'Ron Paul effect' has GOP worried

'Ron Paul effect' has GOP worried
Written by R. Matthew Poteat
Columnist

Given the erratic state of Republican politics these days, don't be surprised if a libertarian polls well -- very well -- in the January primaries.

Ron Paul won't win the Republican presidential nomination, much less the White House, but he is primed for a potentially big run in Iowa and New Hampshire: states that can give a boost to underdog, outsider candidates. Should this happen, Paul can push the Republican Party further toward his libertarian views.

Iowa Republicans are not libertarians, but they are uneasy with embracing Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich, and they are very conservative. Hawkeyes detest Obama's health care law, the Departments of Education, Energy, HUD, and Commerce, public broadcasting, and support for the arts. All of which Paul would not just cut, but eliminate outright.

New Hampshire Republicans generally agree, but they are cut from more libertarian cloth (the state's motto ­ "Live free or die" ­ sends libertarians into rapture). Granite State voters, especially younger voters and independents, are pro-choice, support gay marriage and drug liberalization. They also want defense spending cuts, all of which Paul supports.

But Democrats and Republicans have an uneasy relationship with libertarians like Paul. Democrats tend to like their views on national defense and civil liberties. Republicans are attracted to their economic views and limited government stance, especially when it comes to free markets, tax cuts and federal domestic spending.

The problem both parties have with libertarians, however, is that they are neither fish nor fowl. They are neither liberal nor conservative. They are a distinct hybrid that became disillusioned with the major parties and formed their own in 1971. As the conservative columnist Bruce Bartlett has noted, however, the Libertarian Party is essentially a high-school- level debating club where only one question is ever debated: Who is the purest libertarian, and what is the purest libertarian position?

This explains why Paul is a registered Republican. Although he did run for president in 1988 on the Libertarian ticket, he knows that it (and other third parties) are not taken seriously by most voters and cannot win big elections.

Moreover, libertarians like Paul are primarily motivated by economics and as a result tend to gravitate to the GOP, which has of late been in thrall to Freidrich Hayek and the Austrian school. They equate paying taxes with theft and slavery, and obsess over gold and the dangers of paper money. These issues are largely the extent of their philosophy.

Paul presents himself as a man of principle and as an intellectual devoted to liberty, and his legions of fans love him for it. While his personal integrity is beyond reproach, his intellectual views on liberty are pretty amateur. He writes books on liberty, but they are little more than trite panegyrics to the nature of freedom, which he defines simply as the absence of government. Hardly Lockean.

Paul, however, is not without courage. He stands alone among Republican presidential candidates in his condemnation of American military intervention abroad and he has a long record of voting against it. He voted against both Iraq wars and the war in Kosovo. Although he voted for the Afghanistan war after 9-11, he now regrets that vote and says the money was wasted. He also rails against American foreign aid, even when the aid is humanitarian or in America's security interests.

Such views, and especially his condemnation of America's relationship with Israel, have put Paul at odds with social and religious conservatives. At one recent debate, Paul vowed to cut all aid to Israel and said, "Why does Israel need our help? We need to get out of their way."

As a result, the Republican Jewish Coalition did not invite him to its December forum.

Yet, Paul's brand of libertarianism is more popular than ever and his influence on today's conservative movement is easy to see. Although he's a White House long shot, his impress on today's conservative will likely continue for some time to come.



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