Ron Paul and Free Republic

I met Dr. Dan "Red" Phillips at last year's JRC gathering in Rockford and we've corresponding ever since. He's a writer like myself to I'm happy to put his pieces on my blog like this one on Ron Paul and Free Republic:

--Sean Scallon

Since the beginning of the Bush administration genuine conservatives have been taking a beating, but now there is hope. Friday 12 January 07 finally brought some good news for the conservative movement and the cause of authentic conservatism and constitutionally limited government! Rep. Ron Paul has set up an exploratory committee for a possible presidential campaign for the GOP nomination in 2008. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Rep. Paul, he is a Republican Congressman from the 14th District of Texas. In the Congress he is a bright shining light of limited government in a bastion of big government darkness. In an age when many Republicans have embraced the cause of activist, “big government (sic) conservatism” at home and abroad, Rep. Paul has been keeping the limited government faith. (Of course “big government conservatism” is an obvious oxymoron.) Rep. Paul’s, who is a physician by trade, support of constitutionally limited government has earned him the moniker “Dr. No,” because he so often votes against big spending bills. Rep. Paul, in an era marked by the abandonment of core principles, has remained a genuine constitutionalist.

For awhile, I have had to set back and listen to conservatives debate whether Sen. McCain or Gov. Romney was the least objectionable candidate. Or even worse if that is possible, I had to listen to speculation about whether Mayor Rudy Giuliani could win the Republican nomination. Almost in despair I listened as conservatives mentioned amnesty supporters Sen. Brownback and Gov. Huckabee as possible conservative alternative candidates. I wondered to myself and also aloud, “Has the conservative movement really sunk this low?”


As I have indicated before, I am a serious political junkie. The problem is there has seldom been a candidate that I could whole-heartedly endorse. My paleoconservative and constitutionalist beliefs would not allow me to enthusiastically support such obvious moderates as Dole in ’96 or Bush in ‘00 and ‘04. In fact, I felt like Bush’s embrace of “compassionate” big government (sic) conservatism was more in line with the editorial page of the New York Times a la David Brooks than it was with main street small government conservatism. And his foreign policy was certainly not small government conservatism. It was big government Wilsonian liberalism.

So when I heard about Rep. Paul’s announcement, I was ecstatic. I immediately went to a few e-mail groups I belong to to share the good news, but good news travels fast. Many were already aware. Since Rep. Paul’s announcement, the conservative blogosphere and conservative internet sites have been on fire with the news of a possible Paul candidacy. Finally there is a candidate who is right on all the right issues, a candidate I can whole-heartily endorse. I have already priced tickets to Iowa and New Hampshire.

Rep Paul is right on spending, he is right on taxes, he is right on the border, immigration and amnesty, he is right on life, and he is right on guns. Unlike many “federalist” conservatives, he understands the importance of decentralization and State’s rights. And given the current situation in Iraq, he understands the importance of a truly “humble” foreign policy. Bush campaigned on a “humble” foreign policy but gave us Jacobin revolution instead. Rep. Paul understands that the only foreign policy consistent with small, limited government is non-intervention. His foreign policy is the policy of the Founders. His is the foreign policy of authentic, historic conservatism. His is a foreign policy of humility that recognizes the limitations of fallen man. His is not the foreign policy of revolutionary Jacobin transformation and overthrow. Political Science and History 101 should teach us that Jacobin style transformation is a policy of the left, not the right.

Rep. Paul’s campaign is really the answer to prayer for many conservatives. Here is a paragraph I wrote from a previous column. This column first appeared 9 Jan 07.

Based on the reaction to the Baker commission and talk of surges, the official Right does not look like it will be abandoning its embrace of neo-con interventionism any time soon. The base is still broadly supportive of the policy. None of the potential GOP presidential candidates in 2008 are anti-war. Senator Hagel (R-NE) could probably be described as a realist, but the base hates him because of it. Both possible paleo-esq candidates, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), are pro-war. Front-runner Senator McCain (R-AZ) is the loudest voice calling for more troops. (Rep. Ron Paul, are you listening?)[emphasis added]

I am not trying to take credit for his decision to run. I just want to demonstrate that Rep. Paul’s potential campaign really is for many of us, the best political news in a long, long time.

So I was eager to share my excitement with my paleo friends, but I was also interested to see how some of the more militantly (no pun intended) pro-intervention sites were dealing with the news. So I went to the “Mother of All” pro-intervention sites, Free Republic.

