Once upon a time in America, a defeated southern white society told itself a number of lies and incorporated them into its culture. Scholars call this the “lost cause.” It shows up in the language, literature, and politics of the South. The story is well-known and widely told now. When Reagan talked of “states’ rights” at the Neshoba County Fair, he was picking up the “southern strategy;” as we have seen, the GOP actually doubled-down again in the last cycle. But the conservative movement has swallowed its own Kool Aid in the process. Think of all the issues that keep coming up with the class of culture warriors installed last November: they want to revisit the battles over collective bargaining rights, gays in the military, abortion, health care reform, gay marriage, the Civil Rights Act, and the pre-Civil War issue of nullification. All of these are lost causes.
And this is an excellent point. Why come up with new outrage when you can run the culture war forever on the things you've lost? All the GOP candidates are stuck in the past in some way or another refighting the culture battles of America, but nobody personifies this better than Ron Paul.
Ron Paul is committed to fighting pretty much every classic liberalism victory since the Civil War, and quite a few prior to that time period. Look at what Ron Paul's platform is: Repealing the New Deal, repealing civil rights, repealing affirmative action, repealing the social safety net, repealing any government agency created by the executive, repealing dozens of Supreme Court decisions, repealing a number of Constitutional amendments, the list goes on and on. Nobody fights the battle for lost causes better than Ron Paul. He is the quintessential grand master of this.
And if Ron Paul had his way, we would most certainly be an oligarchy bordering on feudalism, beholden to corporate lords and fiefdoms and absolutely powerless before them, quite literally. If Paul completed his checklist, America would become a nightmare state. But he knows he'll never win, for him the fight is everything. Well, that and his money bombs. He's a snake oil salesman of the first order. and he exists to tilt at windmills as a spectator sport...and he's in a league by himself.
The problem is the GOP is rushing backwards along with Ron Paul. And they will take America with it unless we do something.
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