Dear Friends,
It seems to me the republican primary candidates all have their personal strengths and weakness. In that, they are as human, as you and I. They hold vastly different places on the political spectrum, yet are all far less statist than their potential adversary in the general election… Obama.
Mitt Romney is a progressive pure and simple. He was against true liberalism before he was for it. He used to be for, gun control, abortion, amnesty for illegal’s and most of all government health care… Nazi healthcare. This is his baggage. Romney is vehemently opposed to all these things… now. But to the much jaded American “conservative” he looks pretty much like the Elite’s choice.
Newt Gingrich is another progressive of a different stripe than Mitt. Gingrich, while being quite progressive in many of his stances, hasn’t changed them as much. With Gingrich what you see is what you get. He is a smart guy who lives the hedonistic lifestyle that our culture portrays as the highest and best. He has delivered on true liberal (neo conservative) values however. In his contract with America he promised and then delivered on many true liberal values. Holding Congress to many of the laws they had been exempt from in the past, spending cuts through welfare reform and he was in fact the real driver to the US budget surplus of the time. Much because of his controversial statements and lifestyle.
Rick Perry is so similar to Mitt Romney it is eerie. Except for his religion which Rick Perry wears on his sleeve. Not that religion is a bad thing, I believe it shows a candidate holds him or herself to a higher power, and also shows some level of humility. He does have some actually long standing conservative values like abortion. But Rick Perry also has a great deal of progressive baggage. The US true liberal electorate are wary of progressives. We have been tricked too many times before. Perry sounds to us like Bush.
Herman Cain has the all American life story. He embodies what Veblen claimed, was the reason the American people of his time were insensitive to class warfare, because there was a pervasive feeling, that at any time anyone, could become rich. If only he or she had the right idea and the guts to pull it off. Herman Cain did and did. He has proven himself smart and capable but politically inept. The unbiased media put out a hit on him and they pulled it off. He and the candidates that follow don’t meet the Elite’s view of who a real candidate should be. Likening back to the old arguments between the Patricians and the Plebeians about who could and could not be a Consul.
Ron Paul has some good ideas about the economy. I get the feeling he actually means them as well which is a big gold star in my book. He understands what the outcome of our economic policies will be if we stay on the same road. It is well worn, from Weimar to Argentina, it looks like the best road… until the end. The swamp at the end sucks everything down. But the Elite are willfully ignorant that the same road always leads to the same place. Ron Paul, however, is extremely dangerous in his foreign policy. No matter how well our economy is doing, a well placed EMP from a nuclear armed suicidally apocalyptic Iranian regime, would kill 70% of the US population in 6 months and 50-70% of the populations in Africa and the Middle East in a year… due to starvation. Such an extremely dangerous attitude in foreign policy is absolutely unacceptable.
Michele Bachman has it exactly right on economic policies. The first order of business, to get the American economy back to being the engine of the World’s economy, is to rescind Obama care. She is exactly right in her wanting to reform Dodd Frank, into something that addresses the actual problems instead of exacerbating them, as does Dodd Frank. Move the power from giant institutions, that are too big to fail, to smaller more distributed banks that can more efficiently compete. Unless the power of regulation is used to stifle competition as does Dodd Frank. Bachman is accurate in her assessment of the threat of a nuclear armed Iran. She understands the threats our way of life are under and she has guts enough to get us out. But she is a woman and perhaps the American electorate are not ready for a woman to be president.
They are all smart and dedicated. Some to the future of the country and some to themselves and their own power. As are all politicians. It is when they direct their drive for power, into the improvement of Mankind that it is good, and when they use it for their own personal enrichment, at cost to humanity… it is bad. We again clearly see the outcome of demand side statist solutions the last few years with Obama. We worry about more of the same in Romney, Gingrich and Perry. Cain has been politically tainted by the unbiased media and will need some powerful cleaning up. The exculpatory truth will probably come out in a few months but the hit will have worked. Ron Paul has his mortally dangerous foreign policy as his chief baggage and Michele Bachman is a girl.
There is not one among them, however, who wouldn’t be one thousand times the President of Obama.
Sincerely,
John
