The Conservatives’ Awful Choice for President

The Conservatives' Awful Choice for President
Posted by David Franke on January 25, 2011 01:00 PM

Well, now we know who Morton Blackwell, Brent Bozell, Dick Armey, and Richard Viguerie are supporting for president.

I've seen Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) described as "a great conservative" so many times without checking him out, so I spent 5 minutes going to his website–didn't have to spend any more time. Trying to figure out where he stands on "foreign affairs," I saw discussion of nothing but Israel, and predictably that was a paean to the Likudniks. Well, at least give him an "A" for honesty–that's what an establishment conservative position on foreign policy amounts to today. Just give that plank to AIPAC to write, as Pence has. Pence also brags that he supported Bush's invasion of Iraq, that "I helped craft" the Patriot Act, and "I supported creation of the new Department of Homeland Security." I could not find anything about invasions of civil liberties under the Patriot Act and by the Department of Homeland Security, nothing about getting out of the no-win invasion of Afghanistan, and nothing about cutting the dole for the Military-Industrial Complex.

That's all I needed to see and not-see. Obviously he is a member in good standing of the ruling establishment, representing its big-government-conservative wing. I hope he decides to run for governor of Indiana, where he might actually do a teeny bit of good, rather than for president of the United States.

There is no hope that the "conservatives" will nominate anyone who takes a serious stand against Big Government. You cannot fight Big Government by supporting interventionism around the world. It's all conservative smoke and mirrors.

And, although I have a little hope for a few of its members, there is also no serious hope that the Tea Partiers will work to nominate anyone who takes a serious stand against Big Government. (Note that their Republican Pied Piper, Dick Armey, signed this petition for Pence.)

We all have a limited amount of time–the clock does not have a flexible number of minutes or hours–so any time spent on the "conservative movement" or Tea Party is a waste of a valuable resource. Ron Paul still stands alone. Let's spend our time trying to convince him to run again for president in the Republican primaries and debates.