Posted on 05/12/2011 4:15:33 PM PDT by SJackson
Even analysts who disagree with Texas Congressman Ron Paul on the issues recognized last week that the principled libertarian turned in the ablest performance at the first Republican presidential debate.
Indeed, as Paul prepares to mount his third campaign for the presidency, he does so from a dramatically better position than at the beginnings of his previous bids.
In 1988, he was a Libertarian shouting from the political wilderness about the supposed sameness of Republican George H.W. Bush and Democrat Michael Dukakis.
In 2008, he was a maverick Republican wedged into debates with a crew of credible contenders such as John McCain and Rudy Giuliani. He got notice, mostly from Giuliani, who objected that a dissenter from GOP economic and foreign policy orthodoxy had been allowed on the debate stage. But again, Paul was denied the sort of coverage and respect accorded contenders who echoed the party line dictated by Dick Cheney and the neocon taskmasters.
In 2012, Paul runs as an increasingly iconic Republican with a good many more allies inside the party and a claim to fame that most of his fellow contenders for the GOP nod lack: a job as a congressman that places him in the thick of national debates. Perhaps most significantly, he uses his position in Congress to embrace positions that, while at odds with Republican leaders, raise the concerns of millions of Americans from across the ideological spectrum.
That does not mean he is going to secure the Republican nomination. The Grand Old Party does not have a history of nominating candidates who take stands that unsettle the Wall Street bankers and corporate CEOs who pay the party’s tab — and kindly pick up some bills for the Democrats as well.
With that said, however, there are plenty of reasons why progressives might welcome Paul to the 2012 race.
One need not support the man or his overall platform — which deviates from classic libertarianism on some vital social issues and which features an antipathy toward entitlement programs that makes Paul Ryan sound like a liberal — to recognize the value added to the Republican presidential debates, and the broader discourse, by a candidate who:
1. Has consistently opposed the undeclared wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, siding with Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and other members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus in struggles to hold Democratic and Republican presidents to account for unlawful and unnecessary war-making.
2. Has worked alongside Congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass., to make the case for deep cuts in the Pentagon budget.
3. Has regularly voted with Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and other labor-aligned Democrats in opposition to free-trade pacts that leave workers jobless, shutter factories, batter working-class communities and make a mockery of democratic governance in the U.S. and abroad.
4. Has joined former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Michigan Congressman John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in raising all the right questions about the Patriot Act, domestic surveillance and abuses of civil liberties.
5. Has partnered with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the chamber’s steadiest advocate of economic justice and social-democratic ideals, to demand transparency and accountability from the Federal Reserve.
6. Has sided with Kaptur, Feingold, Sanders and other critics of bank bailouts that were backed by both President Obama and the Republican leadership of the House and Senate.
7. Has mounted a stronger defense of WikiLeaks and press freedom than any other member of Congress — Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative.
Ron Paul is not a progressive. He takes stands on abortion rights and other issues that disqualify him from consideration by most moderates and liberals. But he cannot be dismissed as just another robotic Republican. Indeed, he is more inclined than Barack Obama to challenge Republican orthodoxy on a host of foreign and fiscal policy issues. As such, he brings a dimension to the presidential race that would otherwise be missing. And, at some point in some debate, he is going to face the supposed front-runner in the field — who avoided last Thursday’s clash in South Carolina — and he is going to make Mitt Romney scream.
John Nichols is the associate editor of The Capital Times. jnichols@madison.com
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