There is something afoot within the Republican Party specifically and American politics generally.\u00a0 Something is happening, something that will make it increasingly difficult for the GOP of today to return to its previous way of doing things.<\/p>\n
This \u201csomething\u201d is a keenly felt incoherence within the GOP, a tension that is on its way to boiling over.\u00a0 This tension has been brought about in part by the presidency of Barack Obama, it is true.\u00a0 But the contribution of the latter consists in simply forcing to the forefront inconsistencies within the GOP that long predate the rise of Obama, inconsistencies that are the offspring of the tumultuous marriage between the party\u2019s rhetoric and its practice.<\/p>\n
Republicans loudly and proudly affirm \u201climited government\u201d and the \u201cindividual liberty\u201d to which the former is supposed to give rise. Yet their talk is one thing.\u00a0 Their walk is something else altogether.\u00a0 In practice, the differences between Republicans and Democrats are differences of degree\u2014fractions of a degree, at that.<\/p>\n
We need not recapitulate the many respects in which our two national parties are for all intents and purposes indistinguishable.\u00a0 One need only reflect upon the presidency of George W. Bush to recognize that while our 43rd<\/sup> President was many things, a proponent of \u201climited government\u201d he most certainly was not.<\/p>\n However, regardless of Republican media spin, the base of the party has long recognized that its leadership has failed miserably to advance the agenda that it claims <\/em>to support.\u00a0 This explains why with every primary season, voters insist on the need to nominate a \u201creal <\/em>conservative.\u201d\u00a0 That the majority of the GOP\u2019s base remains mired in confusion on this matter is beside the point.\u00a0 The very fact that the base routinely reveals itself to be at odds with \u201cthe establishment\u201d proves that even Republicans perceive a conflict between what Republican politicians, strategists, and commentators say <\/em>and what they do. <\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I contend that it is the candidacy of Ron Paul that has at once illuminated and <\/em>remedied this conflict. Because of his visibility as a national figure, to say nothing of his earthy charm, Paul has made it impossible for Republicans to any longer deny the glaring incongruity between their utterances and their actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Paul explodes onto the national scene espousing just those ideas to which Republicans have claimed to be committed for decades.\u00a0 His fellow Republicans in the presidential primary contests of 2008 and today are no less reserved than is Paul in expressing their support of \u201climited government\u201d and \u201cindividual liberty.\u201d\u00a0 Yet it is Paul, and Paul alone, who is regularly treated by both his colleagues and their supporters in the so-called \u201cconservative\u201d media as persona non grata.\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n The question is rhetorical: Paul is clearly the only one who truly believes in that of which Republicans speak.\u00a0<\/p>\n At a minimum, he is the only one who recognizes that certain kinds of policies\u2014like those suited for waging an interminable war against a vague enemy\u2014are radically incompatible with Republican Party ideals.<\/p>\n Just by virtue of his presence, Paul simultaneously identifies the contradiction at the core of GOP politics and points the way toward its resolution.\u00a0<\/p>\n Paul calls out his fellow partisans while hurling them on the horns of a dilemma.\u00a0 If <\/em>Republicans really believe in the ideals to which they pay lip service, then <\/em>they have no logical or moral option but to adopt the policies that Paul prescribes.\u00a0 If, though, <\/em>they refuse to adopt these prescriptions by continuing along the path that they have been traveling for far too long, then we <\/em>have no logical option but to conclude that their ideals are nothing more than rhetorical devices for procuring votes.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n There is no slipping between these two horns: the dilemma is inescapable.<\/p>\n Republicans know this.\u00a0 This <\/em>is why they have reacted to Paul as hysterically as they have.\u00a0 Paul is a whistle blower.\u00a0 The affable Texas Congressman and stalwart constitutionalist has aired the GOP\u2019s dirty laundry for all of the country to see.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, Paul is generous.\u00a0 Yes, he has shown that the Emperor has no clothes. But he has offered to provide clothing\u2014and more. Paul seeks to adorn the GOP with those jewels\u2014our Constitutional liberties\u2014that its rhetoric would have us think it prizes. And he seeks to do this by charting a new course for his party and his country, a course that is in keeping with the spirit of liberty in which Americans have traditionally delighted.\u00a0<\/p>\n Paul\u2019s support among voters not only indicates no signs of diminishing; it continues to swell.\u00a0 As much as Republicans in the media would love to have us believe that the Paul phenomenon is negligible or vanishing, that Paul continues, and will continue, to accumulate delegates all of the way to the Republican National Convention exposes this line for the falsehood that it is.<\/p>\n Jack Kerwick, Ph.D.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is something afoot within the Republican Party specifically and American politics generally.\u00a0 Something is happening, something that will make it increasingly difficult for the GOP of today to return to its previous way of doing things. This \u201csomething\u201d is a keenly felt incoherence within the GOP, a tension that is on its way to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n