Granted when it comes to today's GOP, there are a flurry of problems of which they suffer (most notably one of credibility. It's pretty tough to vote yay on the Bush/Paulsen bailout only to then expect a platform when criticizing the same from the incoming administration). But that aside, the biggest problem with the GOP as I see it can be summed up in short with any one of the following captions:
Ron Paul v. Olympia Snowe
Ron Paul v. Susan Collins
Ron Paul v. Charles Grassley
Ron Paul v. Tim Pawlenty
Ron Paul v. Mike Huckabee
Ron Paul v. [pick your favorite moderate Republican]
As much as the Republican party pays homage to Ronald Reagan and an ever growing amount of lip service to Free Minds and Free Markets, Private Property, et al., let's be perfectly clear on this. The Republican party is no longer the party of Reagan (and certainly not Barry Goldwater).
Ron Paul, as you'll recall, was vilified by the Republican Party establishment during his 2008 presidential run. And for what? For disagreeing with the party's traditional orthodoxy on Iraq? Lest we forget there were a great many other notable conservatives in the classical sense (William Buckley, George Will, Charely Reese, Paul Craig Roberts, James Webb, etc.) opposed to, what they all correctly stated at the time and, what has since become an occupational venture. Paul was further vilified as a kook, a nutjob, for favoring the abolotion of the government's greatest monopoly The Department of Education as well as Medicare, the IRS, Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, and of course the Federal Reserve.
That the Republican party establishment and a great many of its voters subsequently did so easily reject those ideas and the Constitutional Congressman from Texas is in part testament to their predicament.
The other, and much more profound part to that predicament is that while rejecting virtually every principle and idea and the man who espoused them, they were instead embracing en masse the complete and polar opposite (see the short list of the aforementioned) and throwing money and resources behind those individuals who would messenger them.
The GOP didn't head Paul's call for aboloshing the Department of Education it instead doubled its size. They didn't seek healthcare reform they added a prescription drug plan. And now, not only are they stuck with little if any credibility, they're stuck in large part with a flurry of individuals struggling to deliver a cohesive message, thought, or idea. All the while continuing to reject a man who, at present, has the greatest momentum, credibility and understanding of this fiscal crisis and without question the greatest opportunity of any of the "leading" 2012 hopefuls.
8 comments:
When you think about how EASY it should be to defeat Obama in 2012 it'd be funny if it weren't so sad.
Exactly. But the Republicans are merely hoping for a win by default. Hardly a win in my opinion.
Actually some of the things that Ron Paul is saying have been echoed by noted black journalist Tony Brown in his book Empower the People especially the part about getting rid of the Federal Reserve Board and going back to the gold standard. Paul is only considered radical because we gave up these things a long time ago. In the colonial age Paul would have been considered mainstream but that just goes to show how far the GOP has drifted.
"[pick your favorite moderate Republican] ..Sarah Palin!!
Great Blog Soapboxgod ..
It seems like BB-Idaho is trying very hard to be a wise ass.
Thanks for the kind words.
Well if I HAD to go with some kind of moderate Republican...Giuliani? if he'd get more with the concept of federalism he'd be great. BB I'm still awaiting your insight at my amnesia blog of today.
may I say Amen!
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