Sep 05, 2008 20:20
I'm on my way home now from the Republican National Convention. I spent the last two days there and was able to watch in person as both Sarah Palin and John McCain gave their acceptance speeches.
Several things caught my attention at the convention. Some of this qualifies as news that you won't read anywhere else. The rest is just some observations and opinions.
First off, the Libertarian Party, and those people who promote libertarian ideas should be proud. After over a decade of abandoning freedom, the Republican Party is at least talking about it again. The Bush administration and the rest of the RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) spent a considerable part of my lifetime making sure the Republican Party adopted the centrist / socialist rhetoric of the Democratic Party (and worse). At every turn, they abandoned libertarian and conservative ideas. And, not only did they pursue the rhetoric of the 'bottom', they implemented its policies, too. At this convention, it was almost as the party made a rhetorical about face. And it wasn't just one issue, it was widespread. Here are some examples:
* The Bush administration talked about tax cuts, but not spending cuts. Both McCain and Palin talked quite a bit about cutting spending.
* The Bush administration gave us No Child Left Behind, which exploded federal involvement in education, moving more of the control of education away from parents and towards Washington. McCain spoke specifically about giving parents more choices in education, and making schools answer to parents and students.
* The Bush administration gave us war. McCain, much to my surprise, talked of peace, and of hating war.
* Throughout the convention, there was an emphasis on increasing economic and regulatory freedom for small business.
* Several people (Palin, McCain, Huckabee, and Giuliani) talked of shrinking government, not expanding it.
The Republican Party appears to have noticed that libertarian ideas are popular and if they fail to adopt them, they'll continue to lose votes. It may well be that Ron Paul was influential in that regard, but I imagine the LP itself has been influential, too. I suspect the potential one-two punch of Ron Paul write-ins and Bob Barr votes finally has the Republican Party's attention and that's a good thing.
Having said that, this would sound like way too much of a love fest if I didn't mention the flip side of the coin.
Many people, including McCain, mentioned taxes. The phrases often used were along the lines of "letting Americans keep more of their money." At first blush, that sounds like a good recognition of who the money really belongs to ('their' money, not government's money). But don't get too excited, if they can let us keep 'our' money, that suggests they have some legitimate claim to it in the first place. So while they use phrases like "their money", they still don't appear to mean it.
While McCain did talk about eliminating unnecessary government programs (wouldn't that be most of them?), he also talked about embarking on one of the biggest public projects in decades: energy independence. That sounds like a huge new government program to me. Kinda contradictory there. If government wants to attain energy independence for itself, I welcome it to specify domestic energy sources for all of its own requirements. But spending tax dollars to subsidize domestic energy and/or outright prohibiting foreign energy for me as a consumer doesn't jive with the rest of the pro-liberty rhetoric.
McCain's speech on school choice was at least a little bit encouraging. Unfortunately, the elephant in the room was ignored: homeschooling. He wants so-called school choice for everyone except those who are the most committed to quality education for their children. That quite disappointed me, and I'm sure millions of other homeschooling American households.
Not specifically related to McCain / Palin, but more to the convention itself, there was very clearly a heavy handed message control apparatus in effect there. I wouldn't expect any less from a major political party, but watching it operate in person was impressive.
The Ron Paul supporters (including the delegates who voted for him) posed for a photo. One person had a banner he wanted to hold up in front of the group. Within moments, a convention staffer came and forcefully took it away. That banner had been signed by lots of people at the convention. They guy who had it wanted it back and offered to leave the convention if he would just give it to him. As far as I know, he never got it back. That strikes me as stealing. If I were that guy I would pursue both media and legal action against the party for that action.
I had a conversation with a state senator from Kansas who asked me (because I was wearing an Alaska Delegation button) about the Ron Paul votes. He thought he had heard something different from the final announcement but he wasn't sure. Our conversation reinforced that he heard correctly and that they changed the vote count. He agreed that their interest in unity exceeded their interest in an honest vote count. He, too, was disappointed in the party for that (disclaimer: he was originally a Huckabee supporter).
And then there were the protesters who appeared during McCain's speech. I don't know if they made the news, but their removal appeared pretty violent to me. While I would certainly uphold the right of the group leasing the facility (the Republican Party) to control what happens inside during their event, I don't think that gives them the right to actually physically assault someone. No, the protesters weren't respectful of the rights of the event. But neither was the event security staff of their bodies. Their message was obviously more important to them than treating someone with physical respect.
During the course of the two days I was there, I spent quite a bit of time with the Alaska delegation. I wound up tagging along to their private reception with Sarah Palin (that was fun) and talking with several of the Ron Paul supporters and delegates. I did get the chance to talk with several of them at length about the Free State Project and their interest was genuine. While some of them likely won't move, others seemed very interested in doing so. I hope they do.
A fun treat came at the airport on the way home. I went to the gate to sign up for the jumpseat on the one non-stop flight from Minneapolis to Manchester. While I was standing there, a woman came up to me. When I looked up, there was the chair of the Cheshire County Republican Committee with a smile on her face offering me one of my campaign business cards. What a hoot! We rode back together on the same airplane, along with numerous other Republican Party people from New Hampshire. I sat next to the Merrimack County Attorney.
When all was said and done, it was an enjoyable convention. I'm glad the details worked out for me to attend. It was educational, historic, and even fun at times. Now, we'll see if the party can live up to the face it presented there. I hope it does...
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