Yes you read that right, and no my weblog hasn’t been hijacked by conservative bloggers!
Of course I’ve got quite a few friends who are Republicans and conservatives, and I respect the fact that they stand for their beliefs, even though I may disagree with some of those beliefs. But over the years, they’ve been having trouble identifying with their party and Republican candidates who call themselves “conservative”. The 2006 election was a bit of a reflection of the dissatisfaction by some of those “real” conservatives who feel their party has been hijacked by “social conservatives” over the past 10 years.
From what I’ve been hearing from some of those traditional conservatives, they’re incredibly disappointed with the quality of the 2008 Republican candidates thus far. National polls reflect this as well through the high polling numbers that unannounced “real conservative” Republicans like Fred Thompson get.
However, it appears as though a more qualified “true conservative” candidate from the Republican party is now getting a serious look after some of his common sense ideas have gotten some press in recent Republican debates.
Rep. Ron Paul is a Republican from Texas, and by all accounts, a true conservative. He also seems to be someone that “gets it” about the war in Iraq, the root causes of the 9/11 attack, Internet privacy, and individual rights.
In fact, if some of his fiscal and social policies weren’t so conservative, he’d be an attractive candidate to a lot of moderates and Independents as well in the mold of Sen. John McCain circa 1999. Remember that Independents can vote in the New Hampshire primary, which could bode well for Rep. Paul.
If you have a few minutes, there’s a great interview (below) with him at a National Press club event this week where he “presented” Rudy Giuliani with a reading list:
The Ron Paul presidential campaign issued the following reading list for Rudy Giuliani to educate himself on foreign policy.
“I hope Rudy Giuliani reads these books from top foreign policy experts,” said campaign chairman Kent Snyder. “We have also included some Cliffs Notes in case Mr. Giuliani is too busy giving $100,000 speeches on national security.”
This is one of the things I really respect about Rep. Paul. While Rudy may have gotten big applause lines in the recent Republican debate for throwing out the “9/11 MADE ME A LEADER AND WE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CAUSES!!!” line, it’s really not rooted in any kind of reality. And quite frankly, the last thing we need for the next 5 years is a President who prefers misleading tough-guy sound bytes to expert analysis and a reasoned approach to the problems America faces abroad.
On to the video so you can judge for yourself:
While I have no plans on switching teams, it’s encouraging to see competent candidates on the Republican side getting more coverage. At the end of the day it’s a good thing to raise the level of discourse between the parties about American’s problems, and I’m happy to see Rep. Ron Paul doing his part regarding that effort.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and sons Carter and Colton.
I heard about Ron Paul a few months ago, and after looking him up found a second Congressman (with Feingold) that I respect. Paul seems more of a libertarian than a Republican, which is very appealing to a lot of people, myself included.
It’s too bad he doesn’t have a shot of winning his party’s nomination. He is one of the few Republicans I’d consider voting for.
And as far as his 9/11 comments – right on! Anybody who thinks U.S. foreign policy since WWII has been above reproach seriously needs to open a textbook. It is not unpatriotic to say that there are people in the world who have good reason to with harm on the U.S. government.
Make that “wish” harm. And by the way, I hope nobody accuses me of supporting or justifying al Qaeda or its actions. They (and others) are without a doubt enemies of the U.S. and need to be eliminated.
But to pretend that the 9/11 attacks were completely out of the blue is not only ignorant, it’s dangerous.
I am hoping its Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich (for the Republicans and Democrats) come Fall 2008.
The US government has done lots of not nice things pretty much from its inception, not just since WWII. Some of those may have been worth it, but many probably were not. The real problem is there is no national discussion about those decisions because people don’t generally get told about them (other than slavery and displacing native americans). Through high school people generally are taught a very one sided view of the US as good guys.
Right, Bruno. I only mention actions since WWII since that is considered the beginning of the Cold War and the beginning of modern U.S. foreign policy. This is also the time when we start making real enemies in the Middle East with the creation of the Israeli state.
I also find it strange that we’ll teach our kids about how our government displaced (and slaughtered) millions of American Indians, but most people have no clue how we helped to displace millions of Palestinians. And then we wonder why they’re so upset about it and why the terrorists hate us so much.
Ron Paul at least seems to stand by what he believes in, Dennis Kucinich on the other hand doesn’t. You only have to go back four years to see how he switched his stance on abortion just in time for an election.
He did change his position, though I am not sure it was a huge change. It doesn’t appear that he was rabid anti-abortion and he doesn’t seem to be rabid pro-choice now.
He did however oppose the Iraq war when none of the other announced democratic presidential did. He also voted against the patriot act.