Sunday, June 17, 2007

Ron Paul and Barry Goldwater

Doug Mataconis of the Liberty Papers reports that Ron Paul is the only elected politician that has won his seat three times against the incumbent, without party support. Which is no small feat. Mataconis points out why;

Paul was helped by the fact that he was running in areas of Texas where the prevailing political beliefs are conservative, but a conservatism that is of the Barry Goldwater/Ronald Reagan leave-me-alone type than the interventionist/Christianist conservatism that prevails elsewhere in the country
This makes sense and why Ron Paul has broad based support amongst libertarians. However as I pointed out in Mr. Conservative; Barry Goldwater had no kith nor kin with Reagan, who was responsible for allowing the interventionist/Christian types into the ruling echelons of the party. Goldwater blamed Regan for abandoning the libertarian/conservative traditions of the party.

Of course the current crop of neo-cons masquerading as Republicans, Lincoln would be ashamed, would rather hearken to the days of Reagan, and his electoral victory, then the days of principle and defeat; the Goldwater era.

Which is why a politician of principles like Ron Paul stands a snowballs chance in hell in the Republican party of today.

h/t to Go Ron Paul!


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1 comment:

Eric Dondero said...

This is laughable. "Ron Paul did not win his races with Party support." Are you kidding me?

Ron Paul owes his election to George W. Bush and the Republican Party.

Yes, true. The GOP hierarchy did not support him at all in the primaries. But immediately after he won - against Laughlin - in the runoff, the entire weight of the GOP establishment was thrown behind Paul in CD 14. In fact, every bigshot GOPer imaginable came down to the District to campaign for him: Hutchison, DeLay, Gramm, Henry Bonilla, even Steve Forbes. Bush (and Carl Rove) put out all the stops in the Houston area to get Big Money GOPers to back Paul.

Get your facts straight before you start commenting on political matters.

Eric Dondero, 1996 Ron Paul for Congress Campaign Coordinator