The reason Perry is an attractive candidate is because he is a small government candidate. Not as much as Paul but far more than anyone else running. He actually believes the answers do not come from Washington. Mitt, Santorum and Newt absolutely do not believe people can handle freedom and Washington DC is where freedom is doled out. They think tinkering around in DC will fix our problem. Perry and Paul do not.
Perry happens to be more in line with the Republican Party on military issues and what I'll call "the Empire" but I think Perry is more of a "if you're going to war declare it and then go old testament on their ass" where as Paul is more along the lines of "don't even go".
Depending on what happens in this election I could see a strong, states rights, small government movement based on freedom coming out of this thing.
I actually have thought a Perry/Rand Paul ticket would be awesome for the simple fact of cutting government.
And what's sad is that the reason Ron Paul is doing so well is because he brings a sort of small-government ‘purity’ that is appealing to anyone that has not seen a small-government candidate. After 4 years of big-government Obama, 8 years of big-government Bush, and 8 years of big-government Clinton... it's a breath of fresh air.
For a nation whose electorate is desperate to just have the government leave them alone, he comes across with his ‘pure’ message like some sort of political Messiah... when in reality, he's a cheap demagogue.
And my point explains why about half his support is coming from Democrats. For the same split exists within their party.
(Whereas the statists already got their Messiah, Obama, and found out how having their Messiah isn't as good as yearning for one.)
Sad thing is that on both sides of the political spectrum (statist, non-statist, left, right)... we have seen demagogues preying on a desperate electorate. An electorate that has repeatedly voted for the politicians that enact the laws necessary to make the electorate more and more desperate.
To be honest, I expect our political system to come crashing down relatively soon... and that it'll be cheered by the voters because whoever does it will finally have ‘done something’.
States rights is simply not an exciting campaign slogan or philosophy. I also think it's a very poor plan for success of the country. We are the UNITED states and we don't gain by seceding from each other 50 different ways. We should be looking to implement good, conservative policy on the federal level where we can. What good is shutting down the EPA if every state is then allowed to enact their own environmental regulations? California for instance would do everything the EPA does and more. There comes a point when states are no longer the laboratories on a given issue and when conclusions from their experiments should be drawn and applied to the country on the federal level. The reality is that the world and the country is a far, far smaller place than it ever was before. The things each state does almost invariably affects other states, hence we should seek to have consistent federal laws across the board.
Go “Old Testament on their ass”, eh? (giggling) I like that one!
Perry remains my favored candidate for the reasons you have stated.
I hope I have the privilege of voting for him by the time my primary rolls around.