VIEWPOINTS: Not a typical republican
February 23, 2010
Texas Republican Congressman and 2008 presidential candidate Ron Paul won the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll at its national convention last week. He got one-third of the vote — 31 percent. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney got 22 percent of the vote, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin came in third with 7 percent and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty was fourth with 6 percent, tying “undecided.” Indiana Rep. Mike Pence received 5 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich got 4 percent, as did former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, followed by South Dakota Sen. John Thune, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum — each with 2 percent. Mississippi Gov. Hailey Barbour came in last with 1 percent.
If you listen to Ron Paul’s speech, as I did this morning, you will hear some startling points generally conflicting totally with the establishment Republican positions. He does not sound like the other conservative Republicans.
So, if he won the straw poll, doesn’t that tell you something about the conservative movement or at least at CPAC?
Here is a short summary in my own words of what Ron Paul said in his speech..
It is classic isolationism — don’t get involved all over the world.
Smaller government.
No preemptive wars or torture.
No interventionist foreign policy. Keep us out of war.
No nation building — sounds like these Republicans are anti-war.
No draft — it is forced service, and the “Military Industrial Complex” is wrong.
No NATO, no United Nations.
Personal freedom.
Tolerance of differences. Respect each other. No anti-gay bashing.
Personal freedom – for example, to smoke whatever you want, “Putting in your mouth or lungs whatever you want” or else the heavy hand of government comes and says, “We need to protect you against yourself.”
“End the fed” (not “bail out the big banks, farmers, insurance companies and other private sector failures”).
Don’t follow “mainstream Republican message” (watch out Republicans!).
How are we going to pay for it?
Our “world empire” is wrong and so expensive it will bankrupt the United States.
“Our economy is on the edge of a cataclysmic economic event.”
“A currency crisis is coming.”
Don’t print more money.
Freedom of speech should be respected – you have a right of dissent. No prison for dissenting.
Government does not give liberty – you have it as God given.
Even Eugene Debs should have had the right to speak out against war. Woodrow Wilson jailed him.
Limit government – government is the enemy of liberty.
Do not listen to the Neoconservatives.
They are globalists and like to drag the United States into wars and nation building.
Ron Paul has a passionate following which the dismissive media that disagrees with him (such as the Huffington Post) calls “cult-like.”
It is very organized, uses the Internet and social media to fund raise for him, create dynamite Web sites, it leads the Ron Paul “revolution” from the bottom up and supposedly shows up in large numbers at events like CPAC.
That may be the case.
But if the Republicans are going to do well in 2010 and in 2012, they need to listen to some of the “insurgents” in their camp, which includes Ron Paul and of course also the “Tea Party Movement.”
Last week I had coffee with a good friend of mine and a GOP “big shot.”
He said “Steffen, where are the tea baggers and the Ron Paul followers going to go on Election Day?
The Republican party and whoever is running as the Republican candidate!”
I said, “Are you sure?”
The “mainstream” Republicans want to have government interfere in people’s lives just as much as the democrats do.
No smoking. No texting. No abortions. No gay marriage or gays in the military.
Fight preemptive wars. Bring Democracy to other countries and make them like the United States.
Bail out the big failing corporations, farms, insurance companies and anyone else who has given money to the campaign.
In Iowa the politicians are actually thinking of forcing everyone who uses diesel (schools, businesses, diesel cars, the trucking industry, etc.) to buy Bio-diesel because Iowa investors in bio-diesel plants are going broke!
What’s next, forcing consumers to buy Pella windows, only Iowa made ethanol, only local Iowa produce, only Amana appliances?
The CPAC crowd and the tea baggers are not going to just get absorbed by the Republicans and unless the party establishment figures out how to deal with these two uprisings in its ranks 2010 and 2012 are going to be a lot more interesting than I thought.
Steffen Schmidt is Professor of Political Science at Iowa State University and a Chief Political Correspondent for http://insideriowa.com/.
Want to see for yourself? Paul’s speech is available on YouTube.
Steffen Schmidt is a professor of political science and chief political correspondent for www.insideriowa.com
