I’m quite pleased to let the Republican leadership know that Republicans in my voting district agree that we should “strengthen the ‘War Against Islamic Jihadists’”– by leaving Iraq as soon as possible. We also want to make the Bush tax cuts permanent– and abolish the income tax and replace it with nothing. While we’re at it, let’s create “a stronger national defense” Reagan would be proud of– by closing most of our 140+ military bases throughout the world and securing our own borders. Let’s help the economy– by abolishing the Federal Reserve to stabilize the money supply. I’ll also tell them that education has no place in legislation at the federal level, and although the survey oddly says nothing about guns, I’m going to mention that guns are important to safety, too.

Senator Ensign writes that he wants to “reconnect with our grassroots base and refocus our policy agenda on the core Reagan Republican principles upon which it was founded– smaller government, cutting wasteful spending, lower taxes, a strong national defense and a belief in our inalienable individual liberties and freedoms.”

Wow, that sounds a lot like what I’m saying, but not what other Republicans are, and not even what the committee is saying in its own survey! It says it wants a “smaller government” and then goes on to ask about increasing Social Security, defense spending, education spending, and foreign aid. If we increase spending on all or even one of these programs, how exactly are we going to have a “smaller government” and no “wasteful spending”?

Ensign goes on to say that ending the “War against Islamic Jihadists” would be “retreat-and-defeat” or “cut-and-run.” This is pretty disingenuous. First of all, there were no Islamic jihadists within Iraq until we came along, as our own government admits. Internationally, jihadist terrorism has increased 600% since we invaded Iraq. So if we’re fighting a war against Islamic jihadism by invading Iraq and staying there indefinitely, we’re really not doing a good job with that. (Sure, that study was published in a left-leaning publication, but if it’s not true, why has there not been a survey done in response finding that terrorism has decreased? If it had, surely a right-winger would by now have come up with a study confirming this.) Indeed, the CIA’s top bin Laden expert for 10 years said Iraq “broke the back of our counterterrorism program.” We would be better off with actually capturing the people responsible for the September 11 attacks, who are not in Iraq but most likely in Pakistan, which is our ally.

Well, Senator Ensign, I’m mailing my survey to you today. I’m sure you’ll be excited to hear from me, a typical Republican Party leader.

“Libertarianism is the heart and soul of conservatism.”

That quote becomes more interesting when you find out that Ronald Reagan said it in 1975. Today would have been Reagan’s birthday. Why not sit back and listen to a vintage Reagan speech and decide which candidate is most like him among today’s GOP candidates (I’ll give you a hint: RP). A Reagan-like president (without the huge deficits and Iran Contra-type scandal) would be excellent right now.

Republicans have abhorred this agency since the days of their hallowed leader Ronald Reagan, who called it “President Carter’s new bureaucratic boondoggle” and handily won a campaign in which he promised to get rid of it. One of the central aspects of the “Contract with America” that won Republicans the House in 1994 was to abolish the Department of Education.

While Huckabee certainly loves to name-drop Reagan in debates, alas, Tax Hike Mike has also never met a tax, any tax, or a “bureaucratic boondoggle” he (and his daughter, apparently) doesn’t love. He may give lip service to the Reagan lovers out there, but it seems clear Huckabee won’t be emulating Reagan’s actual campaign promises in his campaign for the White House.

I was an independent voter, who voted for the person from either party who was the best candidate. I thought that casting a vote for a third party was wasting your vote. I didn’t know who or what these “Libertarians” were, so my first reaction was defensive. The only reason I admit my previous rush to judgment is that I’ve noticed it a lot lately, by Democrats, Republicans, and the media, in response to the presidential candidacy of Congressman Ron Paul. People don’t know what “libertarians” are or what they stand for, so they immediately insult them and call them crazy. I had no idea that Libertarians were a hybrid of ideas from either party (kind of what the independent voter wants, after all) and I may have guessed they were close to Communists if someone had asked me. I’ve noticed that many others make the same mistake. These are some misconceptions I’d like to help clear up with this blog.

What’s most interesting to me is that according to a study conducted by the Cato Institute, 60% of Americans describe themselves as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, which means that most Americans are libertarian and don’t even know it. There used to be a lot of people within the Republican Party who were libertarian, and Ronald Reagan himself said in 1975: “Libertarianism is the heart and soul of conservatism.” Current Republican candidates love to proclaim what Reagan said and what Reagan taught us, but they conveniently forget that Reagan had a libertarian streak which they lack. The only candidate who actually knew Reagan, Ron Paul, is also the only one who doesn’t name-drop.