“It’s hard to talk about real issues when three quarters of the audience wear tin foil hats.”
— The former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party,
describing Iowa Republican caucus participants
Over at Third Way, Bill Schneider offers an incisive view of the success enjoyed by the Ron Paul candidacy and explains why it’s an Iowa-only phenomenon.
Before dissecting the oddities of the Iowa caucuses, Schneider first goes through the litany of why Paul, 76, will never appeal to mainstream America: He wants to abolish the Federal Reserve, the federal income tax and $1 trillion worth of government services; he wants to end all foreign aid and close all overseas U.S. military installations; he dismisses the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to the U.S.; and he has a long history of actions, whether voting in Congress or producing right-wing newsletter, that suggest a racist, anti-Semitic streak.
Setting that aside, Schneider writes this:
“There is not much evidence that Paul has moved toward mainstream Republican conservatism. Instead, the Republican Party has moved toward him. The Tea Party insurrection has certainly pulled the GOP in that direction. But Paul is not a Tea Party favorite. In a recent CNN poll, 53 percent of Republican Tea Party supporters nationwide said they would not support Paul for the party nomination ‘under any circumstances.’
“… Reports suggest that some of Paul’s biggest applause lines in Iowa come when he denounces foreign aid and U.S. military intervention overseas. He may be tapping into a long tradition of Midwestern isolationism. In the 1930s, the Midwest was a hotbed of American First sentiment opposed to U.S. involvement in World War II. That sentiment never entirely died on the right. More recently, it has been joined by left-wing antiwar sentiment generated by Vietnam and Iraq. That strain of isolationism horrifies mainstream conservatives.
“If Paul wins Iowa, he is unlikely to go much farther. The Republican establishment will stop him, just like they stopped Patrick Buchanan in 1992 and 1996. The one establishment Republican who will be happy to see Paul win Iowa is Mitt Romney. Paul is his least threatening opponent on the right.
“Iowa is where Republicans get their thrills. They date flashy suitors who have sexy come-ons. But in the end, they settle for a good provider. That’s what Romney is counting on.”
You can read the entire story here.
