Dondero Attacks Ron Paul

Outraged with Republican congressman Ron Paul's opposition to the war in Iraq, a former aide has announced that he plans to run against Paul in the next Congressional election. Eric Dondero claims that he is "the guy that got Ron Paul elected to Congress in 1996", and that he is capable of defeating Paul as punishment for his opposition to the party line on the war in Iraq, as well as other issues.

Dondero says that he will step aside if another pro-war Republican steps up to run against Paul, however his announcement made it clear that many Republicans are feeling deeply threatened by Paul's recent press. As I have said before, Ron Paul poses a greater threat to most establishment conservatives than the Democrats do, since the Democrats have failed to articulate a coherent response to the Bush administration's policies. Furthermore, the large number of conservatives who are fed up with Bush and his supporters in Congress are unlikely to support Democrats on ideological grounds. A principled libertarian conservative like Paul, on the other hand, presents a very attractive alternative to the current welfare-warfare state as represented by the dominant parties.

If Ron Paul's recent blip on the national radar begins to transform into anything more lasting -- if he is able to gain a foothold and widen his exposure -- we can expect attacks like this to increase from both Republicans and Democrats. It is not very often that we get to see such a clear example of how the establishment mobilizes against anyone who threatens their controlled two-party system. While it is somewhat disturbing to see the efficiency of the dissent-crushing political machine in action, the fact that Paul has emerged from his rather obscure status -- even temporarily -- shows that there is some hope for opposing voices to gain traction in national discourse. Ron Paul was able to exploit the format of the Republican debate to mostly bypass the numerous barriers to new ideas presented by the establishment media, and the American people responded well to his fresh message.

Is it possible that, as Americans become more aware of the limitations of government -- both in foreign adventures and at home -- they will come to embrace a more libertarian kind of reformism? Only time will tell, and there are certainly numerous barriers to such progress. Democrats will fight tooth-and-nail to preserve their pet entitlement programs and other big-government traditions, while Republicans will be forced to either embrace a more libertarian approach or try to kill the movement in its infancy. What should be emphasized, however, is that while Paul is nominally a Republican, his views line up with those of both Democrats and Republicans on different issues, and therefore his politics cannot be clearly labeled as either Republican or Democratic. Libertarian politics more broadly, and Paul's politics in specific, seem to be a very potent and principled combination of views that might actually address the problems Americans are concerned with.