Over at Taki Mag, Dylan Hales looks at the South Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Bob Conley:
Maverick Conley bolted the GOP a few years ago over amnesty, war and trade policy and was a vocal supporter of Ron Paul’s presidential bid.
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Accidental or not, the unique candidacy of “Flattop Bob” Conley may be just what the doctor ordered for the second stage of The Revolution. A Democrat, in the cradle of secession, who asks that we help fight the neocons and advance “the cause of liberty” by supporting his candidacy. I like the sound of that.
I have my reservations about Conley, but he surely is better than Lindsay Graham, an early supporter (and creepy admirer of John McCain) who is rumored to be McCain’s top choice for Attorney General.
Also, if Republicans start to see Ron Paul voters moving over to support Democrats, they are more likely to reform their own ways to try to attract Paul supporters (than if they only abandon the two parties for large L Libertarians like Bob Barr).
Given that the Republican Party - unlike the Democrats - have a history of a limited government, anti-interventionist wing (i.e. Robert Taft), it is likely that only the threat of losing those voters to Democrats will cause the Republicans to re-embrace the Old Right philosophy. For that, the candidacy of Bob Conley can only be a good thing.
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These are excellent points. However, I would point out that it was the Democratic party that was at one time the party of limited government, as the party of Jefferson and Madison. The Republican party, as founded in the mid-19th century, was the party of big government. It was really with Woodrow Wilson (with further reinforcement from FDR) that the Democratic party became the party of big government, and in reaction to the “progressive” movement arose the Robert Taft wing of the party. The big government types never actually left the Republican party (think of Willkie and Dewey in the 1940s, and Rockefeller and Scranton in the 1960s, as examples). It would be a great thing for “Ron Paul types” to exert influence on both major parties, even though it might seem as if the Democratic party is too far taken over by socialistic ideas to have any hope of redemption.
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