I went to Free Republic and searched “’Ron Paul’ President.” There were already a few threads. One had 40+ replies, and it is the first one I looked at. I only got to look at the 40+ reply thread briefly before it was deleted. In it, some clueless Freeper had written “Paleoconservatism = fake conservatism.” Of course, this infuriated me. Statements like that are either the result of ignorance or are a deliberate attempt to smear and distort. No thoughtful, well-informed person could make such a silly statement. The rap against paleoconservatism is that it is too conservative: that it rejects certain modernist, liberal assumptions. It can not simultaneously be too conservative and fake conservative. That makes no logical sense. So I replied with the following:

“Paleoconservative = fake conservative”

You have got to be kidding me. The paleocons are the only true conservatives. It is actually not them who need a pre-fix. Neocons and the mainstream conservatives who have bought their rhetoric are liberal Wilsonian interventionists. Interventionism is inconsistent with small government conservatism. Look at what the right in this country believed before the Cold War. Contrary to the myopic belief of some “conservatives,” human history and conservative history did not start 50 years ago. Perhaps you should take a look at Washington’s Farewell Address.

For that statement I joined the large and proud legion of those who have been “banned” by Free (sic) Republic. I recognize the above statement is unpopular with many on the “right,” especially the Free (sic) Republic style “right,” but it is certainly a defensible position. It is a position held by many respectable conservatives/rightists. It is not a lone or eccentric opinion. So why did it warrant my banning? Clearly I was not banned for foul language or personal attacks or some other legitimate reason. I was banned because I expressed what Free (sic) Republic determined to be wrong think. It is really very sad. There was a time when invoking the past proved your conservative bona fides. Now it seems at Free (sic) Republic that invoking the past is wrong think. How dare I worry about what Washington and the Founders believed, at Free (sic) Republic all that matters is what the Dear Leader believes. I will leave it to the readers to determine if “Dear Leader” refers to President Bush or Jim Robinson, the founder of Free (sic) Republic. Or come to think of it, has anyone ever seen “Jim Rob” and President Bush in the same room together? Hmmm …

Anyway, after my banishment, I returned to the website to check on the status of the thread I had attempted to post on. In good Orwellian fashion, it had been erased as if it had never existed. Ron who? Perhaps there was some problem with the thread such as foul language that caused it to be deleted, but I doubt it. I suspect the problem with the thread was the same problem with my comment; it expressed wrong think. Other Ron Paul for President threads remain. I really have no idea what makes the difference. Maybe it has to do with who is moderating at the time or whether the non-interventionists are getting the better of the interventionists.

I sent “Jim Rob” two e-mails asking him for an explanation for the thread being deleted and why my innocuous comment warranted banning, but he has yet to reply. I’m not holding my breath.

I discussed this situation with many people via e-mail and several replied that they thought Jim Robinson and the Free (sic) Republic crowd feared Ron Paul. Ron Paul does have a tremendous amount of support among the grassroots base. He is an articulate spokesman for the principled non-interventionist position. He does have the potential to unite people from across the political spectrum and draw in a lot of third party activists and those who have previously given up on the system. But I honestly don’t think Jim Robinson and the boys at Free (sic) >Republic fear Ron Paul. What they fear is honest, open, and intelligent debate. Who needs paleoconservatives with their pesky ideas and concern for the past constantly invoking Washington’s Farewell Address and the Founders and making all those learned references to Jacobins, the left-wing and the French Revolution? It is so much less taxing on the brain to read over and over again “Kill all the Islamo-fascists,” chant “regime change,” “creative destruction,” and “benign global hegemony” and lap up the rest of the revolutionary, left-wing faith that passes for “conservatism” these days.

But the actions of the thought police at Free (sic) Republic are not a sign of strength. They are an indication of weakness. Their position of the more foreign intervention the merrier (Let’s take out Iran and Syria while we are at it) is rapidly deteriorating and becoming increasingly untenable. When the War first began they could count on a lot of support and consent on the mainstream right. But as things have gone poorly in Iraq as the conservative war critics predicted (I take no joy in being right about that), they are in an increasingly smaller minority. Their interventionist strategy is opposed by more and more Americans on the right, left, and center. I’m not arguing that public opinion is always right. It isn’t. But no one is buying their strategy anymore. They are spending all their time talking to each other and shouting down, or banning, dissent. Again this is a sign of weakness, not strength. And it is a sign of intellectual atrophy. They certainly can not prove that their interventionist ideas are from the right, because they manifestly are not. And they can’t defend their leftist position beyond mindless slogans and accusations. “Kill them Islamo-fascist!” “You’ve got your head buried in the sand.” “Pacifist.” “Appeaser.” “Neville Chamberlain.” “Cut and run.” “Surrender.” And my very favorite of all, the completely mindless “I would rather fight them over there than fight them over here.” Can you tell I am a veteran of these wars?

Well Jim Rob and the boys can mindlessly continue to backslap each other and cheer on global Jacobin revolution and hoot down all those who dare to call them on their left-wing ideological crusade, but fewer and fewer on the right are buying it. It is my hope that a Ron Paul campaign will continue to chip away at the pro-war “right,” and restore some integrity to the word conservative and return the conservative movement to its Old Right, anti-interventionist roots. Global revolution is not now, nor has it ever been conservative. Run Ron run!

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Dr. Dan E. Phillips is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, Georgia. He specializes in the treatment of alcohol and drug abuse. He can be reached at Phillips_de at mercer dot edu.)