For the second year in a row, conservatives attending the annual CPAC conference in Washington D.C. have selected Rep. Ron Paul of Texas as the winner of their presidential straw poll.Read the rest here.
Paul received 30 percent of the vote.
Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts came in second, with 23 percent of the vote. Romney, considered a frontrunner to win the GOP nomination for the 2012 race, was the victor in three consecutive CPAC straw polls before Paul’s victory last year.
The selection of Paul – an isolationist, anti-war fiscal conservative who advocates for the dismantling of the Federal Reserve – as the attendees’ top choice to run for the White House signals a strong libertarian streak of many of the annual conference’s attendees, many of whom are students. Paul raised eye-popping sums on the web during his 2008 presidential run but almost certainly lacks the campaign organization and wide appeal with GOP primary voters to be a serious contender to win the nomination.
OK. Ron Paul can't win the GOP nomination. But what this does signal is that the Neo-Cons and Evangelicals who have taken over the GOP should not assume that they have a lock on libertarian leaning votes. If they nominate someone like Palin a large number of us will simply stay home or vote 3rd party. What this country does not need is just another statist party that is no different than the Democrats except in respect to which aspects of people's lives they want to regulate.
Yepper.
ReplyDeleteLibertarianism isn't so much the socialism of idiots as the socialism of absolute kooks. I remember Ron from when he was the mainstay of the Bircher circuit - trying to draw a strong distinction between him and Palin isn't all that meaningful.
ReplyDeleteA piece of advice for readers: anyone that uses the term statist needs to be immediately taken off a list of credible commentators on just about anything.
anyone that uses the term statist needs to be immediately taken off a list of credible commentators on just about anything.
ReplyDeleteEven if that is true (and I disagree), one could say the same thing about people who post anonymously.....
Good one.
ReplyDeleteRon Paul will win the straw poll, dominate the debates (again) and then the GOP voters will shut up and vote for the candidates Big Business picks for them (just like their Democratic twins).
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Ron Paul is that he sounds great until you realize that if he gets his way your parents being taking care of in the home or getting medicare will be cut off causing you to have to pick up the tab or let them wither on the vine. Most conservatives are in denial that America has been socialist for a long while. They are statist but they just don't consider their interest to be what makes America socialist it's what the other guy wants.
ReplyDeleteHeaven forbid that we should have to care for parents. There ought to be a law.
ReplyDeleteHeaven forbid that we should have to care for parents.
ReplyDeleteNext thing you know, extended familial networks could break out everywhere.