at all, and all I could do was wonder if they really spoke from personal experience, or were just reciting dogma.
In any case, understand this stuff, and you'll have a much better idea of some of the strings their handlers are pulling.
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