Are there any anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobia conservatives who:
* Acknowledge the oppression and racism minorities, transgendered and gay people and or women and people with disability face.
* Have solutions to fight these forms of oppression that work within their ideals about free markets and minimal government.
I used to think Libertarians fit this bill, (long ago) but I have not yet found one who really "gets" the impact of these oppressions. Mostly, it goes something like "Racism is horrible but if those people would just work harder they would not be oppressed."
That kind of thinking is incompatible with anti-racist, anti-sexist work.* It presumes that differences between groups, like differences in life expectancy, IQ, employment etc. are primarily (if not solely) the result of flaws in the culture or behavior of the oppressed minority.
But flaws are universal to all human beings. Inequality can magnify social dysfunction. Individuals are responsible for their own destiny, but on a macro level, using individual failings as the central explanation for differences between groups implies that one group is inferior to the other (and this is the foundation for racism and other _-isms) while hiding the impact of the advantages gained by the group in power by not having those failings "naturally" attributed to them by all members of society. (Including minorities who internalise racist ideas about their selves or about their culture.**)
I have not met a single small government type who understands and agrees with this way (often called the "anti-racist" way) of seeing oppression. Do you think seeing racism, sexism, etc. in this way means one must support a "big" state? I'm really not certain that is the case.
I sometimes wonder if some small government types like small government because it allows them to withhold help from people they feel are inferior and undeserving. That is, they chose the philosophy to fit their bigotry... the bigotry dosen't really grow from the philosophy. It's not that welfare (for example) is a bad idea, it just that welfare for THOSE people is a bad idea since they are lazy and their poverty and suffering is different and less deserving than the poverty and suffering of people in the majority.
*there is a difference between not making homophobia, racism and sexism worse and actively fighting it. I don't mean to imply that anyone who isn't actively anti-racist must be racist.
** ie. Women of my race are less attractive. Women aren't good at science. People in my race are not as smart. People in my race lack self control etc. See Michael Jackson.
PS. An anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobia conservative, is not the same thing as a conservative who is simply not racist not sexist and not homophobic. I have met one or two who fit that bill. (ie. conservatives who are not a-holes.) I want to set the bar higher than that.