Holy Crap! A Republican I'd Vote For!

Posted by: dballing | July 19, 2007

Holy Crap! A Republican I’d Vote For!

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a libertarian at heart. I want the government to stay the hell out of my life, and yours too. That includes my wallet.
I grew up in the Reagan years, and was always a fan (as a centrist) of the “pendulum” mindset of modern politics… the Democrats dragged the pendulum to the left, the Republicans to the right, and my how swell it’d be to have an alternating of leadership to try and keep the pendulum close to the center as possible.
I had pretty much resigned myself to voting “blue” for the next several election cycles in an attempt to drag the pendulum back from the crazy place the Republicans dragged it to during King Bush II’s reign. I looked at the GOP candidates and didn’t see a single one that actually represented their core values of small government, etc., etc.
Which has been sad, because I’m not convinced that any of the Democrat front-runners are electable. Hillary carries all the baggage of being Hillary. Obama (right or wrong) carries the baggage of trying to be the first black President. And the only guy who really stands a snowball’s chance in hell, Al Gore, is the guy in the corner who tried to ask the prom-queen to dance, got rejected, and is so hurt he can’t stomach up enough courage to ask again.
But then, curiously, people mentioned Ron Paul to me…. I was dismissive at first. “He’s a Republican… duh, we need to go the other direction now!” But, the people who were telling me about him kept reminding me of my libertarian leanings, and implored me to check him out.
Wow…. aside from his abysmal stand on abortion, his views on the issues are very libertarian-minded indeed. (And, I remind everyone out there, Reagan had the same stand, and that man was pretty much a god among men, and it didn’t signal the end of the world…) Also, the Supreme Court really could use a nice centrist Justice to balance things out a bit more, which is extremely likely to happen… two swing votes instead of one would make the Supreme Court a lot more interesting.
I think I need to change my party affiliation so I can vote in the GOP primaries this year…

Posted in Political Stuff

Responses

Who is the swing vote on the court now?
By: Dan Isaacs on July 19, 2007
at 10:17 am
Let’s see….seven main issues. Four that he is whacked on (Free Trade, War in Iraq, Abortion, and Border Security). Then again, most are whacked on those four issues anyway.
I’m voting for me.
By: Brian Wohlgemuth on July 19, 2007
at 12:27 pm
OK, now you’ve got me curious…
Free Trade: How is that position “whacked”?
War In Iraq: Are you kidding me? I think he’s spot-on with his analysis there.
Abortion: Actually, his position is an interesting one… He’s pro-life, but against the federal government getting involved in the decision. I’m not sure I necessarily agree with his position fully, because (in the case of Roe) the federal government’s only involvement was to protect the citizens from the state government’s encroachment on their rights, but it’s an interesting take on it nonetheless.
Border Security: Agree with him 100%.
By: Derek on July 19, 2007
at 1:17 pm
Here we go….
Free Trade: This is going to sound crass, but I am not sad to see “unskilled manufacturing” jobs go bye bye. This forces the workforce to improve itself, whether through education, and the such. Free trade also opens up markets that were originally closed, and forces companies which are not as efficient to either innovate or die. As far as “keeping things fair”, it’s a great goal, but almost impossible in practice. I have to wonder if his “position” is really attainable, or if its one of those fungible ones…I vote the latter.
War in Iraq. I am one of those people who think it still is the right thing. Only reason Iraq is such a shit-hole is because we let it become that over the past thirty years. We have a generation who has only known Saddam as their leader, I think our fantasy that democracy would solve everything was a bit far fetched, but I also think the majority want it.
Most of the fighters in Iraq are foreign ones, and it’s a matter of time before that supply runs out.
What should we do? Start pushing for reforms in other countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and most of the Middle East. There are ones we can easily help and other which will take generations to change.
Abortion. His ideas are similar to mine, but I do think there should be a federal guideline allowing for abortion and prevention of prosecution if you live in “backwards” state and go to “progressive” state to get an abortion.
Border Security. Want to fix border security? See my answer above. Mexico is a pseudo-socialist shit-hole. Fix Mexico and we fix the free trade AND immigration problems in one swoop.
By: Brian Wohlgemuth on July 19, 2007
at 2:53 pm
War In Iraq: Heh, you’re wrong. It’s not the right thing, and never was. For a discussion of “democracy in iraq”, I recommend reading “Baghdad Burning”, a collection of blog entries from a female blogger in Iraq. It’s really quite enlightening, how much “free-er” people were BEFORE Saddam (and this is not a saddam-sympathetic blogger, but simply a decent, reasoned account from someone on the ground there)
As for reforming Iran, et al… hell no, we should leave them be. Fucking with other countries politics is WHY the rest of the world hates us, have you not seen that?
Abortion: I don’t think that any law which said “you can be prosecuted in state XXX if you traveled to state YYY for an abortion” would stand up to federal review. That’s like saying New York could give me a speeding ticket for driving 75 mph in Ohio.
Re: Mexico
It’s mexico’s job to fix mexico. We’ve got enough things in this country we need to fix ourselves, without spending time and money fixing other peoples’ problems. Let’s disincent them to make our problems worse, and move on.
By: Derek on July 19, 2007
at 3:35 pm
Ahh yes…isolationism
War in Iraq. One blogger is not going to change my mind. Especially since she was “more free” under Saddam? Was she a Sunni or a Shia or a Kurd? My guess…Sunni, oh gee, I’m right. Let’s ask some Shia or Kurdish bloggers how free they were under Saddam…. I don’t think anyone thought that magically things would be wonderful
Where I think the US is wrong is trying to hold Kurdistan and Iraq together. The Kurds have shown they can run their own country well (examples can be found from Michael Totten’s blog). But since the US doesn’t want to piss off Turkey….we hold onto this old colonial map.
Reforming Iran SHOULD be a goal. No, I’m not calling for nuclear strikes, but there is a responsibility that we should use as the world’s superpower. I don’t see the harm in gently nudging a country towards freedom, unless you think people like living under subjugation. It may not be our responsibility, but it’s the right thing to do.
Abortion…I think you are right, but there are always loopholes. I think if there are any, they need to be snuffed out.
Mexico will not fix itself. Seriously. It’s like bitching at your neighbor to mow his lawn. If the dad can’t afford a mower, all your bitching does is piss people off. Mexico may be forced to do so when PEMEX reserves get critical in about a decade.
And one more thing about “the world’s opinion”. Their opinion, for the most part, is crap. They are basing their “knowledge” of the situation along the lines of “war is bad, we don’t like the US” instead of taking a rational view of the situation. When confronted with the facts of Free Trade, Democracy, and Anti-Corruption, you know what happens.
Yes we have our own problems, but shutting ourselves down to the outside world to “fix our own house” would solve nothing because there would always be a new problem to fix tomorrow. Fix the big things, and try to catch what you can with the small stuff.
By: Brian Wohlgemuth on July 19, 2007
at 4:12 pm
I’ll repeat, who is the current swing vote on the Court?
By: Dan Isaacs on July 19, 2007
at 6:53 pm
Lately? Roberts….
By: Brian Wohlgemuth on July 19, 2007
at 8:42 pm
Swing vote is Justice Kennedy.
By: Bob on July 23, 2007
at 4:48 pm

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