Prosthetic Conscience

Why I will vote in the SC Republican Primary for Ron Paul

Well, it’s official, Stephen Colbert will not be on the ballot of either major party in South Carolina. As a result, I will be voting for Ron Paul in the SC Republican Primary.

“But wait,” I hear you ask. “Aren’t you a leftist, whose low opinion of the Democratic Party front runners results from their right-leaning stances on the issues? And isn’t Dr. Paul a conservative libertarian, whose social values put him outside the bounds of the Libertarian Party, much less the left-libertarian circles you move in?” Yes, and yes.

However, let’s look at this tactically. South Carolina is a small, lightly-populated state, whose 8 electoral votes will certainly go to the Republican Party next November. The Democrats only interest in the SC primary is as an early gauge of potential in more populous and less solidly Republican Southern states like North Carolina and Tennessee. It’s not really likely to have that much effect on the Democratic Party’s nomination process.

Furthermore: the Democratic candidates for whom I would feel comfortable voting (Dennis Kucinich, Bill Richardson, and Mike Gravel) are all polling in the one to three percent range. The Democratic nominee is almost certain to be the brazenly authoritarian, corporate, and imperial Hillary Clinton.

My nightmare scenario for the 2008 presidential election is a matchup between Hillary Clinton and authoritarian narcissist Rudy Giuliani, the Republican candidate who most shares her Neoconservative agenda. As a South Carolinian, I can do very little about Senator Clinton’s nomination. However, because the South Carolina primary is more important to the Republicans than the Democrats, I may be able to contribute to keeping Rudy out of the White House.

I disagree with Ron Paul on at least 60% of the issues (and probably another 20% where we agree that the government should not be involved, but disagree on what private citizens should be doing). But the issues where I agree with Ron Paul are also the ones that I think are most important. With the three Democratic third-tier candidates I mentioned above, he is among the only major-party presidential candidates who favor a complete and timely withdrawal from Iraq. This alone makes him acceptable in a way Hillary Clinton is not. It is important that Dr. Paul show well in South Carolina to boost his showing in later primary states.

Would I vote for Ron Paul in the November election? Probably not. But do I want him to be on that ballot? Certainly so.

[ Posted: 19:00] | [ Category: /politics] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]