The Tory Anarchist

Jack Hunter, the Southern Avenger, was going to post this response to my blog item below on Facebook. But Facebook decided this was too long as a comment, so I’m posting it here in full:

I’ve been thinking a lot about this myself, Dan, since Paul’s endorsement of Baldwin.

Your statement here: “The rightist elements of the Paul coalition are very happy, in general, with the Baldwin endorsement, but many libertarians and Paul supporters on the Left have reservations about the Constitution Party’s hardline religious tendencies.”

You’re correct, but as a stop-gap on the personal level it might be worth making the following case.

When making my conservative case for leftists like Ralph Nader I always point out to those on the hard Right/Old Right/paleo Right that on the major issues of concern to us - war, immigration and trade - Nader is relatively in agreement with Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul, both of whom have made alliances with the consumer advocate. Nader’s leftism is how he arrived at his positions on these issues, and what he thinks about gays, guns, and God is relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

To the young Ron Paul supporters who aren’t conservatives, or any of his leftist supporters, the same point needs to be made. No doubt, Baldwin and his party represent a hard Right, Christian-heavy brand of politics. But on some of the most pertinent issues of concern to the Left - war and trade (most leftists I know don’t care about immigration. Nader’s the rare exception) Baldwin is as good as Paul or Nader - and certainly better than either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Rudy Giuliani and Joe Lieberman generally agree with most Leftists on guns, gays, and God, and what sensible leftist would dare sign on board with them? War and “economic justice” (anti-NAFTA) simply outweigh the social issues amongst most serious leftists.

Baldwin himself constantly stresses that he has the support of many self-described liberals and that the dividing line is no longer between Left and Right, but “patriots” and “globalists.”

Some of us on the Right, like Bill Kauffman, Justin Raimondo, and even Buchanan and Paul, are constantly pitching the conservative value in certain leftist figures and movement possibilities. I think its equally important that the same overtures are made toward leftists in convincing them that there is as much value in supporting Rightists like Baldwin. Alexander Cockburn at CounterPunch gets this and even endorsed both Ron Paul and Bob Barr - as a hard leftist.

Throw in issues like the Patriot Act and Baldwin’s constant chastising of evangelical “pro-lifers” who are warmongers, and I don’t think Baldwin is such a hard a sell to leftists, once someone connects the political dots for them.

Looking forward to your third party piece.

Jack

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 25th, 2008 at 10:25 am and is filed under Conservatism, Liberty, Politics. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.