In the thread on my random political musing of a few days ago, someone asked who I was supporting in the race for president. It would be easier to say in the first place which candidates I couldn’t support, and then, second, what scenario could reasonably be expected to make me happy. In the interests of full disclosure, I am writing this as an independent. I am not a Democrat, and am not a Republican. I am sometimes willing to vote for a Republican, provided the National Party Headquarters hates him.
First, for various reasons, Rudy, Romney, Huckabee, and McCain are just plain out. I like a lot of Ron Paul’s positions (not all of them), but in terms of personal leadership abilities, he is kind of a charisma hole. The fact that he has generated such enthusiasm has more to do with a deep hunger that a lot of people have for consistency and principle in the political arena, even if they differ with some of the principles. But that said, as I have noted before, Ron Paul has zero chance of making it to the presidency.
But he has an outstanding chance of doing very well in the Republican primaries — say a decent second or third place showing in a number of states, and he has enough money to go all the way to the convention — which would make it necessary for the regular Republican nominee, whoever that might be, to lean significantly to the paleo-right. The mainstream candidate, in my view, who might be able to do that even half-believably would be Fred Thompson.
So if Ron Paul is still in it when Idaho has its primary, he has a good chance of getting my vote. But this is not because I am a Ron-Paul-all-the-way guy. Think of it this way — many real (and therefore highly exasperated) conservatives have collectively decided to pitch a fit. We have had it up to here with the empty suits, the pollsters, the haircuts, the pollsters, the shapers, the handlers, the packagers, the pollsters, the shrink-wrappers, the party hacks, the schmoozers, and the pollsters. And so we have recently decided to lie down in the aisle of Wal-Mart, drumming our heels on the tile floor, until mom gives us at least a couple of the toys we want. Supreme Court nominees who have read the Constitution with their eyes open is one of them. Stop spending billions of dollars like thousands of drunken albeit compassionate orangutans would be another.
If there is one thing that the Republican Party needs more than anything else right now, it is to be badly frightened. And a revolt of this nature, on the right, would frighten them far more than a Hillary campaign would, or even the prospect of a Hillary victory. They need to be frightened enough that they realize they cannot successfully marginalize or dismiss these views, and that by their “big government ‘conservatism'” they have created a serious level of dissatisfaction within their own ranks. There is no way to register that dissatisfaction without voting it.
If someone has a candidate he enthusiastically likes, then he should just vote for that guy, and do so for that reason. Great, and it must be nice. But if he wants to go in for a little demolition derby work in the primaries, then a vote for Ron Paul should really be considered. This is because every biblical Christian should want the results of the coming primaries to cause the bigwig Republican operatives, solons, and politicos to wet their pants. And that would do it, I think.