Category Archives: Democrats

The Republican Reagan Epiphany

Ann Coulter, Democrats, Political Philosophy, Pseudoscience, Republicans, Ron Paul, States' Rights

“Southerners are extremely patriotic,” said Ann Coulter on Fox News Business, while explaining the phenomenon of a Southern Democrat (like Rick Perry), who has always been far more conservative than the northern Republican. “[Southern Democrats] were not going to remain with the party of George McGovern,” observed Coulter, who is, arguably, the Republican Party’s most powerful and most devoted pundit.

That’s a little deceptive. Is it at all possible that the much-maligned Southern Democrat has found it hard to join the party of Abraham Lincoln? Perish the thought!

Ann Coulter says, correctly—and at last—that Ronald Reagan should not be held up as “the touchstone for every [other Republican] candidate.” If only Ms. Coulter was capable of arriving at a similar epiphany about Lincoln, but that would demand too much by way of philosophical integrity.

Perry’s Political Pedigree

Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Ron Paul

Ron Paul was one of only 4 congressmen to endorse Ronald Reagan’s campaign for president. After Reagan, Al Gore found an enthusiastic cheerleader in Texas, who looked nothing like a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. According to the latest Campaign For Liberty ad, Rick Perry helped lead the Al Gore campaign to undo the Reagan Revolution. The Paul Campaign’s pitch about an untrustworthy Perry is persuasive. Rudderless is also a good description for the core of Perry.

Wrong About Ron

Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Military, Republicans, Ron Paul

The DC Establishment, left and right—the engorged organism I call the media-military-congressional complex—thinks of Ron Paul as “charming”; his “heresies—his denunciations of ‘militarism,’ even his suggestion that Iran might have understandable reasons for wanting nukes and it might not be so terrible if they got one—[as the] tolerated [and] lovable eccentricities of a cranky but harmless uncle.” Or so writes Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker.

Hertzberg has a point.

But his kind is as detached from mainstream America as the Republicans he lambastes (Let us hope that this will be their undoing.) Ron Paul’s stance against American militarism around the world makes him appealing to voters on the left, the (real) right, and the center. All are well represented among the millions who are jobless and without an income. All would prefer to see “charity” (I use the word in the loosest possible way for the evil the US perpetrates around the world) begin at home, not abroad. Like or dislike him, Ron Paul is the only Republican presidential contender whose foreign policy position can unite left, right and independent Americans.

Provided all factions begin to … THINK.

UPDATED: Republikeynesians Pretend They’re Not Sidelining Paul

Barack Obama, Debt, Democrats, Economy, Elections, Federal Reserve Bank, Foreign Policy, Israel, Republicans, Ron Paul

Megyn Kelly interviewed Ron Paul about the snubbing he has received from the “mainstream media.” “RepubliKeynesians” have been front-and-center in a concerted attempt to ignore Ron Paul’s showing in the 2011 Iowa Straw Poll. One could say that Paul jostled with Mrs. Bachmann for first place, given the 152 votes that separated the two.

Paul sounded strong in the Kelly clip, which has not come online yet. (And he reiterated these Israel-related points, which was gratifying, of course.)

Here is the often dazzlingly brilliant Jon Stewart “savaging the media for treating Paul like he’s the ‘thirteenth floor in a hotel.'” (Via the NYT)

UPDATE (Aug. 17): Jon Stewart is often brilliant, but he is no classical liberal. He’s an economic ignoramus. Classical liberalism is first and foremost about the freedom to make a living. Stewart knows squat about such freedoms.