i havent read the whole article but i was struck by the infographic which delineates that the average republican congress critter today is to the right of reagan and gingrich. interesting also that barry goldwater, the original conservative standard bearer, was the most conservative presidential candidate until ted cruz.
Ron Paul's stance against foreign interventionism and the drug war should move him nearer the center, or rather, the center of the right, but that would skew the chart's adherence to Washington conventional wisdom that he is a N*zi.
honestly i have no idea what 538's methodology is for this. how do you assign a number to "public issue statements?" but id like to think they exist as an bulwark against conventional wisdom approaches.
A single continuum is a crude tool. A quadrant-based system makes more sense. Political compass an example that comes to mind.
But there are many axes to choose from. Both Pauls are theocratic libertarians. In a system with authoritarian-libertarian as one axis, and secularist-theocrat as the other axis, we can find Ron and Rand in the quadrant of incoherency: the libertarian theocrats.
I do like the idea of libertarianism having a voice in US politics. The media is willfully ignorant, as anything beyond a single axis is too complicated. Further, the poster boys for libertarianism have been lacking.
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i havent read the whole article but i was struck by the infographic which delineates that the average republican congress critter today is to the right of reagan and gingrich. interesting also that barry goldwater, the original conservative standard bearer, was the most conservative presidential candidate until ted cruz.
- dave 4-13-2015 1:26 pm
Ron Paul's stance against foreign interventionism and the drug war should move him nearer the center, or rather, the center of the right, but that would skew the chart's adherence to Washington conventional wisdom that he is a N*zi.
- tom moody 4-14-2015 6:47 am
honestly i have no idea what 538's methodology is for this. how do you assign a number to "public issue statements?" but id like to think they exist as an bulwark against conventional wisdom approaches.
- dave 4-14-2015 10:03 am
A single continuum is a crude tool. A quadrant-based system makes more sense. Political compass an example that comes to mind.
But there are many axes to choose from. Both Pauls are theocratic libertarians. In a system with authoritarian-libertarian as one axis, and secularist-theocrat as the other axis, we can find Ron and Rand in the quadrant of incoherency: the libertarian theocrats.
I do like the idea of libertarianism having a voice in US politics. The media is willfully ignorant, as anything beyond a single axis is too complicated. Further, the poster boys for libertarianism have been lacking.
- mark 4-15-2015 6:21 am