Ron Paul Meet-Up Afterthoughts

WHILE I’M AWAY OVER THE NEXT FIVE DAYS, I will have to brood occasionally upon the following thought: even many Republicans dismiss Ron Paul’s libertarian-themed presidential run as too far-out to win — yet I honestly don’t know who among the other Republican candidates is fully acceptable not just by my “extreme” libertarian standards but even by mushy, broad fiscal-conservative standards. A checklist of the grim basic facts:

• Fred Thompson: won’t rule out tax hike.

• Rudy Giuliani: not sure if he endorses a flat tax.

• John McCain: opposed Bush tax cuts.

• Mike Huckabee: imposed state sales tax on Arkansas as governor.

• Mitt Romney: also imposed new taxes on the state he governed, plus created state-imposed health plan.

• Duncan Hunter: opposed some free trade agreements (but then, so did Paul in some cases, albeit for different reasons — this gets complicated).

• Tom Tancredo: so obsessed with cracking down on immigration he suggested this week that the families of recent murder victims in Newark should sue New Jersey for having lax immigration enforcement (though George Mason University economist Don Boudreaux has noted that immigrants are far, far less likely to commit crimes than non-immigrants in the U.S.), which makes me think he, too, would likely show a paleo aversion to foreign trade, which is as irresponsible as being pro-global-depression, as anyone in the ostensibly more-free-market of the two major parties ought to know — and he explicitly supports some farm subsidies on his website’s short list of principles.

• Sam Brownback: not too bad on economic matters, actually, but at the high price of ardent opposition to cloning, violent videogames, and other things unpopular in the de facto church he was living in last I knew (housing provided by some radical Christian group he joined, though I think he’s now a Catholic).

Anyway, to coin a bumper sticker: Screw ’em all, vote for Paul.

So, yeah, OK, maybe there was a John Birch Society member or two (they actually exist, apparently) at the Ron Paul meet-up I attended last night (join the Ron Paul Meet-Up and you can see for yourself — perhaps by attending their August 25 benefit rock concert while I’m away), but then, Lyndon LaRouche is a Democrat, and you don’t see people staying away from the Democratic Party in droves because of it. Takes all kinds, candidate doesn’t necessarily endorse blah blah blah, etc.

I miss Steve Forbes sometimes. Still have a 2000 campaign hat. But then, aside from having less acceptance among the establishment — Ron Paul is better.

(And I should note that none of these shortcomings among the GOP candidates makes the Democrats, who want even more spending, remotely acceptable, so please don’t suggest that as a “solution.”)