Ron Paul and Michelle Bachmann are supposed to be the oil and vinegar of the Republican Party. He’s an anti-war, anti-Patriot Act, radically pro-civil rights libertarian. She’s a Bible-thumping Bush acolyte who dreams of nuking Iran and likens gay sex to bestiality. But there they were on Friday, sharing the stage at a town hall organized by Paul backers, where Bachmann called him “one of the leading advocates for freedom in our capitol.” What gives?
Bachmann’s role is telling in what it says about how she and other Bush-era Republicans are trying to reposition themselves. As recently as last year’s GOP presidential primary, Paul was ridiculed by the GOP mainstream for his opposition to America’s costly military adventures abroad; the leading conservative website, Redstate.com, even banned his supporters from shilling for him in blog comments. Paul’s votes against war funding were part of his general practice of opposing almost every government spending bill, a habit that earned him the nickname “Dr. No.”
Now, of course, the once-lonely Dr. No finds himself surrounded by a Party of No. And the new GOP refuseniks want his blessing so they can obscure how their past fiscal recklessness tanked the economy and mobilize Paul’s considerable grassroots machine against Obama.
That job requires some contortions. “Next year the government is going to spend more money on welfare in one year than they spent on the entire eight years of the war,” Bachmann told the crowd, essentially arguing the GOP has been the party of fiscal restraint, even though Bush racked up record deficits. And now that Obama is trying to correct those excesses, she feels taxpayers’ pain: “Sales tax, gas tax, every-time-you-turn-around tax,” she complained. “In other words, at the rate your government has been spending, the fruits of your labor have already been spoken for.”
Bachman, who has been tutored by Paul as of late during his Thursday “Liberty Luncheons,” was so enamored of her new anti-tax identity that she couldn’t contain herself. The “government takeover of healthcare” will literally tax away everything Americans make, she suggested, transforming the country into a communist economy: “In other words, 100 percent of your check has already been spoken for. You can’t have everything that you make confiscated by the government. It doesn’t work.”
This and Bachman’s other genuflections the the gods of the free market and small government were met with huge cheers, suggesting that Paulites are willing to forget how she and the rest of the GOP spent eight years undermining both of those things. It was almost as if the crowd was thankful to her wing of the party for royally screwing up, thereby confirming the libertarian notion that government is never the answer. Kick the dog enough, and it will lick your hand every time you whistle.
