Note to the GOP

Radley Balko | September 26, 2008

If you end up losing this election, you could do a hell of a lot worse than South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford in 2012.

Comments

adrian|9.26.08 @ 1:20PM|#

go ron paul! oh wait now there's 2!

nj|9.26.08 @ 1:27PM|#

Wasn't there some buzz early in the campaign season that he was going to endorse Paul?

|9.26.08 @ 2:33PM|#

If he wants to be covered by the MSM, he better stop writing logically constructed, responsible articles like that and start concentrating on overcoming something.

srjenkins|9.26.08 @ 2:34PM|#

If we do not, there will be more parallels between our nation and Edward Gibbon's "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" than we would like to imagine. The difference lies in each of our hands.

Gibbon's thesis, if I remember correctly, was a loss of civic virtue of Roman citizens that left the Romans reliant on mercenary armies to maintain the empire. While there are obvious similarities with the war in Iraq, it is not clear how this thesis relates to his position on markets - other than a bit of rhetorical flourish.

It also does not bode well when someone concieves of our republic as an empire like the Roman Empire. That's a mistake. One that lead to debacles like Iraq and the deployment of mercenary armies in the first place.

|9.26.08 @ 2:59PM|#

Mark Sanford/Gary Johnson 2012!

If I recall correctly, when he was in the House Sanford often joined Ron Paul in his (what would have otherwise been) solitary "nay" votes. Sadly Paul himself seems to have wondered off into the crazy-land of Alex Jones & Co. that he always flirted with, but if Sanford, Johnson, and other libertarian-minded Republicans rise from the ashes of a McCain defeat, it will very much be a vindication of his "take back the GOP" idea, even if it happens seperately from his own efforts.

I'd prefer, obviously, a vitalized and relevant Libertarian Party over a return of the (now rightfully dying) idea of libertarian-conservative fusionism, but the realistic prospect of a GOP led by the likes of Sanford, Johnson, and Jeff Flake is certainly appealing. It would be fusionionism, but tilted much more towards the libertarian side of the alliance than anything the GOP has offered with the "limited government conservatives" like Reagan and Gingrich.

|9.26.08 @ 3:06PM|#

Yeah SR Jenkins, Gov. Sanford's flippant Gibbon reference suggests he's a far worse candidate than McCain or Bush, both of whom evince a tight grasp of Roman history and the lessons to be learned therefrom. Good observation.