Comments on: Ron Paul Book Bomb Works, #1 On Amazon

By: Nelson

Nelson — Fri, 02 May 2008 04:12:23 +0000

You missed a big one mw… comprehensive immigration reform.

By: mw

mw — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:36:24 +0000

There is only one way for a third party to emerge in American Politics. It has to emerge as a replacement for one of the two major parties, if/when one of those parties self destructs. In modern history Perot hit the high water mark for 3rd parties with 20% of the popular and no electoral votes. Wallace got more electoral votes but fewer popular votes. Teddy Roosevelt, a wildly popular ex-president could not make a third party effort function as anything more than a spoiler, succeeding only in electing Wilson.

There is exactly one successful historical precedent to look at – The Republicans replacing the Whigs. The Whigs self-destructed over the moral question of slavery, making room for the Republican party to replace it.

I think it is reasonable analogy for the current situation. The Republican Party is self-destructing over principled issues like fighting an immoral war, unreasonable search seizure, habeas corpus, torturing detainees, government spying without due process, politicization of the department of Justice – in short issues of freedom vs. not. As long as the party cleaves along principled moral issues there may indeed be a real opportunity for something better to emerge from the ashes of the Republican Party.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:37:37 +0000

3rd parties have no chance in hell. Only Dems think the Rep party should split, thereby giving Dems a monopoly. Everyone else would rather see a new GOP that is centered around individual freedom and small government as a check against Democratic collectivism.

By: gerryf

gerryf — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:33:38 +0000

While I have disagreed with some of the fringe elements of the Ron Paul movement in the past, Dr. Saturn is correct. The GOP of Bush is in its death throes and the Paulites are wise to stand at the ready to rescue it. Conservatism has nothing to do with Bush and his cronies. Conservatism once meant fiscal responsibility, a measured foreign policy, small government, individual rights, anti-imperialism…

Gingrich, Delay, Cheney, Bush jr, turd blossom and the rest of these thugs waylaid the true conservative philosophy for selfish gain, continuing the cancer of Richard Nixon and perpetuated by Reagan (ironically, the cancer went into a strange remission during George H.W. Bush, whose presidency I think was underrated). Oddly, the Clinton years and the hatred it inspired in the radical right gave new life to that cancer, culminating in Bush jr.

Ron Paul will likely never be president, but he may have planted the seeds for a revival of real conservative principals, but it will not occur without a radical exorcism of the far right. McCain, before he began pandering to the far right, was actually the start of something positive–a step back from the religious conservatism and towards a cultural and economic conservatism favored by the Paulites.

It is actually surprising to me that the Paulites do not recognize this–it is not as big a step as the Paulites would like (which is exactly the reason the Paulites never gained traction–too strident), but McCain will be far more friendly to what they believe than what Bush is peddling.

McCain is actually the first step in the long overdue transformation of the GOP, with one foot stuck in the past and another stepping toward the future.

Ironically, Democratic ineptitude has created an opening for McCain, who decided he still needed the radical right. So, instead of the beginning of a new GOP, a McCain win with his foot still held tightly by a clinging radical right, is perpetuating that cancer. The best thing that could happen to the GOP is a stake in heart of the vampiric right wing in the form of a Dem victory.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Thu, 01 May 2008 08:55:32 +0000

I’m not sure that any new party (or one of the smaller ones established already) could fill the gap left by a destroyed Republican party in just four years, and I am fearful that the Democrats will seize the opportunity to prevent anyone from ever challenging them ever again (we can thank Bush for that), which means everyone loses, at least economically.

By: Dr. Saturn

Dr. Saturn — Thu, 01 May 2008 05:43:21 +0000

If ballot access laws were fair, then we’d be pushing for the Libertarian Party… or at least I would – can’t speak for the rest of us. As things are right now, winning over the GOP is a much easier task than running as a 3rd party or winning over the dems. The fact that the Republican party is so small and fractured now is proof that a shift is only a question of time, so we’ve just got to make sure we can direct as much of the impending shift as we can.

If/when ppl realize the war on terror is as big a mistake as the war on drugs… (bigger), then perhaps the tables will turn. It won’t be easy, and I don’t think anyone ever thought it would be, but being a minority is no reason to give up.

PS: Like it or not Ron Paul himself IS a republican. His views may be different from the mainstream GOP’s right now, but so are Taft, Goldwater and Reagan’s – are they somehow retroactively “not Republicans”?