At Post Partisan this afternoon, I wrote about the news of the demise, or maybe demise, or something, of Ron Paul's campaign. Mostly, I thought it wasn't really a big deal, in that I suspect his actual campaign will continue more or less unchanged. If you're interested, however, I'd recommend Molly Ball's reported piece, which I saw only after I sent in my post. What she has that I didn't know was that, at least according to her sources, the Paul campaign hasn't been happy with the over-the-top demonstrations and, to some extent, conspiracy theorizing among many Paul activists -- as seen in Arizona over the weekend.
Has Ron Paul changed the Republican Party with his presidential runs? I think on the Fed, yes. On the rest...I really don't see much. There's some adoption of positions out of convenience, but I doubt it will last. I don't think the Paul campaign has made even a dent on foreign policy or civil liberties. Of course, that's just my impression; we'll see the real results in the future.
Monday, May 14, 2012
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Seems like a bit more of that curious kissy-kissy between Paul and Mitt. Dynastic motivations, or good old fashioned oligarchic sentiment?
ReplyDeleteJonathan, Paul supporters are fighting the Republican establishment in much of the country right now (even Massachusetts -- just ask your brother). The 2012 campaign is only a skirmish in the war for the future direction of the GOP.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's true. I'm only talking about so far; there's no way of knowing whether the Paul stuff accelerates or dissipates.
DeleteI will say this, and I should have said it in the post: I do think that they're generally doing what a minority group should do if it wants to effect change. What they're trying is much more promising than going a third party route, and they're probably correct that the GOP is a better fit than the Democrats, although one can imagine an argument the other way. I just think they're stuck with a bunch of positions that are unlikely to gather additional support in the GOP, for better or worse.
I don't think Paul has changed the GOP on the Fed really. The Fed is in a nebulous sense associated with the Executive branch, so the GOP has become critical of it in the last few years simply because there is a Democrat in office and anything the Fed does to improve the economy helps that Democrat win re-election. If Romney wins in November, expect to see a lot of GOP Congressmen suddenly (re-)discovering the virtues of more monetary stimulus.
ReplyDeleteAaaand this is the first the Paul camp is hearing about "over-the-top demonstrations" and "conspiracy theorizing" among their supporters???
ReplyDeleteAs someone whose brother got into politics supporting Ron Paul and is now on Minnesota's state party executive committee, there must be some effect on the party even if it's too small to notice.
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